Read Write Speak

Journalism Next by Mark Briggs Chapter 10

It has always been said that a journalist’s dream is having their writing create a conversation. A two-way street of ideas and knowledge flowing back and forth. However, with the web taking over, people don’t always read through an article online or even find it to begin with.

“The most significant way that it [the internet] has change journalism,” says Patrick Thorton of Beatblogging.org, “is in how journalists and their communities can cover a beat.”

The interaction between the journalist and his/her information (the audience) is how the news gets out there faster.

When the audiences comments is when things get a little tricky. Due to the anonymity of the web, people feel that they can say whatever they want to matter how offensive it is.

The majority of comments are not useful to look at, but that one comment that hits home, editors have decided it is worth it. This is because the audience feels that the barrier is broken down now between them and the journalist and they like it!

“The audience,” writes Jack McElroy editor of Knoxville News Sentinel, “always choose the kind of journalism it wants–and it always will.”

To interact with the community journalists must take in this rule, because not everyone will contribute: the 1-10-100 rule.

“1 percent of the user community-including the journalists on news sites- create the content.”

“10 percent of the user community will “synthesize” the content by posting a comment, e-mailing a link to a friend, authoring a blog post on a separate site and linking back to it, voting it up or down, ect.”

“100 percent of the user community will benefit from the actions of the first two groups.”

Those rules above are the reasons why comments are allowed and how the user community affects everyone in it.