|
<advertisement>
|
 |
 
|
|
media search: |
 |
new media
The Water's Fine
From Web to Print - and Back Again. Another Journalist, Another Perspective
By Jonathan Dube
Jonathan Dube (jondube@reporters.net)
is a senior associate producer for ABCNEWS.com.
I
loved online journalism. But when I completed the new media program at Columbia
University’s Graduate School of Journalism two years ago, I felt new media’s
time had yet to arrive. As I sat in front of a New York Times computer
during a job tryout, shoveling stories from the print edition onto the Web site,
I thought to myself, "This doesn’t feel like journalism."
So I turned down a producer job with the Times and headed south to work as a crime reporter for The Charlotte Observer. Instead of sitting in front of a computer typing URLs, I experimented with story structure, practiced narrative writing, occasionally turned the inverted pyramid on its head. But a strange thing happened. After working with new media, writing for a newspaper felt limiting, almost one-dimensional. I’d profile an eccentric artist with a quirky accent, say, or cover the tumultuous gusts of a hurricane. But I felt I was cheating my readers by not sharing those sounds or moving images with them. When writing articles about the state’s restaurant inspection system or sex offender registry, I couldn’t give readers all the information they deserved in the newspaper’s limited columns. So I put the databases on the Observer’s Web site.
Meanwhile, I watched online journalism evolve. As more people turned to the Web for news, media organizations devoted more resources to it, and the journalism seemed to improve. Specialty sites, such as CNET and TheStreet.com, soon became essential for anyone interested in technology or finance, and even the general news sites became required reading. Along with millions of others, I found myself leaping online for the latest in the Clinton scandal. By the time the newspaper arrived each morning, its news seemed passé.
So earlier this year I returned to new media, taking a job in Seattle as a writer and producer for ABCNEWS.com. I’m glad I jumped back in. In many ways online journalism is more challenging than print, and not just because I have to juggle a video camera, digital camera, and microphone along with my pen and notepad. It can be difficult to break away from the conventional formula that seems to define much of online news – text-centric stories with a few links, graphics, and audio or video clips tacked on, almost as an afterthought. So, before tackling a subject, I try to determine the best way to tell the story – through some combination of text, audio, video, photos, clickable graphics, chats, message boards, polls, or quizzes . . . or something entirely different.
For example, after flying to Littleton, Colorado, to cover the Columbine High School shooting, I wrote articles describing the thousands of sympathetic strangers bringing flowers and notes to a memorial at the school. But words couldn’t quite capture the raw emotions of what I witnessed. So my colleagues and I decided to recreate the memorial experience online. Visitors to ABCNEWS.com took an interactive tour of the memorial, viewing the images of teddy bears and flowers and reading the words left in memory of those killed. Then they could post their own tributes and read messages other readers had left. Nearly 800 people wrote tributes, describing how the tragedy had touched their lives.
Online journalism excites me because of its potential for improving our connections with readers. While covering the Littleton shooting, I answered questions from readers in two hour-long online chats, which together attracted more than 1,600 people. This was draining but rewarding. Knowing what questions remained on readers’ minds helped guide my future reporting. At the same time, I got to tell readers many of the details I had gathered that hadn’t fit neatly into my stories. The chat transcripts became, in effect, another story about the shootings – one that the readers helped create.
What I find so exciting about online journalism is not just the chance to tell stories in new, interactive ways. It’s that these new media tools and techniques help me bring readers a truer picture of the world.
