Rethinking newsroom information flows

Paul Bradshaw over at Online Journalism Blog has written a great proposal of what a newsroom of the future – or better yet today – could look like.

This “information flow,” as he calls it, might not work for every newsroom. Heck, it may not work for most, but he takes a fresh look at how we can re-allocate journalists’ time and energy.

Here is how Paul sums up the typical approach to changes in newsroom structure::

The strategy of many news organisations so far has been to simply require existing journalists and editors to do more – to make videos and podcasts, take photos and write blogs; to scour social networks and forums and video sites; to encourage user generated content and audience participation.

He sees things differently:

In this part I want to look at personnel – and how we might move from a generic, hierarchy of ‘reporters’, ’subs’ and ‘editors’ to a more horizontal structure of roles based on information types. … I’ve identified 6 journalist roles based on 3 core types of information that I see journalists dealing with in a networked environment.

Why I like his proposal

He includes jack-of-all-trade reporters as well as specialists in his proposal.

As a student, I often get seemingly conflicting advice: “Specialize, specialize, specialize” or “Do it all: audio, video, print, databases, Flash.” For most journalists, achieving both just isn’t possible. Paul incorporates the jack-of-all-trades types in his MoJo and Multimedia Producer roles, as well as data-miner specialists.

(For related thoughts on the specialist vs. do-it-all approaches, see Will Sullivan’s post on “fuck you” “peace out” skills.)

He incorporates databases, which newspapers can more easily pull off than individual bloggers.

This is where journalists have a comparative advantage, in my opinion. I am certain some individual bloggers could incorporate databases of information. However, I would venture to guess they make up a small percentage of the blogging community. I think a larger percentage of news outlets could – or should – be able to take a large amount of information, such as public records, and make it searchable online.

He embraces social media and collaboration as an essential part of reporting the news.

Journalists are no longer just talking at the audience, but talking with them.

It might not be the cure-all, but …

… an restructuring how you report and deliver news can allow journalists to focus their energy on what they really need to be producing. His proposal doesn’t advocate just tossing new duties into a system that was formed with a print product in mind. It suggests a way to re-allocate resources in a more efficient, multimedia newsroom.

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