New Media: Touchpoints
As
a matter of his own past and future, Zander Dryer ’00
is a student of “new media.” After graduating
from Yale Universi-ty, Zander wrote for Slate magazine [Slate
is an online magazine only], then continued to freelance
for Slate as he moved to write for The New Republic (TNR—print
and online). He still writes for both journals, but is working
with Peter Beinart, editor of TNR, on Peter’s book
about the history of liberalism in the United States over
the last century.
From Zander’s perspective as a practitioner,
certain facts about new media are worth
pondering:
1.
For people my age, the Internet makes it easier to break
into the [journalism] business. The appetite and need for
online content is a bottomless pit.
2.
The immediacy of the Web (to and from) is the important
thing. For instance, President Bush mentioned in a press
conference last spring that he might not necessarily appoint
a judge to the Supreme Court. My editor asked me to research
a list of the non-judges he could potentially appoint. Within
24 hours an article was posted. Writing is posted constantly,
within moments of an event; uploading occurs anytime and
all the time.
3.
In Washington, D.C., at least, Weblogs like John Marshall’s
and others drive the news cycle. Weblogs raise issues; the
mainstream media find it necessary to respond. Anyone can
start a Web site. TNR and other print publications can’t
wait until the next print cycle to react to today’s
questions and assertions.
4. On
the other hand, we have an even more serious need for journals
like Newsweek and other newsweeklies because there’s
SO much opinion. I can read 300 different people’s
opinions, but not many are thorough, reflective, fact-checked
summations of the facts.
5.
Is the public lethargic? Will they take the time to gather
news facts? In a way I’m lucky; scanning blogs is
part of my job. But on any given day I’ll scan three
papers and several blogs, online and many other people my
age do the same.
6. Screens
are ubiquitous. People my age are completely comfortable
and happy reading on the screen. I don’t want the
extra clutter of daily newspapers piling up around my apartment.
(A Washington Post survey among young people found they
wouldn’t want a paper even if it were free. They prefer
to read it online.) Screens, in the form of laptops that
use wireless technology, are everywhere; people can always
print out what they want to save.
7. Accountability?
The whole computer revolution has increased accountability:
vast databases; powerful, quick, user-friendly search engines;
hyperlinks; being forced to see who’s writing the
opposite—what arguments they use and what facts they
cite. I’m working with Peter Beinart, whose book is
based on a magazine piece he wrote. We looked to Google
to find out reaction to the article when it was published:
the reaction then informs the shape of the book that is
growing out of the article. Add to that the fact that information
can’t be “lost” anywhere (e.g., transcripts
nailed Trent Lott; attention to his past life and records
were driven by bloggers). The Downing Street Memo exposure
was driven by blogs.
8. Right
now, the line between blogging—offering your opinion—and
blogs driven by a serious political agenda, powerful political
groups, is not necessarily clear enough.
9. A blog about someone’s social life can gain a larger
readership than some of the medium-sized city newspapers
in the country.
10. People
my age are used to being presented a New York Times article
and a blog entry on the first screen in response to a Google
request. Both are presented democratically, and both have
the chance of eliciting equal attention.
11. About
the audience: Mike Kinsley, the founding editor of Slate,
and former editor of TNR, said, “Our market is the
thinking man’s solitaire.” If you have 15 minutes
to kill—click over (you’re already at a computer)
and read a piece. Bored? Procrasti-nat-ing? Click over and
read. Follow the hyperlinks. Computers are in most everyone’s
general environment.
12. Length
of articles: In spite of the open-endedness of Web (length
or articles can be unlimited), editors are very conscious
of attention span. Short (800 words, about the length of
a New York Times op-ed piece) is the goal. Does the piece
need to be longer? It can be broken into two installments
(the Web is not bound by a print schedule), or broken apart
in subsections, linked by hyperlinks.
13.
You always hear from readers. Readers write a blogpost or
send an email. The friction level between them and a response
is so low, they’ll click and comment. “You have
no idea what you’re talking about, and here’s
why.” Web writers are not different from print writers:
they enjoy heady satisfaction in having their writing stimulate
response. And—the interaction is often valuable.
14.
Where are the female bloggers or op-ed writers? Because
the currency of the Internet is the hyperlink, and writers
are connecting to one another in what are developing as
groups and networks, are we witnessing the emergence of
a new “old boys club”?
15.
The promise of the Internet was that it was a democratic
medium; as established thus far, there’s a clear hierarchy.
If your blog is linked from MSN, it gets multiples of the
highest level of connection you typically experience on
your site. If you’re linked often, you’re big-time.
Writers see numbers of click-throughs to their articles.
Those, plus numerous responses, feed the journalistic ego.
Cathleen Everett
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