Training journalists online -- a response

I think paul conley is missing the point in his response to my last post.

His message would be valid if following the thought experiment "how would you build a newsroom from scratch if you had £x million?"

Certainly, other people have weighed in on what seems to me to be a technology-rich, but experience-poor, position.

Mindy McAdams has been oft-cited, but then uses her blog to expand training possibilities for people who, while perfectly adequate reporters or copy editors, "don't get" the web. Bravo. If there were more people like her in newsrooms, I doubt we would be having this debate.

Pat Thornton, as mentioned in a previous post, would do well to look up the meaning of the word "culture". Added to that, he should probably check "iconoclast" because most of the semi-religious veneration online seems to be for people who can use Facebook, MySpace, bebo, flickr and twitter rather than a telephone.

All of those Web 2.0 platforms are fantastic resources, fantastic means to promote your journalism and your chosen medium and fantastic developments in technology generally, but not one is a replacement for a well placed, well phrased, well timed question. And that, alas, is what cannot be taught. It can, however, be learned.

The fact is that most newsrooms have existing staff that do a very good job chasing stories, making calls, using contacts, etc, in order to get stories. Denying yourself their experience and ability just because you "get" a 10-year-old concept and they "don't get it" is a little short-sighted and will diminish your online efforts whether they "get it" or not.

To quote Paul, and I agree with him on this 100 per cent:

"What journalists -- all journalists -- need is curiosity, open-mindedness and a willingness to learn."

In my experience, that is what cannot be fixed by training -- the platform on which someone's work appears is irrelevant and there are bigger fish to fry.

Journalists, by and large, are employees-- newspapers are businesses. If newspapers expect a certain return from their existing staff, they have to be very clear about what they expect. If the business cannot convince the journalists of the merits of the web, that is a different story. But how many have really tried? I am reminded of the lament of Ned Flanders's beatnik parents at their inability to control an unruly child: "I've tried nothing and I'm all out of ideas".

Is it a failing of the journalists to see the light or a failure of management to make the case?

If you want to take a proactive approach, you could do worse than follow Howard Owens's advice on Objectives for today's non-wired journalist as endorsed by Jeff Jarvis.

That's just technology -- it's no mystery -- it's reasonably easily taught.

You stand to lose a lot more by sacking the technologically inexperienced web-skeptics than you do by hiring the journalistically inexperienced web-acolytes.