Multimedia expert points the way to new digital journalism
Posted Mon May 28, 16:20:48 PDT 2007
Newspapers and print journalists should embrace the opportunities for improvement the Internet provides, Stanford Knight Fellow R. Scott Horner said in a May 24 speech to the Paly Voice.
Horner, a multimedia editor for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Times, visited Palo Alto High School's Web Journalism class the afternoon of May 24 and spoke about blogging, citizen journalism and other ways the Internet has changed the face of today's media.
Horner stressed the importance of citizen journalists' ability to react more quickly to events. He used the 2004 Asian tsunami disaster as an example.
"When the tsunami happened in Asia, most of the West didn't have any reporters on the ground, but citizens were there snapping photos and writing about it," Horner said. "We could go online and see pictures of the tsunami waves crashing before reporters from the mainstream media had even arrived."
Horner also stressed bloggers' abilities to facilitate interactive online discussions.
"With print journalism, it's one direction: 'I talk, you listen'" Horner said. "Blogging is two directions, with the readers commenting and the blogger responding."
Horner said many print reporters are uncomfortable with citizen journalism, but it is essential that they learn to collaborate with bloggers.
"Traditional journalists don't really like online journalism," Horner said. "They don't respect it, mostly because they don't understand it. The very word 'blogging' sends chills down the spines of print journalists. They think of bloggers as the enemy."
He illustrated print journalists' perception of the two sides of modern reporting with a spectrum. Star Trek's Captain Kirk was on one side, representing print journalists, and an alien on the opposite side represented bloggers. Ideally, Horner said, today's journalists should fall in the middle.
"I am trying to convince traditional journalists that blogging isn't the enemy," Horner said. "My hope is that journalists will stop thinking in the way that traditional journalists think: 'We are journalism gods, and we tell you what you know. Period.' Instead, they should think, 'We are in a community, covering the news and doing the best we can. We will open this up to the public for a sharing of information.'"
Horner brought up Center for Citizen Media Director Dan Gillmor's quote "My readers know more than I do" twice to emphasize the attitude print journalists should have toward citizen journalists.
"Traditionally, print reporters become experts on a topic and then write about it all," Horner said. "It is good today to realize our readers know more than we do. They are now the experts. The idea is to open up journalism to citizen experts who know and can report more than any single journalist could."
As for concerns about citizen journalists' credibility, Horner said newspapers should trust readers to judge the quality of reporting.
"We will always have wacky [blog] posts, but readers can decide what to read," Horner said. "We don't always have to be the judge or the ultimate decider."
Horner also discussed the greater transparency that the Internet affords modern media. He used the Spokesman Review, which streams a live video feed of its daily story-assignment meetings, and the News and Record Editor-in-Chief, who writes a blog, as examples of this.
"All of us today are starting to live our lives in a more transparent way (due to the Internet)," Horner said.
He said the News and Record Editor-in-Chief "doesn't just write about the news--he writes about how they cover the news. He lets everyone into that world."
Horner also offered suggestions for good blogging, which include using an authentic voice and conversational tone, as well as making the site interesting enough to generate discussion.
He said newspapers should show their commitment to blogs by linking to blogs or even allowing citizens to create their own blogs on newspapers' Web sites, as the Houston Chronicle does.
In addition, Horner discussed the impact mashups have on the online media. Mashups are Web applications that integrate features from different sources. He cited examples such as a New York Times commuter guide created during a transportation strike. The site combined Google Maps features with citizen journalism, Horner said.
Horner predicted that print newsrooms and online newsrooms, which most newspaper companies separate, will soon merge and begin even greater cooperation.
"More and more is going into the printroom, like blogging, photo essays and audio photo essays," Horner said.
Horner said that despite the impact of the Internet and declining newspaper circulation, he does not think online media will replace print media soon. This is because the majority of newspaper companies' revenue still come from print, not online, publications, Horner said.
"We can assume that sometime in the future we could just live online, but right now there are still people out there who read the paper and advertisers who run ads in the paper," Horner said. "As long as they're around, we'll have print newspapers."
Horner works in the print newsroom at the Sun-Sentinel Times adapting print graphics for the newspaper's Web site. He uses audio, animation and interactivity—all features only possible online.
He received Stanford's John S. Knight Fellowship for professional journalists for the 2006-2007 year.
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