Comments on: You can’t teach culture (Carnival of Journalism No. 2)

By: Carnival of Journalism 2 (Gnostic edition) | Adrian Monck

Carnival of Journalism 2 (Gnostic edition) | Adrian Monck — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 19:43:36 +0000

[...] Pat Thornton at Journalism Iconoclast takes the hook. Although he agrees with Conley , he doesn’t quite suggest humanely culling dissident journos. Pat has a more optimistic take on the perfection of human nature online: “I still believe in training.” [...]

By: lectroid.net » Blog Archive » Relevance

lectroid.net » Blog Archive » Relevance — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:46:13 +0000

[...] even thinking about such silly little things like the howtos of web publishing, workflows or “changing cultures“. They’d be out before they even stepped up to the [...]

By: Pettsson

Pettsson — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:12:19 +0000

I acctually think that you’re totally wrong. This would all be totally true if I accepted the fact that all “multimedia journalists” would be writing about said multimedia, and I belive this to be wrong. The internet is a tool to distribute your articles, and, if you so choose, nothing more. If a person has something to tell, and wants to do so, he will, and if you teach him the tools he will do so on the internet, and if he’s good enough people will notice and he will never have to understand the scary parts of our world of 0s and 1s, like Facebook

By: Meranda Writes » Blog Archive » Don’t dismiss good journalists who don’t ‘get’ online just yet

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 05:10:08 +0000

[...] one corner, we have those saying it can’t be done and shouldn’t. In the other, they contend it should be. (And on and on. Read the comments on [...]

By: Badger Gravling

Badger Gravling — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:27:22 +0000

Oh, and I think a lot more journalists are curious about the web than like to admit it. Sadly it seems less and less journalists are able to admit they don’t know everything…it certainly seemed that way when I admitted it to people demonstrating products etc…They found it really refreshing and took more time and trouble to make sure I had everything nailed down, and it made for a better understanding and better story in the long run…

By: Badger Gravling

Badger Gravling — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:25:34 +0000

Besides sharing the same surname, it appears we’re also linked closely by the way we both think:
http://thewayoftheweb.blogspot.com/2008/01/would-you-hire-someone-who-doesnt-use.html

I’ve been involved in selecting and hiring members of staff in the past, and I think now is the time that I make a new stand that no-one I’m involved in hiring for an online position will be getting much attention unless they’ve already demonstrated some knowledge, interest, and participation in social networks, blogging, news aggregators etc.

As you say, training has a valuable place, but you need people who will respond to it. And if someone looking for a job hasn’t taken the time to market themselves for the online world, then we would they do it with the security of a job around them?

If they’re not breaking news stories (or at least attempting to), via a blog or website already, then why would they suddenly get that fire once they’re able to hide behind other colleagues…

It’s not about only hiring the A-List bloggers, or people with a certain minimum number of friends on Facebook, but just picking those people with a passion to try and use all the tools available to create the best work…

By: Marc Matteo

Marc Matteo — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 19:19:12 +0000

I must admit in my initial reading of this post I read, “…And if they are really great in their traditional media role, they probably don’t have a long-term role in your news organization…” and I recoiled and readied my flamethrower.

With a re-reading it makes much more sense…

What occurred to me on my re-reading is that I’ve seen this before. Here: http://www.inter-sections.net/2007/11/13/how-to-recognise-a-good-programmer/

The things talked about there, “passion”, “self-teaching”, etc. are the same issues Journalists face, aren’t they.

The message here I think is rather than eliminating people… bring in better ones.

By: pat

pat — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 19:07:40 +0000

Megan, I made a slight change to my car metaphor to make it line up better.

I think my point is that you can’t teach someone to love cars or want to work on them. It’s just something that people discover on their one. Most mechanics start tinkering around with old cars when they are young.

The problem is that most journalists aren’t curious about the Web, which is why it doesn’t make sense to train them on the Web. You can’t train the Web, only individual skills on the Web.

By: Megan Taylor

Megan Taylor — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 18:33:10 +0000

I’m not sure I agree with your car metaphor. I know what you’re trying to communicate, but I think you missed.
I can’t remember who told me this, but someone once said “All you need to be a journalist is to be curious about everything.” Including cars and the Web.