To be a Journalist today you have to be adaptable. You have to try and be at the forefront of not only the news but of new media tools. You have to be a quick thinker, smart editor and a whizz with a computer! I have recently been using Storify an online curation tool used to help people 'make sense of what others post on social media' (Storify mission statement). The concept behind this new platform is that there are many voices on social media that should be heard on main stream media, thus Storify was created.
By searching for specific links to the story I was trying to curate, I was able to discover a broad range of opinions on the topic. I was able to discover videos that told elements of the story from one perspective and find tweets that told it from another. I pulled this information together creating an interesting story with lots of opinion, while adding in my own thoughts in between.
The problem with Storify though, is that its just linking information together from social media without any verification. You are trusting the sources you get your information from to build up a picture to the reader, while this is interesting it could be a dangerous tool for the legitimate journalist. The service itself could be useful but anyone can make a Storify story; without checking sources how does the audience know what information to really trust? Personally, I don't see the long term advantages of using it...but it is a fun tool to use and I created some interesting stories using it.
A modern Journalist must be able to have tools at his disposal to give lots of information but should also be able to verify the legitimacy of the story. If we don't keep this side of journalism at its very core, then there will cease to be a need for 'professional journalists' because anyone can do the job!
No comments:
Post a Comment