This isn’t based on scientific research, just my own observations, but I’m willing to bet few professions require multitasking the way journalism does.
A successful reporter, editor, photographer or page designer has impressive multitasking talents. You might be working on 10 different projects at one time, all requiring the same degree of concentration and skill.
But until fairly recently, unless you worked at a very small news organization, you didn’t cross lines very often from one specialty into the other. Reporters wrote stories. Photographers took pictures. Editors checked stories, wrote headlines and did layout of the pages.
Goodbye to all that. Hello future.
The definition of “multi” in multitasking is growing daily due to the Internet. A field that always demanded flexibility is calling for it to the max.
Reporters and still photographers are shooting video to go with stories. Reporters are posting updates directly to the Web site and writing headlines. Editors, who might have only read and corrected the copy of writers, are now writing for the Web, too.
While some newsroom dinosaurs (including yours, truly) might be are having trouble adjusting to the new way of doing things, newcomers are getting baptized pretty quickly into the changes in the business, or are entering the newsroom expecting something much different than what existed a few years ago.
Shannon Rahe is a newsroom intern from the State University of New York at New Paltz. She works at the City Desk, the nerve center of any newspaper and has a front-row seat to the media convergence of news media. All day, she hears talk about updating Web stories, getting video and preparing stories and photos for the next day’s printed edition.
The senior’s bylines are piling up, much to her surprise since she said she expected to be treated more like a gofer than a journalist during a college internship. But there’s been no getting coffee.
She said she’s learned journalists have to be ready to cover anything, and that there’s no such thing as a snowday in a newsroom. That fact has always been true, but it’s even more than ever with modern technology in the picture. She worked from her dorm room during the big storm, getting information and e-mailing it to the City Desk for use in storm-related updates.
Video helps tell the story
One of our best examples of the new multitasking is Christina Williams, who was hired last fall to be the archivist, or librarian. But she also had training at Dutchess Community College in video production and post production, and has jumped in and worked on a number of video assignments from the start.
She credits DCC Professor Camilo Rojas with advising students they needed training in all kinds of media to be prepared for the changes in the news industry.
Williams said one of her biggest challenges was shooting video at the memorial service for the slain Morey family in Fishkill because it’s so obvious why you’re there if you have a video camera on a tripod.
That is a huge change for print journalists, who once scurried around with notebooks and pens hidden in their pockets. They’re getting a taste of what it’s like for TV journalists to have the video camera always present.
“Some members of the family greeted me warmly, but some at the memorial were not as kind. Someone asked, ‘Do you really need to videotape this?’ ” Williams said.
Her short time in a newsroom has made her realize reporting isn’t just a writing position anymore.
“It’s a creative position. Although the medium may change, the end result is the same. The news is there to inform and inspire through whatever vehicle works at the time for a particular audience,” she said.
The Journal, following the lead of many other newspapers, is getting ready to launch blogs that will let some staffers and some people in the community talk with each other about niche topics as often as they want. Web logs, or “blogs” are online diaries that are written in short, conversational bursts.
Stay tuned for more updates on newsroom changes and blogs. They’re coming fast and furious and editors want your feedback as they happen.
Any comments or suggestions can be sent to this column by phone, e-mail or letter.
