After a few months off, the Carnival of Journalism is back, and this month Will Sullivan of Journerdism has set us this challenge:What are small, incremental steps one can make to fuel change in their media organization? (Yes, we'd all like to swing in our newsroom, lay some boot heels on chests, hoist the black flag and change everything by the end of business on Monday -- but the reality is, that ain't happening unless you have a couple buckets of cash to buy a paper of your choice and a rusty sabre.) So what are some realistic, real-world examples of free (or cheap) ways you can help fuel change at your newsroom?
Given my druthers, this is what I'd do:
- Stop defining people by outputs. If you call a man a feature writer, he will write features. If you can a woman a news editor, she will edit news. Start defining people by either working methods, or by topic specialities. That de-couples their job from a particular style of journalism and opens the way for more experimentation.
- Get out of the office. You have a laptop and a mobile phone. That's all you need to do journalism. Get out there, amongst your readers and your market, and talk, network, record and report. We spend too much time talking to our colleagues and not enough to our contacts. The first technological shift journalism has been through - the arrival of computers - tied us to our desks. The second shift - the pervasive internet - should free us from them once more.
- Experiment Cheaply. You can but a Flip Mino for a little over £100. A digital compact for less than that will produce perfectly adequate pictures for the web. Open Source blogging software like Movable Type or WordPress can be had for free. Many web tools like Flickr or CoverItLive can be used for free. Resist the corporate tendency to invest heavily and only spend serious money when the case is proven.
All of these things are the foundations. Everything else can be built from them.
This sounds so basic, but I'd say you can make a big difference to the culture of a newsroom by having your technical team working in the newsroom alongside journalists. It de-mystifies some of the process, fosters team spirit and helps non-digi journalists (because, frankly, some journos are not interested and others are quietly worried about the whole multimedia thing) consider how their stories can be told in different ways.
Excellent point about the need to stop defining people by outputs - it can be incredibly limiting.
You might want to also check out gsnap.com. It's a new product similar to CoverItLive but is much more powerful. GSNAP allows you to report from the field via your mobile phone (you can upload photos and videos taken on your phone) while your viewers can comment via the web (or their phone).
Check it out...let me know if you'd like a more in depth demo.
Ramsey Ksar
Sr Director, G-SNAP!
http://gsnap.com (web and mobile)