May 19th, 2008
by
Patrick Thornton
I’m well aware that there are journalists who simply don’t want to understand the Web and why it’s important.
But I believe there are a lot of journalists who are perfectly willing to learn more Web skills, if only the pitch was made to them in the right way. They don’t want to be forced into extra duties without any explanation, they don’t want to be looked down upon by some snotty recent graduate, and they don’t want editors talking over their head with tech jargon.
So what’s the right approach when trying to nudge your fellow journalists into trying new things online? I’d love to hear some success stories, because this is becoming a bigger focus for me in my newsroom.
A few of my initial thoughts:
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May 19th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Sometimes, it’s all about the numbers. We have had a couple of times that a small piece has gotten viral attention, and those pieces have done more to “sell the web” than anything else.
I had a reporter who was definitely a little skeptical about doing stuff for the web, until a clip went national and suddenly she was hearing from old friends, colleagues and seeing the attention we could generate from the web.
As for other things, a few quick thoughts:
Talk to them, not over them.
Give them the tools they need to do what you’re asking for.
They know it’s work. Don’t lie about that. But show them why it’s important.
Follow up. Don’t hold a staff meeting and then let it go. Just as you give constructive feedback to new reporters, give it to new web contributors.
I think you’re right - a lot of reporters are willing to step into the fray. But they need support…
May 20th, 2008 at 4:37 am
A few colleagues and I hit on a rather successful approach. We started holding monthly brownbags on technology and multimedia strategies. We’re in our 6th month now, and these confabs continue to be packed and fun.
Suddenly, a lot more people are dipping their toes into the multimeida waters. And I do believe our brown bags helped.
We record the brown bags with Snap it! and have an intranet page where we keep those recordings and all of the training handouts/videos we create for the sessions. We also update a “Multimedia Resources: The Rough Guide” handout at each session, which gives reporters a rundown on what equipment, training, people, etc are available to them. As part of that list, we keep an ongoing tally of who knows what in the newsroom, so people know who to tap to find out about how to do good audio or how to effectively blog or whatever.
I think this is working for a few reasons.
1. It’s informal and colleague-driven.
2. We demystify things in a comfortable environment where reporters can learn skills on their own terms.
3. We start every meeting with an example of innovative use of technology in our newsroom, which is encouraging.
4. We’re really prepared. We put effort into this but also leave a lot of time for wide-open discussion.
Incidentally, I hope to do a brown bag specfically on beat blogging at some point.
Hope this is helpful,
Mary Louise