Everything's Not Lost

There are two things all journalists do well: drinking and complaining. The skills are not taught in fancy lecture halls or found in any book; they are honed as the internships, boring beats, foul-mouthed editors and evasive politicians add up. When you walk into the newsroom at 7 a.m. to hear an editor yelling, “What do you mean bodily fluid? Was it semen? It was semen? Well, just say it was semen!”* you just know the day is going to end with a double gin and tonic at the dive around the corner. In the complaint department, criticisms were usually kept within the confines of a cubicle or newsroom. The Internet, of course, destroyed that. Reporters have audiences by way of blogs, Twitter and Gawker to complain to about money ("What do you mean you're not going to replace this broken keyboard?"), layoffs and the death of good journalism. Every day looks like this, right?

Maybe not, according to a column from USA Today titled “As Journalism Changes, So Must You.” Here are some of my takeaways from the piece:

· Our relationship to news is “becoming portable, personalized and participatory,” according to a survey by the Pew Research Center and the Project for Excellence in Journalism;

· Reporters need to know that “all information is not created equal” and “understand why the distinctions matter”; and

· Teenagers and young adults are “ill-equipped to process the hard news stories they encounter,” according to a study by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard.

The portable aspect of news consumption is well-known to anyone with a smartphone. When I look around the L during rush hour, I see a handful of riders reading RedEye, and most everyone else scrolling through their Blackberries and iPhones. It is actually quite revolutionary. We’re coming out of a time when people subscribed to major dailies and then complained they did not have time to read them. People can now consume news and media whenever and wherever they want. The personalized and participatory nature of this consumption is the truly exciting part. What if instead of a one-way lecture on the day’s events, we generate true conversations and debates among readers? When I was writing about complicated civic issues – permits, budgets, etc. – I would start by thinking how I would explain the issue to a friend. When I go home today, what will I say I wrote about? Simple, conversational writing coupled with the interactive nature of the Internet has the power to change conversations and actions among readers and viewers.

I think that speaks directly to the third bullet point from the USA Today story. There have always been programs in place to encourage news consumption among children and teenagers. It was an easy way for management to increase newspaper circulation and boast that the company participated in public good. However, instead of focusing on the short-term upside, news companies are in a position to teach a generation how to become involved in the news -- even interested in the topics. Young adults know how to find news – how do we teach them to think about the materials we are giving them?

Finally, the importance of knowing all information is not created equal. Need I say more?

* Yes, this really happened.