Save the Media

Today I’m again handing my blog over to veteran journalist Amber Smith, a friend and former colleague of mine at The Post-Standard in Syracuse. In her free time, she blogs about dementia at DementiAwareness. She offers Part 2 of how old-time journalism relates to  the changing world of media.

As a veteran-journalist-but-newbie-blogger, I’m learning something new every day.
Yesterday I wrote about some of the axioms journalists sort of lived by as I was working my way through the ranks.  

Today, I’m exploring some of the common newspaper practices that I believe journalist bloggers, writing in an online world, would do well to follow. (Plus a couple I believe they can safely ignore.)

See if you agree:
 
Inverted pyramid. (KEEP)
Long drilled into journalism students, the inverted pyramid (pertinent information at the top of the story and least important at the bottom) is a style that I find even more important online. Blog readers of today, like newspaper readers of yesterday, have short attention spans, so they must be hooked in the lead of your article. Unless your subject lends itself to a lengthy narrative style, readers won’t stay with you if they believe they have to spend too much time for the information they seek.
 
Most of the posts on my blog, DementiAwareness  follow an inverted pyramid style. I don’t think this makes them boring. I think it makes them easy to read and useful, and helps give it a newsy “voice.”
 
5 W’s and the H. (KEEP)
If you’re trying to communicate, it makes sense to answer all of the basic questions: the who, what, when, where, why and how. Leave your readers with questions, and they will search elsewhere—away from your blog. Of course the answers to these basic questions can be answered in a skillfully written way. No need to quash creativity for fill-in-the-blanks. Although, just as in newsprint, when writing about an upcoming event, nothing beats a little “fact box” containing the particulars.
 
Background paragraphs. (TOSS)
Including paragraphs of background material, for the benefit of readers who were unfamiliar with the subject, can take up several column inches in a newspaper. Blogging journalists have a wonderful, wonderful tool called “links” at their disposal. If you’ve covered the subject previously, link to your work. It saves you time and space, and readers who need to be brought up to speed on the subject can easily do that with a click.
 
Whenever I write about frontotemporal dementia, the type my father has, I link to an early post in which I explained what this is. 
 
Newsworthiness. (KEEP)
General circulation newspapers and their online equivalents strive to be pretty much all things to all people. With few exceptions, they have not tried to specialize in areas beyond local news coverage. Reporters on specialty beats (such as religion, education, health, environment) have spent entire careers pitching stories to editors who challenge the news value: Who does it affect? What is the impact? Why should we devote newshole to that? Essentially: Who cares?
 
Blogging journalists with focused blogs can easily answer that question. Choose a rich niche, and you’ll never lack for something to write about. Connect with a dedicated audience, and you’ll always know exactly who cares.
 
Yes, any journalist worth his or her salt could cover anything, but I recommend choosing a subject for your blog that’s important to you. Even if you do not practice “advocacy journalism,” the passion you carry in your heart for your subject matter will come across. In addition, your genuine interest will guide you to the best stories — helping to keep your blog relevant and newsworthy.
 
Projects. (KEEP)
 In some newsrooms, the reporters who are perched highest in the pecking order are reporters on “projects teams.” They’re not bothered with daily reporting responsibilities. They concentrate on longer-term assignments, bigger stories with bigger impacts. When times were flush, even small newsrooms tried to afford projects; today, formal teams are a luxury found only in the most fortunate newsrooms. So reporters — many of whom work in newsrooms that struggle to do more with less — are left to chisel away at that big story only after their regular work is done.
 
This is sort of what journalist bloggers do, in practice. We chisel away. Our blogs are works in progress. Instead of reporting on a subject, saving up notes, writing chunks to be part of a big story, our blogs are the story. Our blogs are our project. And we may not realize the body of work we create, one post at a time, has a way of telling a bigger story.