I love the smell of ink ruboff in the morning
I like to tweet once a year, whether I need to or not.
This will gain me a few new nicknames, I’m pretty sure. Dinosaur, Troglodyte, Luddite and Idiot come to mind. Well, okay, I’ve been called Idiot before.
It’s quite possible, after this, that I’ll also be called to the publisher’s office.
Here’s what I think: newspapers should get the hell off the Internet. Life isn’t a video game; it’s serious stuff, intended for adult audiences.
Newspapers pay good money to people to write stories and take pictures, then we hand the stuff over free of charge to the freeloaders on our website.
A day later, we give it to our paying customers. They’re the ones who still love the smell and feel of ink rub-off in the morning, who faithfully make up 90 per cent of our readership.
Really, what would be lost? Reporters, instead of spending City council meetings texting and tweeting each other about the colour of the mayor’s tie and what time they’re meeting for beer, would have to get back to work and write some real copy.
Some of the knuckle-dragging conspiracy theorists — you know the ones I mean, the nasties who hide behind nicknames and populate newspaper websites with their abusive invective, for that is the sum total of their life skills — would have to go outside once in awhile and breathe some fresh air.
Maybe they’d pick up a newspaper, in which case they’d be a thousand times better informed than they are now.
Newspapers are not about instant news; they’re about depth and breadth. The adolescents graduating from J school think in-depth is 140 characters, including silly contractions. That, apparently, is the limit of their attention span.
They think civilization is hanging on their next tweet. I say to them, if you want to do something outstanding with your Twitter app, start a revolution. Otherwise, give it up. You’re ruining journalism.
It’s not about context any longer, or even accuracy. Like children anxious to be the first to tell the latest gossip, reporters have joined the rumour-mongers and half-truthers who spread falsehoods and innuendo just because they can.
I tweet about once a year, whether I need to or not. Pretty much every day, I get email messages saying so-and-so is now following me on Twitter — I think some people appreciate not getting bothered with unwanted information.
We’re so focused on sending and receiving “breaking news” that I truly think we’ve lost our ability to figure out what’s important.
In the old days, you could thumb through the paper, scan the headlines and set your priorities. Nowadays, if there isn’t an app for that, forget it.
I confess I implemented Facebook and Twitter for this newspaper a couple of years ago in a moment of insanity (from which I’ve fully recovered), before I came to realize that people who walk around staring at their smartphones have fallen victim to the lure of gadgetry and keeping up with the Jobs’s. They’re the ones who stood in line for Polaroid cameras and Sony Walkmans; now it’s anything that begins with ‘i.’
I say, let us throw off the shackles of electronic slavery and get back to telling stories accurately and thoroughly, for people who care, in full sentences.
www.armchairmayor.wordpress.com
On Twitter @melrothenburger
ArmchairMayor.ca 
I agree with a lot of what you said. It seems that as we transition deeper into the digital age, with smartphones and Internet connections now ubiquitous, we’re losing some of our “depth and breadth.” Nicholas Carr makes a similar argument in The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains (nominated for the non-fiction Pullitzer), and Roy MacGregor at the Globe and Mail wrote a similar article (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-thumbing-down-of-sportswriting/article2225503/) about the loss of quality writing in sports journalism, as blackberry-ism sets in and all that matters is the latest trade and the score last night.
But I think that as is the case with any transition, we’ll eventually figure it out, ending up in some moderate middle ground, and quality writing will still exist in some form, it may just be a bit different. Twitter is a new medium, and is serving the function that the newsstand or the front page of the paper used to serve. It provides headlines. But now, the headlines have links.
The media outlets that use Twitter properly (BBC, Scientific American, NASA, Mashable, The Huffington Post, and many, many more) know this, and they use Twitter to post headlines, with links to their websites, which can be considered the pages of the paper, in some sense. There are still articles with depth, they’re just becoming a bit fewer and farther in between. Hopefully they don’t disappear completely.
LikeLike
dislike. ;)
All jokes aside, I think you make a good point when you write about journalists racing to get stories out and accuracy being compromised. There appears to be a chaotic “rat race” mentality, and no doubt technology has increased the pressure and pace.
However, overall I disagree with your opinion on technology and news. I don’t think reading the news online makes a person any less serious or adult. I can appreciate the enjoyment one can find in reading an actual physical paper, but I personally prefer to sit down with a cup of tea each morning and read the articles online. There is something to be said for being able to click on links that provide more information, or for being able to compare various newspaper’s articles all written on the same topic. If I don’t know what something means I can instantly look it up and return to an article with a better understanding of what the author is saying.
I have found Twitter to be a wealth of information that has helped me develop as a professional. Its allowed me to find articles I otherwise would not have come across, given me the chance to read about both sides of a debate, and even helped me find out about conferences I’m interested in attending. I think Twitter’s usefulness depends on who you are following, and how often you engage in the dialogue. Tweeting once a year will not allow you to develop those relationships with other members, or to really understand what is going on. Consider thinking of it like a comments section / letter to the Editor, except everyone’s letter is published and one NEEDS to keep the information focused.
I admit I have wondered whether the English language is being destroyed, but have come to the conclusion that it is merely changing, like it has changed before. I kind of like its new playfulness.
LikeLike
I too may be called a dinosaur! Although I am responding to you electronically… so maybe we’re not extinct yet. As a subscriber to KDN I enjoy reading t he newspaper and enjoy conversation with my wife regarding the articles as we read them together. It’s amazing how we both read the same news but often come up with different perspectives. Go figure! Although I don’t, my wife goes through the flyers and knows where to find the bargains for almost anything and what stores have the best prices. Imagine trying to source all that information on the internet! As a KDN subscriber I also get the electronic copy, but definitely prefer the printed copy. The newspaper has more content, and I’m not subjected to the vitriol of the postings in the electronic opinions and comments. I have an e-reader which I hardly use. I prefer to browse the bookshelves in the bookstores and select my favorite authors and magazines. I also have a cellphone that allows me to receive text messages. I don’t understand why anyone would want to text a message when they can just call me on the phone…and I guarantee they will get an answer to a phone call before they get a text response from me (due in some measure to the fact that I don’t understand their shorthand). And, when you`re finished with the paper you can use it to clean windows, pack up junk in boxes, use it for mulch in the garden, and keep the weeds at bay!
LikeLike