The Rules Change Now

Rules are more like guidelines. Similar words were crudely spoken by some Pirates of the Caribbean, and yet, their fictional roots have more than enough staying power where we live, especially when it comes to journalism. Or, to clarify, new media journalism.

(To be perfectly clear: I'm not talking about issues of ethics, the "will I print this or will I can it?"-type issues.)

I'm talking about how the internet operates. It operates fast. Very fast. There is no way you can demonstrate how we operated on the internet in 2009 is the same as it existed in 1999. Whereas TV news looks similar in that ten-year span, newspapers as well (although admitingly, 1999's newspapers probably were a bit thicker.)

In journalism school, you learn from textbooks preaching the same principles and methods about how to work with that medium that have been passed down from generation to generation. That used to be comforting. Now, its scary. Why? The rules don't fit. Our society has shifted so much, that seeing an Associated Press story on a breaking news situation seems outdated, when we've been following the situation with many more details, on Twitter. We can send an SMS to anyone we want and share the news with anybody and publish it anywhere, and it doesn't have to be a news outlet anymore. Sources don't have to be heard through a news channel, they can start up their own web site.

A few years ago, news web sites realized that people enjoy commenting on anything on the internet, whether they deserved to or not. News sites were not the first to adapt the technologies, but, they eventually got on board. These comment systems may make you register through their own company, or perhaps make you just fill in your name, e-mail and web site every time you make a comment. Fine, right?

Except now its 2009, not 2006. In 2009, you are expected to be able to connect using your Facebook account, Twitter account, or whatever accounts you so choose. As of this posting, this is not the norm amongst news sites. Instead of being ahead of the curve, they are waiting to be on it, or behind.

The internet is proving to us that we may never know what the rules are. As frustrating as this may be to those who have been used to having a stable medium for decades straight, this allows us new opportunities we never appreciated before. The internet forces everyone to find out how the rest of us consume content, constantly.

As journalists go forward into the new world, the digital world, this will be their challenge: to continue to figure out what their audience wants, instead of deciding what their readers would like. To communicate with people, not too them. All done while conveying a sense of authority on the topic(s) of discussion. We no longer look for the voice of god from our news. We just look for a voice who knows what the heck is going on. Be that voice. Talk to people, talk with them, and listen. The modern audience may reward you for doing so, by giving you something that newspapers and radio long for: an audience.