The OJB’s Paul Bradshaw begins rethinking the newsroom’s editorial process in terms of these two strengths.

On one hand, new media always allow the publication of faster news (TV and radio, than mobile and email, now moblogs…). On the other hand, the Web is the perfect medium to make journalism “potentially deeper and broader than the previous kings of context and analysis: newspapers and magazines,” says Bradshaw.

So Bradshaw maps out the new editorial process for a story in the online world, which emphasizes both speed and depth:

- Alert: as soon as news breaks, an alert is sent out by the journalist to the editor. Mobile news consumers and subscribers to email updates or live feeds are instantly notified. This alert process also give “ownership” of the news to the outlet that broke it.
- Draft: the second step is closer to a blog post than to a print or broadcast article. “Backing up the alert, the draft report - like a wire report - gives initial names, places and details - and sources. It is updated as fresh details come in. The draft performs the important role of keeping the ‘Alert’ readers on your site, but it also serves to spread word through the blogosphere,” writes Bradshaw.
- Article / Package: A middle point between speed and depth, this is essentially the classic newspaper article or 3-minute broadcast piece (so online journalism doesn’t rid itself of this traditional news package). “The editorial decision that this story was worth a spot is important when compared to the internet’s infinity,” notes Bradshaw.
- Context: the story comes back online, and is updated with context, with extensive use of hyperlinks, both to internal and external sources. The news outlet becomes a resource portal.
- Analysis / Reflection: “After the report, comes the analysis. For online this may mean gathering the almost instant reaction taking place in the blogosphere in general, on your own blogs and forums, and proactively from the informed and the affected. The person covering the story may reflect on the whole experience on their blog, while podcasts are great for staging discussion and debate,” says Bradshaw.
- Interactivity: this step may take up a lot of resources, but can also “engage and inform the user in a way other media cannot,” says Bradshaw. A forum, Flash interactive or wiki can all generate a ‘long tail’, which will drive readers long after the story is produced.
- Customization: to be automated by newspapers, so that users can tailor their news. This includes the basic subscriber services, such as email updates and RSS feeds about the story. But also social recommendation (matching a reader’s news interests to other readers who read the story) and ‘database-driven journalism’. “This means production processes that integrate things like metatagging, and interfaces that can run off a database, and last but not least, a culture that thinks in terms of these possibilities,” says Bradshaw.

Says Bradshaw: “This news diamond attempts to illustrate the change from a 19th century product (the article) to a 21st century process: the iterative journalism of new media; the story that is forever ‘unfinished’.”

Hats off. Do take a look at the original posting here.

Source: Online Journalism Blog through IFRA Executive News Service – illustration of the News Diamond by Paul Bradshaw on the Online Journalism Blog