Many journalists can’t provide the value-added journalism that is needed today.
With this headline, Robert Picard, the director of research at the Reuters institute and a recognised media expert, explains that despite the fact that news scenario for the industry has changed, journalists are not prepared for it.
He explains that because the way we create and consume information has been changed by internet and social media, the distribution of information is not the sole privilege of news organisations anymore. Sources can now directly provide information without a newspaper’s help.
Newspapers spend time and paper reproducing information that is easily found.
“Today such routine information has little economic value because the original providers are now directly feeding that information to the interested public through their own websites, blogs, and Twitter feeds,” explains Picard.
There is no doubt that the internet democratised information and everyone can publish anything online. At the same time, social media and Twitter has became a sea of ‘copy and paste’, while we have all became narcissists with our smile and beautiful pictures.
What Robert Picard suggests is originality and producing value-added journalism.
News organisations have to start asking themselves whether they are hiring the wrong journalists or whether their company practices are inhibiting journalists’ abilities to do so.
He also advises news organisations to move away from information that is readily available elsewhere. Journalists’ need to spend their time seeking out the kinds of information that are less available and spend time writing stories that put events into context, explain how and why they happened, and prepare the public for future developments.
This type of conversation is not a novelty. Since the beginning of the decline of newspapers, media consultants have been advising newspapers to invest in local news. There are certainly plenty of new role for journalists; videographer, online news presenter, multimedia journalist. To sit and write at a desk will no longer be enough.
BRIEFS
McDonald’s experiencing declining sales in the US for the 1st time in 9 years
For the first time since 2003, McDonald’s had a fall in monthly sales in the US — a decline of 2.2 per cent in October. Similar results were also perceived in Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The fast-food attributes the bad moment to a reduced demand for their products and also to increased competition — rivals like Burger King and Wendy’s, for example - but said he was optimistic about their strategies to generate profitable growth. Source Gawker.
The new Gerber Baby meets Ann Turner Cook, The Original Gerber Baby On ‘Today’
Turner Cook’s face is iconic, but if you saw the 85-year-old today, you might not have a clue as to who she is. Cook’s claim to fame was being the very first “Gerber baby,” a title that has just been snapped up by a new adorable child.
Cook became the face of Gerber when she won their original contest in 1928. Artist Dorothy Hope Smith sketched her portrait for use on their products, and that drawing, which was trademarked in 1931, became a symbol for not only Gerber, but cuteness in general. Yet, it wasn’t until 1978 that the brand revealed who Cook was.
On Tuesday morning, she appeared on the Today show with the newest Gerber Baby, 8-month-old Mary Jane Montoya.
source BuzzFeed
US hacker sentenced to 6 years stay without internet access
What would you do if you were banned from using the internet for six years of your life? Probably find some way to circumvent the order and access the network anyway? Imagine then if we’re talking about a hacker - more specifically the teenager known as ‘the Cosmo God’, the leader of a group that is only slightly less famous than Anonymous - who was involved in attacks on numerous websites and credit card fraud. A California court has just condemned the youth to 6 years without internet access. The only exception is for educational use, but even that has to be supervised. He has to give up his login details, passwords and a list all the devices through which he connects to the web.
source: Gizmodo
