Craig McGill poses the question: What is an online journalist? Go read his thoughts, as they are worth the time. He also asked me for my answer to the question, and I’m posting it here, as well as in the comments to his weblog.
I should preface this by saying that I want to look at things from a college media perspective, where students should be (although they too often aren’t) trying new things and seeking to establish their own “style,” for lack of a better word.
To me, an online journalist is one who is comfortable with the online world. This is a journalist who understands that a story isn’t just print, or video, or audio, but a mixture of those things and others (maps, anyone?). I see an online journalist as one more in mindset than anything. A page designer can be a good online journalist, if given permission. A photographer can be an online journalist or a stick-in-the-mud.
An online journalist is comfortable conducting an interview by IM, or scanning in source documents for a story, or checking out local weblogs for story tips, or reading the comments on stories posted on the web site, and engaging in the community that has developed around the news web site. An online journalist could be the person who makes a fancy Flash graphic, or just someone who enters his/her own stories into the online content management system, and includes hyperlinks in the story as they go along. An online journalist is the copy editor who asks, “what kinds of web resources do we have for this story?” An online journalist doesn’t settle for the print story, or the radio report, or the TV spot. Rather, they ask “what else can we do to make this story more meaningful for readers?”
Honestly, I don’t see an “online journalist” as a set of duties or skills. Maybe I’m naive. I see the online journalist as the journalist who knows the rewards and pitfalls of the Internet and can exist comfortably in the middle. The online journalist is a bundle of inquisitiveness, not just about his/her “beat,” but about the technology and the disruptions that are shaping the future of journalism.
Ultimately, an online journalism doesn’t say “that’s not my job.”
0 Comments on “What is an online journalist?”
Leave a Comment