A story is a social object
Mark Comerford
Mark Comerford established Europe’s first online newspaper in 1994 when he launched the website of Sweden’s biggest daily newspaper Aftonbladet.
He initially moved to Sweden in the early 1980s to work as a welder and a shipbuilder before moving to work in the digital world.
Since then he has spread his journalism knowledge across the globe teaching people from Africa to Britain how to get the best out of the Internet and digital technologies. He is a keen advocate of the notion that journalists should not be confined by what technology can currently offer, but rather make technology work for them. (Source: The Journalism Leaders Programme.)
In a Google Talk chat session Mark answered some questions about the future of newspapers and journalists.
D Damyanov: Do you believe newspapers will become obsolete and be entirely replaced by news websites?
M Comerford: No.
DD: Why not?
MC: Lol. OK. I think we will see a number of things happening to newspapers over the next few years, and maybe even quicker. A number of them will die as paper products. A number of them will migrate totally to the web. (And the fact that every household in the country [DD: the UK] will be guaranteed access to broadband Internet will accelerate and consolidate that change.) Some of them will become bi-weekly. Then there will be a two-tier series of papers. The free ones like Metro (which will probably be one of the few to continue making money) and top-level ones that come out on Saturday and will be analytical, deep, long and expensive. These will attract top-level advertisers and will be used as both an info service for the upper-class/educated etc and as a symbol in the same way watches are: “Look at me! I am discreetly telling you I belong to the wealthy and educated and influential, but not flashy.”
DD: So you mean paper will stay because it is tangible and can be easily used as a status symbol, unlike a digital publication?
MC: Yes. And that transition will be staggered, different speeds for the transition in different economic regions depending on a huge number of factors.
DD: Such as?
MC: Take China and South Africa. Both are new markets, both have seen an increase in newspaper launches, both have rising literacy levels. There will be an increase there but the cycle — new, grow, stagnate, die — will be much faster as there will be parallel growth in digital at the same time.
DD: Where do journalists fit into this picture? What is the future of the journalist ten or twenty years from now?
MC: There is a great future for journalists as story tellers/curators. There will be a load of new initiatives in regional and local digital-based products and they will need journalists.
DD: Yet right now it seems as though the industry does not need (or cannot afford) to have as many journalists?
MC: It is the monolith media that has structural and cyclical problems, not journalism per se. Though there is a problem in the perception traditional journalists have about what they do and what they are that needs to be addressed.
DD: If you were to explain it to them in one sentence what would it be?
MC: You’re fucked.
Can I use three sentences?
DD: Please do.
MC: Journalists are story builders. Those who build their stories best and understand that a story is a social object will survive.
DD: Will there be a third sentence?
MC: A social object implies that the story is a collaborative effort.
You can follow Mark’s updates on Twitter or find him in your favourite social network (he is markmedia in all of them). His blog is a great read.
A story is a social object http://www.story-review.com/?p=121
Thought-provoking and essential reading, Dilyan and Mark.
We journos don’t think twice of asking our colleagues for help with an intro, advice on who best to contact, or for a phone number; yet we so often shy away from asking the wider world – a place where we would find so many more able collaborators for our story.
This, despite the demonstrated wisdom that crowdsourcing is a successful and collaborative way of researching and spreading information.
Sending a story out into the world without its coat buttoned and shoes tied a really exciting idea, because it gives so many more people the opportunity to dress it up in their own ways.
Things are changing, and it’s great when you see ‘Eureka’ moments happening in a newsroom. We just need to see more of them happening across all tiers of the editorial structure.
Alison, thanks for your comment.
I think one of the reasons why many journalists are so reluctant to collaborate with their readers is because they feel only trained, professional journalists are entitled to doing journalistic work. This is, of course, bollocks, but obviously a pair you cannot easily kick.
I’ve blogged about this and there has been a very heated discussion on the topic over at http://www.joannageary.com.