We journalists want to do proper research, talk to people, and portray reality. Instead, we have become slaves to clicks, time pressure, and the obsession with digital optimization. It’s time for a cultural change.
Press deteriorated, for a task that can be performed in front of a screen, physically sitting in the same chair over and over again. The search was shortened to a Google search query and one or two phone calls, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, if applicable. People’s data is reduced to quotes to fit into a media format short enough to withstand the constant noise and endless scrolling of social media timelines. Please don’t fade for more than a few seconds Please don’t get bored Attention economy defines exactly how something must look in order for it to work, whatever that function is, it mostly means that something has been clicked, something has been converted, something What spreads quickly, ideally.
Welcome to the economy of interest. Instant gratification, instantly praised, instantly loved, clicked instantly. The press is becoming more and more digital. This not only means that it goes to virtual space and that we simply put the same thing that we have always written on the Internet instead of printing it on paper. It’s not that easy for a long time.
Online editorial training
In the beginning, the Internet was our playgroundEndless opportunity. Who wants to dispense with Wikipedia today? Or to find out in real time via social media how people behave with those who start a revolution on the other side of the world? Digitization enables us to do excellent research in the depths of the Darknet and Telegram, we can experience the Arab Spring live on Twitter, so to speak, and experts from around the world are available to us for interviewing more than ever.
But in addition to all the opportunities and design optionsthat the internet gives us, it has also brought with it negative new facts. We as media workers have to swim with them often, nervous and fragmented from a world busy producing and consuming so much content in an ever shorter amount of time. A scientist busy turning every second of his life into content. And yourself too.. a scientist who loves and often writes news about himself rather than reading it.
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