Briggs Chapter 10

Chapter 10 of Mark Briggs’ “Journalism Next” textbook discusses the changes that journalists face with the onslaught of social media networks and other online communities in regard to their news reporting.

Instead of just reporting the news to a mass audience via television in a lecture style, Briggs says that journalists now have to become more conversational.

One part of this new feature of reporting online is the addition of user comments to a story.  Sure, a viewer could always call a television station and comment on a news story, but now they can comment online and other viewers (and, possibly, the reporter or other station personnel) can reply with their own comment.  This way, the journalist is critiqued by his or her audience up close and personal.

Websites that allow this feature include CNN and NBC 4 Washington.

Briggs explained one situation where a Knox County, Tenn judge was asked by a defendant to order local media to discontinue the commenting feature on their websites in pages that related to the case.  Briggs claimed that the defendant didn’t mind if the websites continued the commenting, as long as it was tied to a real identity, not an anonymous screen name.

The benefits to news as a conversation, according to Briggs, includes the ability to be transparent while reporting a story.  It can also allow story readers or viewers to comment on a story as soon as they read it.  It also allows stories to spread from person-to-person, maximizing a news operation’s audience exponentially.