Rosental Alves starts off the International Online Journalism Symposium by talking about the changes we are seeing in journalism. In his view, are in a revolution, not an evolution. In his view, the internet is not just the addition of a new form of media to existing forms. To Alves, we are experiencing the equivalent of the Gutenberg printing press.
Jeff Jarvis comes on. His line, the idea of “news wars” is old news. He gets tired of the bleating he hears in newsrooms.
He wants not more moaning, no more mewling, no more mourning. From newsrooms, what he hears is fear, rather than opportunity.
This is a great time to be in journalism, a magnificent time because it is now changing.
Journalism is very inefficient, it is built on old market realities, especially in newspapers, says Jarvis. Cutting certain things is necessary. He argues editors should wield the scalpel, otherwise others will.
What this means? Boil down to your essence. Work out what we do best and leave the rest to others. Journalism doesn’t have to be about delivering everything to everybody. Jarvis booms across the room that the key value of journalism is reporting.
So what should we cut? Don’t be afraid of losing a reader if you cut a feature such as stock tables. What else can you cut? Bridge columns, TV listings, even cartoons.
Do we really need to edit the wires? His message is that there are opportunities to cut and newspapers should refocus to what we do best, reporting.
Jarvis tells editors that their newspapers should be linking out to other news sites. If someone has done a story, why replicate it on your site? Instead a news site should link to its rivals, this supports journalism.
Do what we do best and link to the rest. There is a new architecture of news out there. Now that we have the power of the link, why don’t we use it?
Jarvis offers a new role for news organisations – to bring about elegant organisation to a networked world of media. In his words, think about what Google would do?
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