Tomorrow's News, Tomorrow's Journalists

TNTJ August 2009: Rebooting TNTJ

Megan Taylor is a web developer, multimedia producer and journalist looking for work in New York City.

This month, TNTJ is asking for help. Over the last few months, postings have dwindled, and it’s time to get people motivated again.

The problems that TNTJ faces are not unique. It is the problem we face every time we try to create a community. Look at all the Ning communities that have been created for journalists. How many are still active?

Last month’s topic was “Have you fallen out of love with blogging?” There were a couple of responses, most of which seemed to say “We like blogging, but Twitter is faster and easier.”

I totally sympathize, as my own blog has been neglected. But I don’t agree. Blogging is for long-form discussion, rather than the short bursts of lazy links we all get on Twitter. (Mind you, I’m not hating on Twitter, but it is hard to get ideas into 140 characters.)

I don’t think I’ve ever seen more than 5 or 6 responses to a TNTJ question in a given month. Unfortunate, because I would love to get to know the other participants and hear what they are working on, learning and thinking.

I think that the topics have been lukewarm and mostly aimed at students. I don’t know how many students make up the TNTJ circle, but those narrow topics make it hard for graduates and out-of-work journalists like myself to contribute. Some of the topics have also been so narrow that the responses are kind of obvious and predictable.

TNTJ is also considering adding a podcast to the mix. Again, the success of this endeavor will rely entirely on the community. Will enough people be able to contribute? Will people have different opinions that will make these discussions interesting?

If the topic were interesting, I would listen. I would definitely participate in any discussion I thought I could contribute to.

What else can TNTJ do to stimulate discussion?

I think one of the major problems is the lack of mission. What is TNTJ trying to accomplish? Just gathering young journalists together isn’t enough of a mission statement. We need something to work toward.

What are we, as young journalists, trying to accomplish?

I believe that like most journalists at this time, (indeed, most people) we are trying to make places for ourselves in a changing world, while exerting what effort and influence we have to make that world better.

There are two major parts to this: seeing where we are, and seeing where we will go. That is what we should be discussing every month.

Some ideas for future topics:

• What new projects and experiments are you watching or working on?
• What technologies are emerging and how will they affect journalism?
• What are you learning?
• What are the elements of journalism that we should expand upon in order to do our jobs better?
• What business models might support journalism in the future?

TNTJ July: Value posts only, please

David Molloy is the Editor of Trinity News, the student newspaper of Trinity College Dublin.

So, I’ve been quiet on Twitter, quiet on Facebook, and quiet on blogging. So, it seems, has everyone else I follow in the student media. This isn’t a “I’m sorry, I’ve been trying to think of things to post” message: you’ll get no such response from me. I haven’t posted because recently I’ve had no value to add to those who subscribe to my various messages, and if there’s one thing every post should contain, it’s value for the listener.

As young aspiring journalists, we’re a busy bunch: I’ve spent my summer variously juggling setting up a newspaper with some attempts at freelance work in a competitive market and a part-time job to alleviate debts. What with one thing and another, my Google Reader inbox stands at 84 unread items (and it’s been “marked as read” many times). That’s fine. I’ve been too busy using the extended stretch of summer to improve some core skills. But I haven’t been reading. I haven’t been staying informed. So, who on earth would want to read my ill-informed opinions?

Social media is a two-way process: a relationship of sorts between content creator and audience. Creating content merely because one feels one should is pointless, if there’s nothing to be said. The recent explosion in popularity of the Twitter platform has led to a sad self-indulgence on the part of many media types I’ve been following: journalists and students, egos inflated by their growing number of followers, now seem to be taking this as an invitation to comment on their lunch each and every day, what movie they’re currently watching, or how drunk they happen to be. I’m sorry, but I don’t care. I’ve found myself slipping into this trap occasionally, and for that reason I’ve refrained from posting for the sake of it.

Essentially, I’ve made a conscious decision to refrain from publishing, reading, and commenting on blogs and posting on Twitter. I know I haven’t been doing it, and it’s ok to intentionally ignore it. Hopefully, that’s the same reason that many others on the blogging circuit have been quiet. It’s a far, far better thing to have a slow stream of quality content than a barrage of meaningless drivel. Content curation has been talked a lot about lately: for some of us, it’s time to practice it. The next time your mouse moves to the “Tweet” button, ask yourself: what value am I providing?

TNTJ August: How can we spice up the blogging ring?

We’re one year old this month. And, as you probably have noticed, the postings have been slim during the last few months. We have some theories why and would like to know what we can do to fix that. Any insights would be greatly appreciated – we’re here as a forum and outlet for you all.

For example, would you prefer a more broad monthly topic instead of a question? Weekly topics? More focus on current events?

On a related note, you might have seen on Twitter that we’re considering adding a TNTJ podcast to spice things up. Let us know if you

A) Like the idea and would listen

B) Would be interested in participating

We’re thinking between a frequency of monthly and weekly, which would depend on several factors, but we would need to be sure we have enough people and interest.

By the same token, if you’re no longer interested in blogging (or not interested podcasting), we’d like to know — and know what you would be interested in contributing to as part of TNTJ.

So, guess what? This is the August topic. A public discussion so you can all comment and build off of each others idea. Of course, if you’d like to respond privately by e-mail to greglinch [at] gmail [dot] com, that’s welcomed too.

We look forward to hearing from you!