In crisis, news media clears its throat
Thursday, September 10, 2009 | 9:28 am
Can hyper-local save journalism?
Can paid content save journalism?
Can social media save journalism?
Unemployed reporters, aspiring consultants and anxious graduate students will gather at a local hotel this weekend to swill bad coffee, mutter thoughtfully and squint at PowerPoint pages and streaming video clips.
This one-day symposium will examine the question: “Can jargon save journalism?”
Expert panelists will include:
-- One noted editor-turned-blogger who recently quit newspapers to protest the industry's declining commitment to journalism.
-- A certified “change agent” whose newspaper credentials include 16 years as an agri-business reporter and six months as an overnight wire editor.
-- Some venture capitalists who couldn't tell the difference between a doubletruck and a circulation truck if their operating margins depended on it..
-- And a handful of associate, assistant and distinguished professors who are working on books, scholarly articles and documentary films critiquing the Mainstream Media.
The luncheon keynote speaker will be a precocious high school student whose collection of tweets has been optioned for a Hollywood movie.
Discussions and lectures will include:
"Linking Revenue Lines with the Democratizing Value of Digital Content"
"Developing a Millennial Workforce to Reach Highly Niched Markets with Multi-Platform Strategies."
"Focusing Newsroom Practices on the Mutual Shaping of Technology and Society to Counter Dominant Technology Effects."
"The Perfect Skill Set for a Programmer/Journalist."
"Media Consumption, Changing Audiences, Cross-Ownership and Convergence."
While these media experts are sequestered in their dimly lit meeting room, life outside will go on usual.
Families will be concerned with schools, sports, shopping and socializing. Communities will cope with budgets, public services, crime prevention and prosperity. Both optimism and pessimism will run rampant. Information and misinformation will mingle unabated.
And multitudes will remain apathetic to the plight of media companies.
Hey, this is journalism. I'm not allowed to make this stuff up. (At least not all of it.)
Can paid content save journalism?
Can social media save journalism?
Unemployed reporters, aspiring consultants and anxious graduate students will gather at a local hotel this weekend to swill bad coffee, mutter thoughtfully and squint at PowerPoint pages and streaming video clips.
This one-day symposium will examine the question: “Can jargon save journalism?”
Expert panelists will include:
-- One noted editor-turned-blogger who recently quit newspapers to protest the industry's declining commitment to journalism.
-- A certified “change agent” whose newspaper credentials include 16 years as an agri-business reporter and six months as an overnight wire editor.
-- Some venture capitalists who couldn't tell the difference between a doubletruck and a circulation truck if their operating margins depended on it..
-- And a handful of associate, assistant and distinguished professors who are working on books, scholarly articles and documentary films critiquing the Mainstream Media.
The luncheon keynote speaker will be a precocious high school student whose collection of tweets has been optioned for a Hollywood movie.
Discussions and lectures will include:
"Linking Revenue Lines with the Democratizing Value of Digital Content"
"Developing a Millennial Workforce to Reach Highly Niched Markets with Multi-Platform Strategies."
"Focusing Newsroom Practices on the Mutual Shaping of Technology and Society to Counter Dominant Technology Effects."
"The Perfect Skill Set for a Programmer/Journalist."
"Media Consumption, Changing Audiences, Cross-Ownership and Convergence."
While these media experts are sequestered in their dimly lit meeting room, life outside will go on usual.
Families will be concerned with schools, sports, shopping and socializing. Communities will cope with budgets, public services, crime prevention and prosperity. Both optimism and pessimism will run rampant. Information and misinformation will mingle unabated.
And multitudes will remain apathetic to the plight of media companies.
Hey, this is journalism. I'm not allowed to make this stuff up. (At least not all of it.)
Most recent My Back Pages posts
Comments
(
