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Friday, December 14, 2012

Informing the public is a serious task



During the summer, I interned at CW 33/ KDAF in Dallas, Texas. I remember sleeping on the couch in my house in Irving and, for some reason, waking up and looking at the TV. My eyes scanned the screen.

Aurora. Shooting. Batman. Colorado. Killed.

I watched the news and skimmed Twitter all morning. I went to the CW 33 office and a somber wave hit when I walked in the door. Not somber enough to stop working, but to flip my switch and start covering the mass killing locally.

As an intern, I could only do so much. I found local angles, called almost every police POI in the metroplex and assisted the newsroom as much as possible.

Today’s tragic news reminds me of that day.

This also reminds me why I want to be a journalist. I want to give citizens the most accurate information. I want to be that person who triple checks every tweet, story and photo that’s released.

The media is often scrutinized for being inaccurate and trying to publish too fast.

After seeing the random sourcing, the “CONFIRMED” tweets and the assumed Facebook of the alleged shooter, I cringe.

Of course, reporters don’t purposefully put out wrong information and I know there are other factors that push journalists to release wobbly information.

Simply put, this is a reminder to have thoughtful discussions before releasing such sensitive, important news.

My thoughts and prayers are with those affected.

Monday, December 3, 2012

Potatoes and Journalism

I often compare journalism to potatoes.

As TCU 360 transitioned into true convergence and went digital-first, I randomly compared the prior news entities (print, online, broadcast) to whole potatoes.

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I said we would now become mashed potatoes because we would produce content together.
 
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My most recent potato analogy shows the similarities between online and potato extras. Here’s how my thoughts in the shower weaved together:

If you’re hungry, you’re going to eat the potato. It’s cooked well. The cook took a long time preparing it just for you.

Even the best potato needs butter. It tastes better with sour cream. And, of course, bacon bits.
We all know you slaved away on that text story, but that doesn’t cut it anymore. The audience wants extras. They deserve extras because you can produce it.

Give them those embedded tweets. Let them scour through raw documents if they don’t believe you yet. Throw a photo slideshow at them and let them know that it’s not just pretty green leaves on the side of your plate any longer.

Get out of your potato box and into the kitchen of Wolfgang Puck. Impress the pants off of your viewers and fellow journalists.

Why not offer your audience all of the fixins? You’re their head chef.