4 Ideas For Practicing A Journalism Of Collaboration
December 18th, 2011 by bruno boutotLast Saturday, I have lead a conversation at MediaCamp Montreal. The title of the topic is the longest I have ever written: #
How to begin today doing Web journalism with your readers using just your blog until your publisher gives you the right tools. #This theme was inspired in part by a report from the last SxSW conferences written by Nathalie Collard, Media Columnist at La Presse of Montreal. She quoted the conferences of Jay Rosen and Jeff Jarvis, whose blog are required reading for anyone involved in the transformation of newsmedia: Press Think, BuzzMachine. Natahlie Collard’s article was titled The Journalism of Tomorrow, Today. #
The great majority of newsmedia still don’t understand how a part of their readers could contribute to their content. So most publishers don’t invest in offering to readers a solid system of stable identity with a personal page, memory of the contributions, appreciations of these contributions and, if need be, rewards for some contributions. #
But most news media have blogs for some of their journalists and most of these journalists can delete comments on these blogs. I believe this simple tool is enough to begin practicing an online journalism of collaboration with readers who are interested in this type of participation. #
Here are the 4 ideas I have given to start the discussion: #
I – YOUR BLOG IS YOUR KINGDOM #
A blog is private property. You don’t have to accept anything that you don’t want. And the reverse is true: anything that is published on your blog means that you want it to be there. State what you want and how you want it. Anything else is refused or deleted. #
II – WHEN YOUR BLOG IS OPEN TO COLLABORATORS, YOU ARE EDITOR IN CHIEF #
You are responsible for every word published in your space: topic, length, tone, style, typos. Every single word. The best editing tool is stating clearly beforehand what you are looking for. And once you have it, well, edit. This is a publishing tool. #
III – WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THIS BLOG? JOURNALISM #
This is our job: journalism. It has nothing to do with herding comments. It’s about finding relevant facts. This is the only task to which you may invite collaborators to participate in. No opinions: facts contributing to the building of a news story. #
IV – WHO ARE YOUR COLLABORATORS? PEOPLE YOU KNOW #
There is no rush, no obligation to include anybody. You can start small: other journalists, people you know, people who are referred by people you know. You’ll come to know those who are referred and act accordingly: it you gradually trust them, you keep them. If you distrust them, you ditch them. That’s how you build trust: you wouldn’t use a spongy stone to build a wall, it would endanger the whole building. #
