Comments on: Hyperlocal might need a little more journalism http://patthorntonfiles.com/blog/2007/07/19/hyperlocal-might-need-a-little-more-journalism/ Random musings from a technologist Wed, 06 Apr 2011 15:43:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: pat http://patthorntonfiles.com/blog/2007/07/19/hyperlocal-might-need-a-little-more-journalism/comment-page-1/#comment-62 pat Sat, 21 Jul 2007 18:38:13 +0000 http://patthorntonfiles.com/blog/?p=25#comment-62 The problem most print newspapers have is that they are unwilling to think outside of the box, which is why most of them are struggling. An idea like facebook was pretty crazy at the time, but look at how popular it has become. You have to take risks to have rewards. Naples News, Lawrence Journal World, the Post, etc all took risks. Now they are reaping the rewards. When someone tells me journalism is dying, I know instantly that person isn't forward thinking, probably knows little about new media and is unwilling to change. That's exactly the kind of person who should leave journalism. His brand of journalism is dying, but journalism itself will be thriving in 10 years. Bank it. User-generated content can be good, but newspapers should not get into the habit of just using it to say that they use it, which sounds like what your paper is doing. I think photos are probably the biggest area where users can add content. They often take pretty good shots and they are popular with people. I also think newspapers need to allow users to comment on every story. People want to be heard. I would take the best comments from online and run them in the paper. User-generated content should add to the conversation, but I don't believe it will ever be THE conversation. The problem most print newspapers have is that they are unwilling to think outside of the box, which is why most of them are struggling. An idea like facebook was pretty crazy at the time, but look at how popular it has become. You have to take risks to have rewards.

Naples News, Lawrence Journal World, the Post, etc all took risks. Now they are reaping the rewards. When someone tells me journalism is dying, I know instantly that person isn’t forward thinking, probably knows little about new media and is unwilling to change. That’s exactly the kind of person who should leave journalism.

His brand of journalism is dying, but journalism itself will be thriving in 10 years. Bank it.

User-generated content can be good, but newspapers should not get into the habit of just using it to say that they use it, which sounds like what your paper is doing. I think photos are probably the biggest area where users can add content. They often take pretty good shots and they are popular with people.

I also think newspapers need to allow users to comment on every story. People want to be heard. I would take the best comments from online and run them in the paper. User-generated content should add to the conversation, but I don’t believe it will ever be THE conversation.

]]> By: bored_at_work http://patthorntonfiles.com/blog/2007/07/19/hyperlocal-might-need-a-little-more-journalism/comment-page-1/#comment-60 bored_at_work Fri, 20 Jul 2007 04:56:11 +0000 http://patthorntonfiles.com/blog/?p=25#comment-60 I like the comparison to facebook. It's kind of like, well if the web can do for print newspapers what facebook did for freshman facebooks, no one needs to lament the death of journalism. I agree that user-generated content is typically terrible. It's one thing to accept a hand-in photo from someone who happened to be at an accident scene when your staff couldn't be. It's an entirely different thing to accept a "story" from someone who could care less whether it adheres to journalistic principles of fairness, etc. It's also a public relations firms' dream. My paper is running more and more reader-generated content, and I get stuck editing it. It's horrendous. I don't have the time to fix all of it, nor do i have the authority to cut any of it, so for the most part, a lot of crap gets into the paper. I like the comparison to facebook. It’s kind of like, well if the web can do for print newspapers what facebook did for freshman facebooks, no one needs to lament the death of journalism.

I agree that user-generated content is typically terrible. It’s one thing to accept a hand-in photo from someone who happened to be at an accident scene when your staff couldn’t be. It’s an entirely different thing to accept a “story” from someone who could care less whether it adheres to journalistic principles of fairness, etc. It’s also a public relations firms’ dream.

My paper is running more and more reader-generated content, and I get stuck editing it. It’s horrendous. I don’t have the time to fix all of it, nor do i have the authority to cut any of it, so for the most part, a lot of crap gets into the paper.

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