Journalism: It’s not about you it’s about the reader

A large part of Joanna Geary’s lecture on community at the Times was given to discussing the relationship between a publication and its readership.

Citing Rupert Murdoch’s American Society of Editors Speech in 2005, she said many newspapers have lost touch with their audience and are more concerned with what the story is than who actually wants it.

By asking us to look at our own reasons for wanting to be journalists she challenged us to think about the extent to which we serve an audience.

Journalism is not about satisfying our egos but about listening to what other people want; too often we look down on the audience and think we know better.

It is tempting to seek out things we think are exciting but people should tell us what the action is and we should find out about it for them.

Newspapers need to reflect this ideal with their online presence as much as in their print.

Rather than getting obsessed with analytics, websites should look at how they represent a community of people.

In the case of the times this is made easier for them because their Paywall allows them gain a greater understanding of their audience.

Because they have a greater understanding of their customers’ wants they are able to gear their content towards them specifically.

But the main challenge the Times now faces is to develop interaction with this audience and involve them in a conversation over the future of the brand.

Palavers with a community of ghosts

There’s a radical energy underpinning what Daniel Meadows does.
From the irrepressible delivery of his presentation to the democraticising intentions of his digital story telling, it all fizzes with the same undeniable passion.
He believes the old adage that history is written by the victor.
But new media technologies gives us a way of taking part in this process.
Drawing on the work of Greil Marcus, Meadows shows the importance of documenting a history of unheard voices which differ from those heard in the mainstream.
Meadows quotes Ivan Illich to show how we are powerless in the face of media if we cannot produce our own information.
Meadows said:

“Every time there’s a new piece of technology, a new way of talking to the people, someone goes out and risks everything to do it.”

Although Meadows believes Digital Story Telling to be a recent example of this he concedes that it is less about the technology itself but about a mind set of listening not telling, of facilitating the audience’s voice. And, considering the new technologies I encounter everyday I think the potential of the latest wave of new media to empower and liberate is very high indeed.