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Workshop Registration
The Reynolds Center has announced its 2009-10 free workshop schedule.
Select a workshop and register from the drop-down menu below.
Online Seminars
The Reynolds Center registration for Fall 2009 free online seminars.
President's Message: A Vital Craft
By Andrew Leckey
The Media’s Payout
By Michelle Leder
What Matters Most
By Chris Roush
With Consumers in Mind
By Dick Weiss
Upping the Calendar's Cachet
By Jeff Bailey
What Matters Most
By Chris Roush
December 19, 2008
Business journalists need to take a step back from all of the neat Internet gimmicks they’re using and realize one important fact: It’s the reporting and the facts that still matter most.
You can Twitter all you want, post updates to all your “friends” on Facebook and blog until you’re blue in the face, but if you don’t have the facts to back up what you’re writing about, no one will care.
Yes, the journalism business is changing, and we’re all going to have to use these tools to keep readers interested. But for the most part they’re interested in our content, not in our opinion.
And as I talk to friends in business journalism, I’m afraid that we’re spending too much time sending out tweets on Twitter and updating our status on Facebook and not enough time chasing good stories. To paraphrase Marshall McLuhan, the message to our readers and viewers is not by what media it’s delivered, it’s the news.
I do all of the above -- Twitter, Facebook, two blogs. I’m what you call an early adapter to most new media formats. But to me they’re a secondary outlet to communicate with readers. And tweeting and blogging should only be done after you have the story nailed to the ground.
What I’m bothered by is seeing an increasing number business journalists spending most of their days posting headlines on Twitter and Facebook to breaking news about such issues as disgraced hedge fund operator Bernard Madoff and how much money he swindled without doing any real reporting.
They’re just taking what they see on the wire and passing it on. I’m extremely doubtful that’s what journalism, particularly good business journalism, is supposed to be about.
Let’s remember that we’re reporters and writers first, and tech geeks second or third. It’s our job to talk to real people, either in person or on the phone. It’s our job to read lawsuits and SEC filings and other documents to find the real story.
If we’re all busy tweeting and updating online, then when is the real reporting getting done?
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Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism
The Reynolds Center has announced its 2009-10 free workshop schedule.
Select a workshop and register from the drop-down menu below.
The Reynolds Center registration for Fall 2009 free online seminars.
By Andrew Leckey
The Media’s Payout
By Michelle Leder
What Matters Most
By Chris Roush
With Consumers in Mind
By Dick Weiss
Upping the Calendar's Cachet
By Jeff Bailey
What Matters Most
By Chris Roush
December 19, 2008
Business journalists need to take a step back from all of the neat Internet gimmicks they’re using and realize one important fact: It’s the reporting and the facts that still matter most.
You can Twitter all you want, post updates to all your “friends” on Facebook and blog until you’re blue in the face, but if you don’t have the facts to back up what you’re writing about, no one will care.
Yes, the journalism business is changing, and we’re all going to have to use these tools to keep readers interested. But for the most part they’re interested in our content, not in our opinion.
And as I talk to friends in business journalism, I’m afraid that we’re spending too much time sending out tweets on Twitter and updating our status on Facebook and not enough time chasing good stories. To paraphrase Marshall McLuhan, the message to our readers and viewers is not by what media it’s delivered, it’s the news.
I do all of the above -- Twitter, Facebook, two blogs. I’m what you call an early adapter to most new media formats. But to me they’re a secondary outlet to communicate with readers. And tweeting and blogging should only be done after you have the story nailed to the ground.
What I’m bothered by is seeing an increasing number business journalists spending most of their days posting headlines on Twitter and Facebook to breaking news about such issues as disgraced hedge fund operator Bernard Madoff and how much money he swindled without doing any real reporting.
They’re just taking what they see on the wire and passing it on. I’m extremely doubtful that’s what journalism, particularly good business journalism, is supposed to be about.
Let’s remember that we’re reporters and writers first, and tech geeks second or third. It’s our job to talk to real people, either in person or on the phone. It’s our job to read lawsuits and SEC filings and other documents to find the real story.
If we’re all busy tweeting and updating online, then when is the real reporting getting done?
Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism