It’s about making them much more aware that they work in a multiplatform world. They have to understand the strengths and weaknesses of all the tools in the toolbox.
It is always grounding to experience my own profession from the other side of the notepad, to see what the reporter focused on and what she considered less important or missed. This piece from Working Press is good, actually, whereas another report from NewsLab missed the mark markedly, I suspect because it appears that other reporter was not really at the presentation.
Let me clarify something, though:
I do not recommend the iPad over a laptop. I very specifically said that it was a kludge that can be made to fit the purpose marginally with the right accessories and software. NewsGear 2010 explores what those marginally enabling accessories and software are. But show me a professional journalist who insists on making the iPad his core newshandling tool and I’ll show you a journalist who doesn’t have very demanding coverage requirements or who is a little overly infatuated with the technology.
It is the same reason NewsGear 2010 does not include the iPhone. The iPhone 4 is a big improvement over previous versions in terms of its media-handling quality. Given it is all a journalist has available, it will do the job, especially if you don’t need to go anywhere with your story other than the web. But anyone who says it is the best overall mobile for journalism either is not thinking multiplatform or is being pretty lightweight in evaluating technical specifications and video/audio quality.
NewsGear’s camera recommendations this year were mostly glossed over in the conference coverage pieces. But that is where journalism technology has advanced more than in any other area. We are now seeing cameras designed from the ground up for both still and video photography without compromise. That’s a first.
See www.newsgear.info for more info (that URL kind of got left out of the articles as well).
