If
you’ve had the misfortune of being around a newsroom, you’ve probably heard of
the Nieman Foundation. It was founded in 1938 by the widow of the founder of
The Milwaukee Journal. The
think tank finances several projects, including the Nieman Journalism Lab,
founded in 2008 to study why the profession was going to hell while tiptoeing
around the elephant in the room. (If I have to spell this out, stop reading.)
Every
year, the lab invites “some of the smartest people in journalism” to make
off-the-cuff predictions. Here are some (names redacted to protect the future
unemployed):
“It’s time to start bringing in feedback, context, and community to our sites.”
“2016 is going to be the year when the professionalizing podcast industry finds out if it’s able to earn its place in the media big leagues.”
“In 2016, design will be a tool for journalists to scope out a widened role in our new digital media landscape.”
“By choosing to prioritize national outlets over local ones, these platforms are going to accelerate the decline of local journalism. In 2016, we should all be aware of the unintended consequences of that choice.”
To
which this orange cat replies:
Feedback?
Newsrooms don’t want no stinkin’ feedback, especially from those who don’t
confirm their obvious biases. Podcasts will never live up to the hype. Stupider
newspaper editors still think it’s about the design and not the news. The last
guy is right; more local journalism is lost every year.
Among
the comments from the children, there was this from Bill Keller, former
executive editor of The New York Times: “We should resign ourselves to decadesof instability, which in these days of diminishing attention spans is prettyclose to a permanent condition.”
Well
said, Mr. Keller.
No comments:
Post a Comment