Reporting with Style
With all due respect to them, senior and established journalists today get confused and start scratching their heads the time you mention the term “blogging” or “twitter” or for that matter any aspect of “online journalism” to them. I came across a couple of such people while I was blogging and tweeting live from the G20 summit on Thursday 2nd April at the Excel Centre. There were constant glances on my laptop screen and people asking me the whole concept of a twitter and a blog. Somehow they couldn’t understand how by sitting inside the press briefing hall, I could update my blog through my mobile. By the time most of them would come out of the press briefing hall to file a story, those who were tweeting were already narrating to the world, what was happening inside the four walls of press conference. This is where the present generation of journalists who are well versed with the latest innovations of new media are taking the lead.
Reporting by sending live updates from mobile phone is the easiest option today
In the present day world of microwave journalism, it takes just a moment for a piece of news to become stale. There is a sense of urgency to put things first and today, web is the fastest medium to so. Taking the example of the terror attacks on Mumbai in November, 2008, the web was flooded with blogs, twitter and videos posted by those who witnessed the attack. And not only them but many people who were hostages took videos of the situation inside and this was later broadcast on the national news channels. In many ways, it helped journalists to get more inside and real time information other than what they were just reporting.
The new methods of reporting, i.e., blogging and tweeting are a virtual way of bringing the world together. It adds an extra responsibility for the journalists to make sure that the information goes through the right channel at the right time. A little bit of a delay can make the news stale. And thus for those who are not very acquainted with this reality, It’s time to learn how to survive and thrive in the digital age.