“Write in recollection and amazement for yourself"
-Jack
Kerouac
One of the professional journalist’s safety nets, the sub-editor,
is beginning to disappear. As large newspaper and media corporations struggle
to adapt their old world approaches into the modern context, jobs are being cut
and slashed throughout the newsroom. Though it might save the company and their
shareholders a few dollars, it is far from best practice in journalism, and as
a result the role of the modern journalist has been forced to conform.
In addition to strong written skills, journalists must also be
web-savvy, be able to film and edit video as well as provide round the clock updates
via social media. However, while these crafts are all crucial for the
modern-day journalist, it is the decline of the sub-editor that has defined one
of the more important skills: self assessment.
The hunger for news has become insatiable; 24/7 television
networks compete with constantly updating news websites and social media
platforms that anyone can contribute to. In many cases the importance shifts
from having the best coverage, to having the first. For example, when US
congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords, was shot in Tucson, Arizona in January this
year, the NPR team covering the story incorrectly reported her shooting as
fatal – this was subsequently echoed throughout the other media platforms
sending the false information into a snowball effect. The pressure for an
exclusive overshadowed that of quality journalism, and in this case, placing a
greater value on self assessment would have prevented one of journalism’s most
painful recent mistakes.
While that is a major case of self assessment failing in modern
journalism, it can occur at every level. As well as inspiring writers and
journalists to grow some ill-advised facial hair and spend countless nights
kissing the bottle, one of Ernest Hemingway’s legacies remains his quote, “the
first draft of anything is shit”. This goes beyond fact-checking and looking
for spelling and grammar mistakes – in news journalism there are issues of bias
and quality that also reflect the strength of reporting.
In a media landscape that allows for easy self publication, the
importance of self assessment has never been more paramount. One of my
favourite writers is Jack Kerouac, a man who sat at a typewriter and typed for
days at a time. In the 1950s he would tape sheets of paper together creating
scrolls that stretched over 100 feet and eventually fill them with words that
flowed unfiltered from his brain to his fingertips. His prolific methods are
not dissimilar from the blogging world of today – people type about whatever
comes to them and with the click of one button have it available for the world
to read.
As easy as it would be to mimic Kerouac’s approach to writing, it
is incredibly risky in modern journalism. Taking a moment to read, re-read and
then amend your work might not put you first past the post in the sprint to be
published, but that is not the race to be won. Instead, remember Hemingway’s
words, and contribute quality, not quantity. Self assessment might not be
something you can easily add to your c.v., but it has quickly become one of the
most important skills for any journalist.
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