Interesting reactions to my blog post last night.
Martin Stabe agrees:
Lincoln journalism student Dave Lee gets it: “Words are words. They take just as long to write, and are just as valuable, whether they are destined for paper or web.
And in an e-mail, he pointed me in the direction of a blog by Kevin Anderson, who I’ve learnt was the first ever BBC online journalist working outside of the UK. So if anyone knows about grasping new technologies, it’s him. An extract from his post:
There was some talk about exactly what skills students and journalists need in to compete. Do they need to learn how to code? Do they need to focus on A/V skills? Do they need to learn Flash? I’ve always been very wary about suggesting too much investment in any specific piece of software. The industry moves too fast. Instead, I’d echo what Rob Curley says:
Skillset is important. But mindset is most important.
Damn, I wish I would have said that. I’ve picked up the skillset because of my mindset. I can only think of one instance when I said: “That’s not my job.” New tasks are always an opportunity to learn new skills.
I feel if all journalism courses followed this mantra then we (students) would end up being much better off.
Ed Walker, a fellow student journalist studying at UCLan (Preston), backs up my thoughts on the website aspect of a student paper. He is involved with the excellent ‘Pluto‘, and has recently launched the online arm of the paper. It seems to be going well.
Bryan Murley (who writes this blog) encourages me to keep looking out for new heroes. In this post, he suggests some. I only really recognised Salam Pax, the Baghdad Blogger, as I have read his rather rubbish book. The content is brilliant, but really, the best thing about blogs is their immediacy. Putting them in print just defeats the point.
Anyway, I’m deviating. I think it’s a good thing that apart from Salam, none of these names jumped out at me. It’s all about the news, not the journalist. We are merely messengers. Also, the lack of fame these people are getting is a sign that there perhaps is no place for heroes in journalism anymore.
No journalist came close to giving the true account of the brutality of Saddam’s execution. But a citizen journalist certainly did – his moment of journalistic heroism had more effect on the world than any piece of journalism in the last year, but of course, I’m not going to aspire to be that person.
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