The Modern Journalist

Killing News (Softly) With Boredom

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While I’m unhappy with the nature of traditional news today, I’m more distraught by the idea that journalists believe technology — and particularly the Internet — are the main reason behind the destruction of the Fourth Estate.

I read about 150-200 newspapers and blogs each day (thank you RSS Reader) and on any particular day, I share 10-15 stories about the negative effects of technology on our institution. That drives me up a wall because its a simple analysis to what I believe is a far more systemic problem: the news today is written and researched poorly.

William Hartnett, the online innovations editor at the Palm Beach Post, has written a piece address exactly this problem:

All of which is to say that they were not driven away from the printed newspaper by disruptive digital technologies, at least not primarily. No, they were driven away by our industry’s old problem, the one that was killing us before we found a more convenient villain online: We’re boring. Predictable. Thin in our coverage, and often intellectually lazy and shallow.

Which I think is a more succinct — and nicer — way to say what this blog, my book and the social network is trying to get across.

The idea of news has always been in my blood, so much so that when I left the traditional media to take my college teaching gig I made it clear that I would continue to write daily news. I’ve done that with MIT’s Technology Review, the ECT News Network and now Marketing Shift. I can’t pull myself away from it.

However, I’ve never felt like I was able to do the job exactly the way that I wanted to. I know there is data available on the Web — and frankly, I should build my own databases — that would enable me to more easily see patterns, cull information and find stories if I just had the time and the skill to do that.

I’m sitting next to a Microsoft Access book, which hasn’t been cracked obviously, because as part of my learning curve, I know I need to continually upgrade my skill set. But I’m never going to be as good — and efficient — as my programming colleague when it comes to setting up databases.

Likewise, he will never be as good at understanding what data is where and how I should go about finding it.

Instead, I run from fire to fire, writing up news of the day in terms of technology and culture. It’s always at a breakneck pace which leaves me wondering what I missed, that same hollow pit that’s in every reporter’s gut.

Which leads us to writing stories we KNOW are irrelevant simply to fill the news hole. And our readers get that too. They understand we aren’t essential because they can simply find the data they need online to answer the questions they need answered. If we aren’t providing them a service — which means writing in-depth, smart stories about their world — then we aren’t necessary; Google can fill their informational needs in a much more timely and directed manner.

For some, that may appear as if technology is killing the news.