The Modern Journalist

* In a previous post, I talked about the online tools available to online journalists. Check it out here (or see my previous post - be sure to check out the bit on how to embed a Twitter feed in your posts).

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This post is related to my one on multimedia tools, in that the modern journalist must be able to utilise online media tools including social media, blogs, etc as part of their job. Notice the use of the word 'part'. Modern journalists are expected to do so much more than simply use online tools (though this is a big part of their job). They are to do everything in a newsroom.

This post is based on something my lecturer said in the last lecture for this unit - journalists must be able to do it all.

Journalists must write stories for print, tv and radio. They must find good grabs for radio, overlay pictures for tv, and take photos for print and online. They must update all social media as they follow a developing story - facebook and Twitter included in this. They must update their online story as it develops, and rewrite radio and tv stories for the different daily bulletins.

As media organisations change to accommodate various types of media, journalists must change with them. They must be able to work across all media.

The following graphics illustrate this.

Source: Royston Cartoons

This slightly outdated picture is of a journalist who must use six different tools to their job. The cartoon is a little old, judged not just by the old fashioned video recorder being used by the journalist, but also because these days, we have smartphones. Smartphones can take pictures for online and record a bit of video, so that online stories can be written and updated almost immediately after the news occurs.

Source: The Thomas Flippen Blog

This is what a journalist probably looks like at his desk, as opposed to out on the road. He must always be writing, editing and rewriting, as well as keeping up to date with breaking news online or via his phone.

Source: YDR Insider

This picture is more accurate of the current street journalist - he has a smartphone, a tablet and a laptop, as well as the more traditional tools of pen and paper and a mobile van. This enables the journalist to keep up to date with other news organisations by reading their news from his tablet, the laptop allows him to write from the road, and the van enables him to broadcast if necessary (using the much smaller cameras he now carries). The 'Superman' belt he wears is no joke.

As journalists are required to be able to do all of these things, and not have mental breakdowns from stress, they really are carrying a heavy burden. However, if there is one thing the three graphics have in common it is this: they still carry pen and paper.

That is because, beneath all of the technology we must master, and beneath all of the media we must learn to write to, what is most important is our ability to write. We must be able to write a good story. If we can do that, the rest will follow.