Credo

Think about it from every angle and decide if the good outweighs the harm. Use words precisely and carefully, the way you would a newly sharpened knife. Do not only use personal ambition as your drive, being the first to print doesn't always bring home the prize. Understand the audience and what is important to print. Be open to ideas that oppose your own, and accept criticism. Do your absolute best, though seemingly impossible, to be fair and balanced in the collection and displaying of information.

Remember two things: reading is writing, and be a human to other humans.

It is difficult to express just how intricate a person's understanding is of their goals and aims. While I know that I aspire to be “good” in all my actions, I will undoubtedly fail (even if its for a deadline!) at some point. What is important to remember is that there is always room for improvement and every failure should be viewed as a way to better one's self. I know that when I write I try my best to be balanced, to find a story and make it bland with neutrality instead of spicy with debate. While probably not the most interesting type of story to read, the challenge is making it interesting for an audience and I will have to remember to let the creative juices flow. Sticking to the facts and writing about what you know are the bottom lines. 

I don't feel like my credo captures the essence of what is in my mind, but hey...that's what updates are for.  

It gives me the heebie jeebies...

I like to envision myself as an open-minded, all-accepting reporter. I try not to judge and have always done a swell job of staying very neutral...much to the annoyance of my political science professors. They would always write in big red letters at the top of my papers, "Pick a side, and defend it!"

As an editor, the one thing I would admit makes me uncomfortable is a juicy story surrounding the death of a private citizen or someone in the military. Stories about people who are used to being under public scrutiny aren't as hard to handle. But virgins to the news world make me uncomfortable.

The sources for these stories are going through an emotional nightmare and the last thing they need are reporters shoving questions their way. But that's part and parcel of the industry. It is just hard, as one human being to another, to exploit a person's situation. It may make for a damn good story, but if I had it sitting in front of me I would be extremely nervous, and overly-cautious while reading through the story.

If I had to deal with it as an editor, I would ensure that the reporter on assignment gives ample notice to the family and friends who they are headed out to interview. Also, I would remind them to be sensitive. With the information that comes back, nothing extremely personal should be published unless it relates to the story. And things that are personal should be written in a gentle way, maybe with more of a feature edge.

I don't think there is any good way to deal with the situation, but using extreme sensitivity would be highest on my priority list.

la crème de la crème

I am a little surprised to see which sites are at the top of the list, considering my own surfing habits. It is harder to simply gauge top sites based on clicks when regional characteristics are not taken into consideration. Who are the top users in each region of the world? Each country? Are they educated people only? Which country has the most clicks? 


The way people communicate and search for information nowadays has changed. The top sites are either search engines, auction/listing sites, or social media sites. This means that we spend more time collecting information and putting up our own work, rather than simply being drones to what ever is on the internet. It is an interactive environment. In fact there are even top lists of sites that have user-generated content. But there are still "trusted sites" that have their fingers in other media. This is where the difference in top news sites comes in.


Top news sites are still mostly dependent on an established reputation in other media. For example CNN and BBC top the charts, both of which started building their reputation in TV news. But the most popular are sites that give variety, like Google News. This is because users have learned to read from many sources instead of only trusting one, especially the younger generation. Sites like this will usually have similar stories from many different sites. The sites can be from trusted news sources or blogs from news sites.


What this means for journalists is simply that their work now has the potential of reaching just about anyone in the world if they write a good article. And at the same time: you are competing with everyone else. The playing field has grown and bloggers are competing with journalists for audience attention. The way we write has to change to adapt to the medium too. Writing for print is different than for broadcast/radio, and both are different from the web. The new trend is short and sweet ( unlike this post) and by ensuring you get just the gist of the information out to the audience, you have succeeded in communication on the web.