Super ideas to save election coverage
Elections are coming up.
Before you snore through another meeting about elections, read
what Jack
Lail and Scott
Karp wrote about link journalism in the Neiman
Reports, now online.
Some newsrooms still are living in old school molds of
having the “scoop” – real “His Girl Friday” stuff from the 1920s. But Lail and Karp make good arguments for
why those notions can’t fly anymore. But
by helping readers navigate through all the voices on the web, our tradition as
a trusted source may well save us.
Karp:
“This
is not just a responsibility, it's an opportunity, for when journalists select
the best of the Web's political coverage, they are able to uphold their
standards of verifying and validating information. When newsrooms distribute
what they find on the Web, they can maintain their relevance as a destination
for people interested in politics by becoming a gateway to the best of all
political coverage, not just their own."
In
Knoxville, Lail and his folks put it to the test with great success:
“The idea was elegantly simple:
supplement presidential campaign coverage with links to other content. …
…Here's what it
took to make this happen:
·
Number of sit-down meetings: None.
·
Number of conference calls: None.
·
Number of contracts or releases: None.
·
From concept to execution: A couple of days."
So skip that meeting all together.