Online Journalism: What's in Store for Us

Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon from the Austitin American Statesman and Angela Grant from the San Antonio Express News gave a presentation today over online journalism and new media as part of Texas State’s Mass Comm. Week. The two did a fantastic job of providing a better understanding of what new media really is, how it works with traditional media in a newsroom, and clearing up any misunderstandings of what their jobs entail.

Jorge (BTW, I’m using first names because Sanhueza-Lyon is long and this is a blog so I can) began by explaining that he really didn’t have any newspaper experience when he started working at the Statesman and he felt that it was a good thing that he didn’t because he wasn’t weighed down by the straight-laced, unchanging ideals of traditional print journalism. I’m really glad that he made this point in the very beginning of this presentation. I think that a lot of us in the print journalism realm feel that we have to have some kind of paper experience even if we’re interested in new media. Personally, now that I’ve taken a few of Cindy’s classes I’m really only interested in online journalism. I don’t want to do any kind of print anymore, and I think it’s really unfortunate that we don’t have a multimedia sequence at Texas State yet.

Jorge showcased his ability to be very creative with online journalism by showing his video story “Air Guitar 101.” This interesting short video piece about the air guitar contest held every year in Austin showed that sometimes video suits an event better than a slide show. Jorge explained that there is much more opportunity to be creative with online journalism than with broadcast. With this medium you can let the story tell itself where as with broadcast an anchor might have a voice over telling the audience how things happened. “Editing is where my reporting comes in,” Jorge said. Angela expanded on this point later by explaining that the Internet might not be such a good medium for hard facts but that it’s good to portray the “human side” of an issue and to get an emotional reaction to a story.

Angela’s long-term piece, Horse Rescue, is about a nonprofit organization called Habitat for Horses that rescues abused and neglected horses. With her use of video she was able to create a story that received a very emotional reaction.

Some stories, however, aren’t as suited to video. Jorge and Angela stressed that there is much more to the internet than just being able to post video. “The beauty of the Internet is you’re allowed to pick the medium that’s best suited for the story. I love the Internet you can really do what ever you want,” Angela said.

I think one thing that a lot of us are a little confused about is how the new media people work with traditional newspaper writers. Jorge tried to make it clear that new media reporters have a separate story that can accompany a print piece. He used video story about a 14-year-old golfer as an example saying that his own personality came through in his video story. He says it’s like two different angles to the same story and that you’re not necessarily competing with the print journalist, nor is it that the new media reporter doing a favor for the writer by expanding on his story. The two are actually working separately but at the same time together on one story.

New media might sometimes have an advantage over a print writer because they can pitch a story in a different way. “Newspaper is not the driving force behind new media,” Jorge said. Angela agreed saying that because of these new media skills they are able to kind of do what ever they want. She said she was especially able to do this during her internship at the Express News because no one really knew what they were supposed to be doing.

So what do they do? Angela gave a brief description of her job routine. She said that 70-75% of her job is a deadline story. Some new media stories have deadlines just like print stories do. Angela said that the remaining 25% of her time is spent on long term projects or things that really don’t have deadlines. She said that it is good to have a long term story to turn to when there isn’t really anything else to do. “It’s a good way to avoid stupid assignments,” Angela said. Jorge agreed that there are often stupid assignments because a lot of people don’t really know what you do.

So, how will things with progress as new media becomes more and more embedded with in traditional journalism? Angela believes that reporters might begin to do their own videos for their own beats. But for more involved stories they will still rely on more specialized new media people. She believes that they will still ask the multimedia team for help with particularly tedious video editing. Jorge expanded by saying that it is important not to limit yourself to something like video and to try to have a range of skills. His advice is to try to be innovative and a little nerdy about new technology.