Reporters working for traditional news organisations are becoming burned out because of the demands placed upon them to engage in new media and communications tools, according to journalists at the National Press Club forum at the University of Missouri.
It’s quite common to find online versions of newspapers and news broadcasters kitting out their web sites with blogs, Twitter feeds, and social networking links, but it seems that in many cases this is a loss-making exercise, done only because it’s “cool” or institutions feel that they have to “keep up”.
A correspondent for the St Louis Post-Dispatch, Tony Messenger, said that he had been blogging for years but had never had a discussion with the newsroom as to why they were blogging and how that should tie in to their business model.
Another correspondent, who works for the New York Times, said that she was expected to post online by noon, produce video, as well as produce copy for the print edition of the Times.
“You don’t have a choice,” said Elaine Sciolino. “If you want to be a journalist today, you just have to work harder and more efficiently. You aim for perfection until your deadline, and then you aim for doneness. You just gut it out.”
Yet another spoke of the incessant requirement to write, tweet, blog, and interact with whatever social platforms are currently in vogue.
There’s no simple answer, because companies need to ensure that they’re not being left behind when it comes to important technological and societal changes. Yet the decline in print media will only be expedited by stretching journalists until they snap.
(Via Market Watch)
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