Apple owes much of its success to its refusal to accept the status quo, and it owes that philosophy to Steve Jobs. As a journalism educator, I’m trying to instill that same entrepreneurial spirit in my students.
I can’t say I know what the future holds for online video. I can say I definitely think video will always play a role in online news. In fact, I think reporters should look to use it more to establish themselves as expert sources on which audiences can rely. If YouTube has taught me anything it’s that you don’t have to be the most polished presenter with the highest production values. You just have to have compelling content. The more I play with it, the more I realize that online video can be some of the most compelling and most credible information available.
It has been a while since my last update, but I’ve been inspired recently. Here’s why: I’m teaching J314/514: Online Journalism Fundamentals again. I force my students to blog twice a week. I guess I should practice what I preach. 1,000 Awesome Things had this nostalgic post a few days ago that helped me remember [...]
What I have to remember from my failures as a newspaper editor is that if I always waited until I was 100 % sure of all the information I published, I would have never published anything. That’s why David Cohn’s quote really sticks with me. I thought of it immediately when he suggested this month’s topic. I wish I had his conviction that a failure is a success as long as it’s informative.
This should serve as a warning to my students at Ohio University then. If you take my classes, expect to fail. In fact, I want you to try to fail. Don’t go for the safe projects. Go for the crazy ones because you won’t regret the failure. You’ll regret never trying in the first place.
Like so many people, I turned to social media last night when I learned the U.S. had killed Osama bin Laden. Frankly, I learned more from my friends tweets, retweets, photos, and posts than I did watching an hour of NBC’s coverage. I used Storify to create a record of a historic event that I didn’t ever want to forget.
By no means is this comprehensive. It represents only the messages that came under my radar, but I’m excited about the possibilities Storify presents, and what a service such as this means for traditional reporting. This could be one way to create collaboration between reporters and audiences through the application of journalistic principles, while also preserving the audience’s voice.
Knight and Reynolds are in unique positions to drive innovation. Their focus on journalism as central to a democracy will ensure that whatever innovations they sponsor will serve communities. But they must go beyond simply funding projects. They need to drive innovation by drawing upon their vast experience and resources to suggest the course innovation will take.
I learned this lesson the hard way as an educator. It’s not enough for me to hand my students a toolbox without telling them what I expect them to build.
Just like walking into a coffee shop and approaching a stranger for a comment, it takes guts to rely on information from sources found online. We have to work to overcome the stigma attached to Web content. Not everyone who opens himself up online has an axe to grind or is a shameless self-promoter. Most of them are average citizens who love where they live and work. They get together online, just as they would at a real world third place, to connect with others that feel the same.
Journalists need to be part of that conversation.
But as Yahoo! has expanded their original news offerings once again, I think they’ve set new standards for citizen journalism. The Style Guide is a first step. Sure the guide has a lot on SEO, but Barr repeated over and over again to students that no one should write for the search engines. I agree. It leads to the kind of articles Slate’s Farjad Manjoo describes. Barr also assured us that all members of the Yahoo! Contributor Network work with editors. At this stage, that’s good enough. At least it shows Yahoo! is practicing what it is preaching.
It was gratifying to see the amount of participation based on Cohn’s first summary post. A number of friends, colleagues and former students at the University of Missouri responded. What I appreciated most about the carnival, especially after reading most of the first 50 or so posts, is how Cohn is encouraging us to practice what we preach. He brought so many people together from so many different places that I’m confident positive change will come from our discussion. I know I will at least make better contacts and add some new ideas to the way I teach journalism. I’ve added at least half a dozen new blogs to my Shrook account.
Universities need to push the journalism envelope when the industry cannot.
They need to test the innovations because they can afford to fail. Failure is often a good lesson for students. To make it all worthwhile, however, universities must do a better job reaching out to the industry and providing more than an ample supply of interns. Journalism researchers and professors must overcome our fear to step back into the newsroom. We must realize the industry is hungry for what we have to offer.
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