Briggs Chapter 3: Journalism Next
Blogs are important because they help the audience better understand an issue going on in the news. They tell stories in a simple fashion and offer other resources for the reader to do their own investigating on the topic.
Some important things to keep in mind when writing a blog are crowdsourcing, open-source reporting and pro-am journalism.
Mark Briggs says that crowdsourcing is “community power on a specific project and demonstrates how a group of committed individuals can outperform a small group of experienced (and paid) professionals” (Briggs, 69).
There are some instances in which trained professionals are necessary, however having the general public participate in something is very important because it shows how meaningful something may be to them. It also allows new and different perspectives of the general population to be put into action, which may make the community’s best interest be a priority.
Open-source reporting is the design, development and distribution of a product and its information.
New things like blogs and Twitter help journalists distribute smaller headlines of news and market themselves. Which, finally leads to pro-am journalism and talking to the audience.
Pro-am journalism is when the readers post on professional journalist’s websites and can comment about the content without being filtered.
The readers are then able to contact the journalist directly as well as discuss articles and news with other members in the community or from all over the world. This also provides new outlooks on topics and, once again, new perspective.
In the end, it is important to know what the audience wants to read as well as letting them get involved. One of the main reasons someone may turn to sources such as Twitter, Facebook, or blogging could be that they find the interactiveness appealing.
