Reflecting on the online dissemination of ‘the Internet Manifesto’ by a group of German journalists and bloggers last week, Alison Gow suggests five phrases currently heard in most newsrooms that ‘all the manifesto pledges in the world aren’t going to solve’.
Explained in full – and in context – in Alison’s post, the phrases are:
- “I’m too busy…”
- “I don’t know how to use/make that…”
- “No one asked me…”
- “It’s only the website.”
- “Digital doesn’t make money.” (or “Print is profitable.” when questioning the value of a newspaper’s website)
“I agree that updating your work blog is unlikely to turn around the financial black hole our industry is attempting to extract itself from at the moment (…) [But] if you’re working as a multimedia journalist you have the opportunity to be a real pioneer in the art of online storytelling, audience engagement, and new ways of sourcing, sharing and developing information,” writes Gow.