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May 25, 2007
Journalism is storytelling
Journalism is storytelling: Tim Buntel dissects a shallow Computerworld article. Like Tim, I won't link to that "10 dying technologies" article, partly because of pagerank, partly because the short article is split out over five different ad-laden pages. More response at MXNA. Other wacky technews today includes: the Leo Laporte show saying "Flex costs $800" (as caught by Oliver Merk)... Washington Post knocking on Adobe Reader (that's not how you diagnose in tech support, bub)... Multidmedia Zinc responding to Apollo's change of the ecology via press release. These are all just stories -- people telling each other what they think. Back when feedback cycles were slow we could call it impartial journalism. Now, the better venues incorporate rapid feedback into their storytelling, and we realize that every speaker has a set of experiences, a set of hopes, a set of skills in storytelling that shape what they say -- and a set of stylistic differences in how fully they document their sources, and how usefully they incorporate feedback. Journalism is all just about telling stories these days, and not all stories get it right. The feedback-resistant storytellers, and the "anonymous sources" rumormongers... they gotta go, and the sooner the better.
Posted by JohnDowdell at May 25, 2007 11:01 AM
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Comments
Marketing is storytelling, too. And setting the context so stories can be heard in ways that are favorable to the marketer.
[jd sez: True, I think we *all* tell stories, try to check our understandings with others in the world. I'd hold that we should hear all arguments and rationally compare them, and that mere Authority doesn't exempt a story from providing sources and interacting with listeners.]
Posted by: George girton at May 25, 2007 01:53 PM
Jd,
I think you hit the nail on the head with your comment. Personally I am feed up with about 95% of all computer/ design/ technology magazines. It appear most articles are simply paid editorials or people's opinions. Reviews are highly unreliable to downright miss-leading.
Of course anyone is allowed to their own opinion but at the end of the day I am the one that has to deal with my clients miss-informed requests.
Journalists are complaining about the blogsphere destroying their profession. I think they only have themselves to blame.
A notable difference in the market is the German CT' magazine. They also have a very unbias news feed at www.heise.de . I don't understand why there can't a similar mag in the English speaking world.
Are UK, US and Australian tech magazine audiences really that shallow they can't read an in-depth facts based article? I think not... Perhaps it's the quality of technology Journalists in those markets.
Posted by: Tom at May 25, 2007 03:41 PM
where's the real journalism? without bias? without opinion? is it a dying craft?
Just the facts, ma'am, just the facts.
Posted by: barry.b at May 26, 2007 05:30 AM
When we think a story is untrue, we call it a fabrication - it has been fabricated or made up. Of course, all stories are "made up," constructed consciously and unconsciously by the people telling them. The diffence between "fabrications" in the bad sense (lies) and good journalism is that the latter openly reveals the source of it materials. By doing so, the storyteller says, "I'm not just making this up out of nothing. I'm making it up out of these other stories, observations, established facts, etc."
The possibility of rapid feedback - in the form of comments and commentary - enabled by the web adds another dimension to the extent that it allows others to dispute sources, add additional sources, or provide interesting perspectives. At this stage of the game I find any story that doesn't allow for this sort of feedback not just annoying but, on some level, untrustworthy.
Posted by: Matthew Grant at June 1, 2007 07:46 AM