As the definition of journalism is changing, so is our understanding of what constitutes a news story.
Technologists, reporters and citizen journalists continued to push the boundaries of innovative storytelling this year.
Whether it was a traditionally print media company’s approach to more multimedia storytelling or a private oil company’s push to expand its transparency by providing live online video feeds, 2010 news consumers digested vital information in the most interesting of ways.
This is a great collection of innovative storytelling. A lot to be learned here. But there was more to many of these stories than just these websites. The NYTimes’ “A Year at War” was part a larger coverage effort that included print. CNN’s “Home and Away” database tied in with broadcasts on the topic. (I’ll reserve comment on whether Groupon advertising is really what news consumers consider in their own minds as journalism – and they are the ones that define it, not us.)
The point is, not to take anything away from these examples, I’d love to see an award program or recognition that is not so monomedia. News consumers don’t live just on websites. Broadcast, print, mobile, social and even such emerging platforms as news-oriented games, simulations and apps are also parts of their media spheres. When they get interested in a “story” and follow it between formats, to them it is all one story. Only we in the industry seem to segregate attention by format. A well and properly produced story, really considering the audience and striving for journalistic impact, is and must be multiplatform unlike ever before. Recognize that.
