Links: News Literacy, and Building a Better Newspaper
During last week’s Editorchat, we discussed training the next generation of writers; would-be journalists who are learning on the Web, in the short form, via blogs. We asked what the long-term implications for newsrooms would be.
“Storytelling typically takes time, i.e. longer pieces, that people need to invest in, but the Internet teaches us that less is more, because people don’t want (or, moreso have the time) to devote to reading,” wrote participant Marc Hertz, a freelance writer and editor who operates out of the San Francisco Bay Area. “When I’m reading a piece and I actually manage to scroll down, then see there are multiple pages, I’ve been known to get antsy, so I can imagine what the average reader might do.”
At its root, last week’s thread had us wondering whether blogs had already become the New “New” Journalism. But of course we’re not alone in thinking about this. These related links were posted by our chat participants:
- Columbia Journalism Review Features the News Literacy Project. Posted by Becky Gjendem, this piece summarizes a cover story in Columbia Journalism Review about activist efforts to educate young people about what journalists do, and why they do it.
- Tommy’s Table: Some Questions for Readers. From Andria Krewson, this blog post by Charlotte Observer columnist Tommy Tomlinson asks the paper’s readers to weigh in on content. What do they like? What do they not like? And what would get them to read more often?
- McSweeney’s launches San Francisco Panorama. From Hertz, this full-color beast may be the most awesome paper we’ve yet seen. Or at the very least on par with The National Sports Daily, which Tim still mourns — almost two decades after its demise.
Stay tuned for the next topic, and be sure to tune in each Wednesday at 8:30 pm eastern on FriendFeed.
