The end of the Gutenberg era, mobile-first media, and the resurrection of radio: this week’s Fresh Powder Report
Pandering to the masses fails in the world of journalism – but it’s still unavoidable:
Treating the audience as a “mass” doesn’t work for modern journalism – providing readers with a “one size fits all” scope for media and news coverage isn’t received well by such a dramatically varied audience. Of course, with major platforms like Facebook and Twitter speaking almost exclusively to the masses, how does journalism readapt to stay customized on such wide-spread social media sites? Collaboration with big media sites, finding funding for the creation of good content to be promoted by major social media outlets, and treating that content like a “product” – one that is highly valued by the social media tycoons that it so heavily relies on for consumption.
Mobile-first isn’t forward thinking – it’s common sense:
With more readers relying on mobile news more than ever, adopting a “mobile-first” approach to news is becoming an inevitability. Thanks to new developments such as Facebook Instant Articles or Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages, journalists can publish directly to mobile-based platforms, reaching the near-90% of the U.S. mobile population that use their mobile devices almost exclusively to access news and information. Here are a few ways to make your publication even more mobile-forward, courtesy of the Knight Foundation.
Snapchatters that matter:
Still struggling to see the benefit Snapchat holds when it comes to journalism? Here are five ways to find useful Snapchat accounts to follow as a journalist, courtesy of the Online Journalism blog.
Radio lives on – and it’s likely not going anywhere:
Gareth Mitchell, presenter of popular BBC radio program “BBC Click,” wants you toignore people who tell you radio is dead, asserting that radio will remain a major media outlet until major technological advances are made that can eliminate the need for it altogether. And, since that doesn’t seem like it’s happening anytime soon, he explains that as long as you’ve got an interesting way of putting information out into the radio-sphere, people will still want to listen to it. He argues that podcasters and broadcasters alike must constantly be thinking about their listeners above everything else – why does this content matter to your audience? The ability to curate relevant and interesting interviews, or read a script in a way that sounds natural without getting hung up on small mistakes is crucial, according to Mitchell – and, if you can do this, you’ll still be able to find success in what so many other journalists write off as an outdated medium.
On standing with Gawker:
“I have seen journalists I respect claim that Gawker’s brand of journalism is cruel and hence “good riddance.” I understand this point of view. Gawker’s outing of Mr. Thiel as gay was cruel. On a lesser scale, the attacks on me always seemed as if the writers were talking about a fictional creation named “Stephen Marche.” In their eyes, because I was a columnist at Esquire, I must therefore be a younger, lousier version of Norman Mailer. It bothered me that they never caught the actual mistakes that I made. They weren’t reading me closely enough to hate me for what I deserved to be hated for. But we are all living in a world in which the quality of sentences in a book matters less than the collar of the shirt you’re wearing on the back cover. Gawker reflected that change; it didn’t make it.” – Stephen Marche via The New York Times
This things also happened last week:
Amber Heard’s lawyer is tired of the victim being depicted as the villain – a miscasting that is manifesting strongly in Heard’s divorce process, involving claims of domestic abuse at the hand of her former husband Johnny Depp.
If being the mother of dragons doesn’t pan out, Emilia Clarke has an idea for her next major role – portraying the first female James Bond.
Stephen Hawking doesn’t understand Donald Trump – but he does understand the severity of climate change.