Viral Opportunities for Journalism

The extraordinary circumstances of a pandemic and the widespread isolation we are enduring presents challenges — but more so new opportunities — for journalism and journalism education. We can use this moment to rethink what we do and why.

First, given the challenges, it is vital that journalists cut back to the essential value of reporting. Ask whether what you’re doing actually informs the public. Ask whether what you’re assigning endangers the journalist and the public.

This means that we should, for starters, get rid of the meaningless TV location shot. I saw a poor sod standing in Times Square for 11 hours yesterday, reporting for MSNBC, telling us that, well, there were still people there, just not as many as usual. Why? How did that improve my chances of surviving the pandemic? What information did that add to my decision-making? What did the reporter gather that a static webcam could not have? Nothing. And how much did it endanger him and his crew? We can’t know.

I see print reporters going out to ask people how they feel standing in line for toilet paper. And photographers are sent out to get pictures that tell us there are lines of people waiting for that toilet paper. Same question: Why? What does that tell me that affects my decisions? So stop. The world is not a stage and journalists are not set designers. Stop treating…