Weldon Gives Advice on New Media

April 2008 / page 5

No Country for OL

Weldon Gives Advice on Navigating New Media

By Terry Haycock, PenPonts Editor

In the brave new world of blogs and new media, experienced journalists must equip themselves with both the tools and mindset to survive.

“We have to reinvent ourselves as journalists,” urged Michele Weldon, Assistant Professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in her presentation to the IWPA gathering February 16.

“The decline of print journalism and rise of new media challenges writers to communicate their messages across today’s multi-platforms,” said Weldon, who recently published her third book: Every Man’s News: Adapting to a New World in Journalism.

“Today’s journalist needs a modernized toolbox,” said Weldon, who advised listeners to take courses at community colleges to learn how to utilize blogs, podcasts, videos and other-based media to make them more marketable.

“Get a microphone for your IPOD and learn how to text,” she said. “You don’t have to be an OL [Old Lady] in today’s world. Adding photos and videos will add value to your work.”
“Get a microphone for your IPOD and learn how to text,” she said. “You don’t have to be an OL [Old Lady] in today’s world. Adding photos and videos will add value to your work.”

Michele Weldon

The platforms for news changed and so has the content. The capacity of the Web to deliver breaking news has made print journalism “the last to cross the finish line.” As a result, journalists have to dig deeper to reach audiences.

“The focus of news has shifted to storytelling,” said Weldon. “No longer must a story just be relevant, it has to be compelling as well.”

Weldon cited the shootings at Northern Illinois University. “After the NIU tragedy, we saw stories about the shooter, his psychological profile, his family.

It was more than the news unfolding.”

Yet it was the tragedy of 9/11 that changed the style of journalism, says Weldon.

In the chaos that followed, there was no official source of news.

“We had raw reporting with a very intimate tone, these very emotional stories from the street by observers,” said Weldon.

The New York Times’ ‘Portraits of Grief ’ that profiled World Trade Center victims reflected this trend of in-depth, human interest pieces. In literature this narrative form of reporting began in the 1970s with Joan Didion and Tom Wolfe.
Another major factor in today’s journalism is that the Web has made average citizens reporters. “We are in an age that worships the amateur,” Weldon explained. “Even bloggers can get press credentials to cover national conventions.”
Weldon urged participants to get busy blogging. Though unpaid, blogging can bolster your image and go far to reinforce your personal brand of journalism. (See box below.)
An authority on women’s issues and advocate of writing as healing, Weldon is the author of the award-winning memoirI Closed my Eyes and Writing to Save Your Life.
“We can harness the power we have as experienced journalists to make our voices heard,” Weldon challenged.