new journalists for the new media
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New journalists for the new media
How to honorablytake their minds over
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What is a journalist?
„The conductor of a public journal, or one whose business it to write for a public journal; an editorial or other professional writer for a periodical” (Webster Unadbridged, 1913)
„A person who practises journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues and people” (Wikipedia, 2008).
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This...
• „The Journalist”, Thomas Rowlandson, 1786
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...became THIS
• Reuters Mobile Journalism Toolkit, 2008
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• Write• Think• Speculate• Transmit• Phisically go to source
(legwork)• Goes to information
• Gather• Copy• Establish facts• Receive• Virtually go to source or,
rather,• The source gets close via
e-mail, press release, CCTV etc. (fingerwork, eyework, earwork)
• Information comes to him
Then & now
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Contemporary journalist
● News agencies● Rolling news televisions● Radio● News sites● Blogs● E-mail● Mobile/fixed phone
(SMS, talk)
+
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Evolution
●The emphasis stands now on factual, and the amount of facts the journalist is to choose from is overwhelming●The knowledge is acquired via proxy – be it the internet, radio or
something else●The journalist is color-blind - reality or realities described via words and
images are faint, far-away●Distance can be overcome but can't be erased via the „information
superhighways”.●The journalist is more dependent on his sources than his predecessors.
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New PR approaches: DO's
●Go for journalists' sources to influence journalists: blogs are easy to reach and unexpensive. Press agency journalists are valuable
●Look for attention, rather than for total control – it's very difficult simply to be published●Be very responsive to journalists' requests, no matter how exotic or hard to fulfill they might be. You
can always build something on responsivity●Be concise. Serve the plain news - if you have none, your efforts are useless●Intellectual flirt: disclose a small piece of info to arise journalists' curiosity●Go multimedia – send the full pack (pictures & audio & movies)●Look for redundancy without repetition – send your message via various channels in various forms●Break your topic into pieces and negociate them as exclusive separately with various journalists●Take over a broader area of a journalist's interest with neutral, newsworthy messages and then use
the channel created to disseminate your own message, assuming again it's a powerful one. Become a valuable source on various topics first, and then use the attention you've got.
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New PR approaches: DONT'S
●Don't insist – journalists' patience is decreasing●Don't try to bury the problem by delaying the answer. Journalists armed with
mobile phones and internet are very effective in finding their info elsewhere●Avoid „marketese”, messages stuffed with weasel words are hard to digest,
at least for journalists, no matter what copywriters might think●Never try to impose an unique form for your message. Repetition is
advertising, PR is diversity●Don't lie. You might easily fool a journalist connected to you only via optic fiber,
but consequences are dire once the lie is discovered. And it shall be.
