Post-Industrial Journalism

Journos will find plenty to inspire and even more to worry about in "Post-Industrial Journalism: Adapting to the Present", a study from Columbia Journalism School's Tow Centre. It's a dense read (check out Poynter's write-up if you're in a hurry) but worth setting aside an afternoon.

Basically, the report says that the transformation of American journalism is unavoidable, "that the journalism industry is dead but that journalism exists in many places", and journalists and news organisations have to be much more versatile in order to survive. Alarming, but kind of exciting if you like a challenge.

I'm pleased that Talking Points Memo, one of my go-to sources of political reporting since 2008, was cited a number of times as a good case study, and I plan to keep a closer eye on their business model.

I also liked the description of a journalist's role of "an investigator, a translator, a storyteller," and the acknowledgement that individual voice and colour are important assets. "The more we feel engaged with a journalist through his persona, the more we want to hear what he has to say about the world," the report says. For journalists, the lesson is: "Know yourself. Know what you are good at and what you are not good at, and know how to explain those things to others."

News organisations themselves will need to embrace an identity and an active role in society instead of pretending to be detached - another encouraging message, I think.

"Often, news institutions will argue that they are there simply to 'present the facts' and that questions of what those facts will do lie outside their purview. ... Instead, we believe that it is news institutions themselves that often do the most to advance positive democratic outcomes. Given this, it has become essential to understand exactly how news organisations make an impact, and for news companies to admit that they are in the impact business."