In this period of fundamental change within the press, there is a question mark over the real role of tomorrow’s journalists in a world where everyone has become a content producer and where access to “top stories” is both free and immediate.
The news industry feels threatened, and rightly so. In a profession that has tended to sit on its laurels, fear has led to even greater stasis, exacerbating the apparent inability to respond to change; journalists are professionals in asking questions, but they have struggled to find answers to the doubts hanging over their own their future.
Historically, newspapers and journalists have been valued for two things: discovering news and putting it into perspective. In the written press, principally the daily papers, the choice of subject matter is now often left to the big news agencies and, due to economic pressure, lack of space or perhaps because they are only providing a “minimal service”, the bit about editorial staff putting the news into perspective has become conspicuous by its absence.
Having risen to the elite status of artists who create original information, journalists have gradually settled down to the business of distributing messages that they did not produce, or perhaps did not even pick out. To recover their lost credibility in the eyes of the public, and their own belief in the importance of their profession, their future must on the one hand involve a return to their roots, to the production of exclusive, unique news stories, and on the other hand adapt the conceptual role of the media and of the talented individuals working within it.
To continue the artistic metaphor, journalism 3.0 will be neither the work of a pure artist nor a mere go-between, but rather that of a curator of the news stories deemed the most original, credible, verified and interesting to the public. Their role, and the role of each aspect of the media offering its own angle, will be to put the facts into perspective, to deliver in-depth analyses, to use their talent and experience to incorporate relevant information (rather than merely being the hundredth person to reproduce it) so as to publish unique, original content, thereby creating meaning.
In a society built on knowledge, the creation of value no longer comes from the quantity of information, but its quality. Marking a change of depth, this new role could re-motivate editorial teams and enable the structural transformation they need. Whether on paper or digital, representatives of the media and their own particular brand are always associated with a thematic added value that is of relevance to a particular target audience. Fulfilling these expectations is the key to succeeding with the public, and therefore financially too.
Clement Charles, CEO & Founder, AllTheContent News Agency