Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
the role of news IN THE ERA OF OVERLOAD
MATT THOMPSON EDITORIAL PRODUCT MANAGER,
NPR’s Project Argo
TWO
PARABLES
I: A tale of two scandals.
Watergate Enron v.
ladouceur78 / Flickr alex-s / Flickr
The Watergate Hotel - Noah Kalina / Flickr
FORTUNE, 3/5/01
The column that felled Enron
from information scarcity …
… to information overload
II. The classic editor
RAIJSI / Flickr
redmondbarry / Flickr
The water cooler effect in reverse
ARTHUR MILLER, 1961
A good newspaper,
I suppose, is a
NATION
TALKING TO ITSELF
TweetDeck
But that’s already happening…
There is a new profession of
TRAIL BLAZERS – those who find delight in the task of
establishing useful trails through the enormous mass of the common record.
VANNEVAR BUSH, 1945
Nobody is looking for another thing to read.
FELIX SALMON, 2010
The biggest shortage in journalism right now isn’t good writers, or even enlightened proprietors willing to fund investigations.
IT’S CRITICAL
READERS.
Step 1:
MASTER THE CONVERSATION.
Talking Points Memo
not a series of isolated dispatches.
A STREAM.
Step 2:
NURTURE THE CONVERSATION.
traditional reporting is about building a
ROLODEX
j
a b c d e f
tomorrow’s reporting is about building a
NETWORK
j
A B C D E
G d
e f
turn sources into commenters
WBUR’s CommonHealth
… cont’d.
Step 3:
EXTEND THE CONVERSATION.
you have to go where the
conversation is
before you can go
where it isn’t
FORTUNE, 3/5/01
The column that felled Enron
Vanity Fair’s Bethany McLean was also at the breakfast, and she confirmed that the blogosphere is a goldmine for people like her who want to understand the [financial] crisis.
FELIX SALMON, 2010
Imagine an alternate history
