Evolution of print to online journalism ‘held back by lack of training’
Journalists are keen to learn new skills to cope with the changing news environment, but aren’t being given the training or resoruce to do it, a debate in Darwin heard last night.
Speaking at the Future Of Journalism debate organised by the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance at Parliament House, the union’s federal secretary Chris Warren said: “Times are tough and we are going to need to develop new ways of working if we are to survive. “Journalists are getting excited about the new trends and new technologies we are being handed. But what’s not clear is how that’s going to stack up economically. The disruption to the business model continues to be as profound as it has been rapid.
“Media owners cannot see their staff as a cost to be cut – that’s short term. They need to work out how to get the maximum value out of the considerable resource they have.”
Jano Gibson, a former Sydney Morning Herald journalist, and now web editor at the ABC in the NT, told the audience that during his time on the newspaper, the challenges of filing both a fully considered piece for the print edition and something rapid for the web site met major resistance. He said: “I saw a lot of frustration from print journalists to the point of rebellion. In the early days at the Herald it was it was overstepping the mark if you were even going to file for the web.”
Clive Hyde, former pictorial editor of the Northern Territory News, said new pressures on photographers to shoot both stills and video was similar to when editors had asked them to shoot with both black and white and colour film. “If the building’s about to blow up, do you want it in colour or black and white? Because it can’t be both.”
He said that the skills of video, that demanded, for instance, shooting the whole piece from a particular direction were different to a photographer who could roam around. But he added: “If the company gives us the chance to learn there’s nothing to be scared of.”
However, he revealed that although the equipment is already at the NT News, it is not being used. He said: “There’ve been video cameras in the drawer for a long, long time. It has not been addressed – perhaps because of union issues.”
There was a similar issue with untrained print journalists being put in front of video cameras, said Gibson. “Some journalists on newspapers now are asked to go and front of the video camera and have got no idea how to do it.”
ABC Stateline journalist Danielle Parry, who was moderating the debate, said: “I’m appalled a journalist can put a video camera in front of their face and call themselves a TV journalist.” Discussing the use of on-the-spot footage shot by untrained people, she said: “It’s fine if it’s from the public, I’m not so sure it’s fine if it’s a print journalist who’s shaking because they don’t know what they are doing. Maybe we need to be clear and label it amateur video and educate your audience about the difference.”
James Dunlevie, web editor at the Northern Territory News, said: “The journalists are quite young and use Twitter and blog and are quite happy to file a couple of pars for an early break. What’s holding them down is resourcing in the staff. There’s not the resourcing for people to constantly upload. The will is there but the means are not, which is possibly the wrong way to go about things.”
Meanwhile, Parry said: ‘Journalists have to self censor themselves and say ‘I can only do this much without compromising quality’.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Sounds like a whinge-fest by the unready and incapable. There are print journalists who have seamlessly made the evolution to online using their skills, talent and enthusiasm.
Are they working harder? Maybe. But some print journalists work harder and smarter than other print journalists anyway – they tend to be the ones who get ahead, whether print or online.
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What a sop. Not that you can expect much from the ridiculous Media union. This is a complete non-story, just a bit of froth served up from their bleedin’ obvious gabfest.
The union is always 20 paces behind the action, and always just bleats on about the same rubbish (to absolutely no effect) no matter what’s going on.
I think we could truncate this story to just four words: “Newsroom resources are tight.”
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Journos’ just get over it. You’re just late to the party!
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Why would it be acceptable for a “punter” to file footage for news sites, but not for a print journalist to do the same thing?
Danielle Parry’s comments are stuck in the dark ages, I’d rather see an online piece from a print journo than a punter. And seriously, how can she tackle the future of journalism if the age of multi-skilling managed to pass her by?
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What has been missed is that the participants (I was one) in the discussion about ‘The Changing Newsroom’ at this forum all spoke of their colleagues willingness to embrace the changes that are happening.
Although Clive Hyde commented that, in his time, the video cameras ‘stayed in the drawer’, they are out now and video can be seen periodically on ntnews.com.au
Comments here about the panel ‘whingeing’ are not quite right… although there possibly was some from certain members of the audience, who saw the ‘New Media’ (Twitter, blogs, etc) as the fourth horseman in the apocalypse of ‘quality’ journalism. I made the remark that music rebounded after punk came along, with a new energy and DIY ethic… but was told this was a bad analogy; that ‘new media’ (and Rupert in particular) was killing/had killed ‘quality journalism’. Really? There is more good stuff to read, and easier to find, than ever before.
Journos, mostly, are keen to get on with the job. Give us proper gear and training and you’ll see what we can do.
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That’s an entirely fair comment from James – I’d characterise the tone of the whole debate as “Give us the tools, show us how to do it, and we’ll do the job.”
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Hi – not a journalist myself, but a trainer – or rather in charge of the ADMA education & training division, and I’m thinking there must be an opportunity for us to train anyone who wants to know more about the digital world. Our courses tend to be delivered from a marketing perspective, but we run in-house courses on pretty much everything digital for people/groups who just want to get up to speed – and of course it can be tailored to the audience. Can anyone tell me who I should talk to in this journalism forum to explore the possibilities?
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As a print journalist since 1997, I didn’t keep up with online trends and when offered free training on a CMS system at a publishing house a couple of years ago where I was editor of a monthly and reporter/features writer on a weekly, I turned it down as I was ‘too busy’. Definitely regret that now! However, I have since embraced online and new media and if I’m ever on staff again and offered training I’ll jump at the chance. I’ve sine done a course in that same CMS system as well as writing for the web and embracing Twitter etc.
Being a freelancer has its difficulties as was discussed at the Sydney Freelance Journalists Group meeting a few months ago. Some of the older freelance print journos felt they hadn’t had the training opps offered to staffers. The MEAA said it was planning to offer online and new media training to members. Hopefully this will be at an affordable cost. If so, I’ll be the first to sign up! I’d like to learn more about video and audio for the web including podcasts. As has been said above: Give me the tools, show me how to do it and I will! 🙂
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