fix journalism a conversation about journalism’s future

Author: Michael Higdon | 06.19.2009

Capitalize on this focusing point right this second. Do not wait for people to forget you screwed up. Move forward NOW! There are points in history where the world or a group or a culture pay attention to something and change quickly. They are called paradigm shifts. This is one of those opportunities.

Take everyone’s advice. Members have provided a lot of feedback not normally available. Do it. Then make sure there is a place for members to regularly provide feedback from today on into forever. Where the hell can we go to be heard other than when you piss us off? Nowhere. So make somewhere for us to go when we’re not pissed.

SND is no longer a society of print journalists, get over it. Many members lement that we’re no longer true to our craft. We’re not prepress people anymore. It’s odd that we can call ourselves forward thinking and still lement about that fact. It’s a tough world. I know, I just graduated and had to spend the last year ignoring print in order to ensure I could get a job. I still suck at new media, we all do. Let’s get better. Web design has just started, it’ll be like 2004! It’s like getting all your pages in color all over again. There are a limited number of web usability conventions and it’s not all that different than print.
[... Click the headline to read more]

Author: Donica Mensing | 06.15.2009

Journalists write stories. Most stories are intended to convey information. The strategic thinking that should be the next step — who needs this information, how might they act on it, how will they find it, how will they share it, how is it useful to them? — gets little attention in most newsrooms. [...]

Author: Michael Higdon | 06.14.2009

Creativity in journalism is an uncomfortable process. It involves twisting your brain into odd shapes, looking in strange places, talking to people others don’t talk to. Then you have to find ways to relate that story through complicated methods, such as writing, photographing, graphing, networking, videoing and hundreds of other new methods.

One lesson we learned from Poynter, then, is that it’s okay to be uncomfortable. Get used to being uncomfortable and spending time on the line between absolute failure and glorious success. More than that, it’s important to be creative and critically think about everything you do. Media is not a safe, happy place. If you’re satisfied with what you’re doing and comfortable, you’re not learning or working hard enough.

Author: Michael Higdon | 06.12.2009

At the Poynter Institute we were asked “Why do you do journalism?”
Why, amongst all the hell we endure through the economy, through reader scorn, low pay and crazy hours, do you do journalism?
For some people it’s a moment; a tangible anecdotal moment. For others it’s a purpose or a concept or a goal.
So. Why [...]

Author: Michael Higdon | 06.01.2009

Follow me @MikeHigdon
or follow the new hashtag #naaf09

Author: Donica Mensing | 05.23.2009

Kim Pearson, a guest contributor on E-Media Tidbits at Poynter, writes the following about the need for more computational thinking in journalism:
There’s no longer an argument about whether journalists need to be digitally literate. Today, newsgathering requires the ability to write programs that scrape public records databases and design interfaces that make the information in [...]

Author: Donica Mensing | 05.19.2009

Josh Marshall, founder of Talking Points Memo, spoke at Journalism Day ceremonies at Columbia University today. His talk was summarized by Megan Garber of the Columbia Journalism Review:
We also need to embrace, rather than question, the notion of audience engagement. “In this period of not only rebuilding the practice of journalism, but what sustains it, [...]

Author: Michael Higdon | 05.18.2009

We’re tweeting about Poynter College here:
Twitter trend: #pcf09
or Follow me @MikeHigdon