The Internet Has Made Journalism Bad@$$, But Also Just Bad

Here’s a recap of my 2009 Southeast Journalism Conference talk on how the Internet could be hurting journalism.

I started the talk by giving three practical ways to counteract negative effects of the Internet.

Quote from Neil Postman’s End of Education:

“…What we needed to know about cars—as we need to know about computers, television, and other technology—is not how to use them, but how they use us. In the case of cars. what we needed to think about in the early twentieth century was not how to drive them but what they would do to our air, our landscape, our social relations, our family life, and our cities.”

1. Read Books: As media professionals the Internet focuses us on what is today and can narrow our cultural lenses giving our stories a shallow context. We should read books to preemptively know the deeper context of our topics, so our media is more creative and accurate.
   
   
2. Know People: The Internet connects us to more people, but this means we know  them less deeply. To not see people as numbers, we should become rooted in our community. We can start by developing relationships with people over lunch or by volunteering.
   
   
3. Focus on the goal, not the tool: Because the Internet can overload us with information, optimizing our tools is important. We should asses which tools produce the best results. For instance, we need to call people and not email them if we want the best interview.

The handouts featured six team names. We split up and brainstormed the two-part question:

1. What is one way the Internet is lame?
2. What can we actively do to counteract this force so we’re better media professionals?

Team Responses

How would you respond? We determined the best presentation by a round of finger snapping. Presenter two was awarded an “IOU a Snuggie Coupon.” I mailed the real thing on Monday. What can I say? A snuggie is worth waiting for.

“IOU a Snuggie Coupon” Unveiling

Benediction

…And here’s the Snow Crash reference I promised. I think only a geek and a half understood what I was trying to say. I’m hoping more geeks will understand what I’m saying here.

“I told him it was a beta version,” Hg says. “And he should have known not to use it for infighting. A two-dollar switch blade would have served him better.”

“Agreed. But he was quite taken with it.”

Ng blows out more smoke, thinking. “As we learned in Vietnam, high-powered weapons are so sensorily overwhelming that they are similar to psychoactive drugs. Like LSD, which can can convince people they can fly—causing them to jump out of windows—weapons can make people overconfident. Skewing their tactical judgment. As in the case of Fisheye.”

Thanks to everyone who commented before the talk. Your thoughts were a great help.

Online coverage of Southeast Journalism Conference 2009

This year’s tagline was “It’s your future: new century, new media.” Some participants still need to jump in (Let’s go!) while others lived up to the tagline. Dr. Sybril, among other things, live blogged Amy Webb’s keynote, lived blogged Dave Delaney’s talk on new media, and video interviewed Dave. Belmont student Jessica Walker live blogged the “Debating the Debate” talk. Amy Webb provided tipsheets from her talk and Dave Delaney posted his powerpoint. Want to network online with people who attented SEJC 09? Join Twitter and the follow the people who mentioned SEJC. Keep in touch till next year’s SEJC in Louisiana.

Congrats to my alma mater Belmont and Belmont Vision for putting on such a smooth event. Need another example of how Nashville is the new media hub of the South? Check out the continous innovation at News Channel 2 or click a few links above to see what happens when SEJC comes to town. √

What did I miss? Leave a comment with the coverage I missed or leave feedback about how the Internet is affecting our stories. Do you agree? Am I way off?

“The Internet Has Made Journalism Bad@$$, But Also Just Bad” text, audio, and video by Nathan T. Baker and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Talk republished with permission by SEJC 09.