The rules of journalism have been rewritten, Waleed Aly said last week at the annual Andrew Olle Lecture. He outlined the struggle between writing for hits, and writing for purpose.
The two core values that have emerged in journalism in the online age are “speed and shareability” he said, but while they offer new ways to measure journalism’s successes, they also raise fundamental structural problems that erode the quality of media coverage. Basically, the hunt for clicks is undermining journalism.
I was lucky enough to be a guest at the Andrew Olle lecture, invited by Nine Entertainment.
The Olle Lecture, for those that don't know, is a big night in the calendar for Australian journalists. It’s hosted by the ABC, and every year a luminary journalist gives a speech addressing a key issue the media is dealing with.
This year was the media man of the moment - Waleed Aly and his lecture was on the ethics of journalism as they stand in the online world.
“There are no reliable rules any more, if we're honest; we're all just extremely confused. Wisdom isn't conventional and what's conventional seems no longer to be wise. What I see is a news cycle that's only getting quicker and an attention span that is getting shorter … you can see it in the way that people will apologise on social media if they share something that has been around for more than a day lest they look like they are off the pace. To be slow online, even slightly, is embarrassing,” he said.
“Speed has always been a value in journalism … journalists have always wanted to be first on the scene … it has always existed alongside accuracy and explanation of stories. I suppose the question now is whether our move to warp speed upsets the balance. I think it does, especially when it's combined with ever-diminishing resources in our newsrooms, but I think the results are potentially radioactive when you combine this with the premium on shareability."
He added: "There's simply no time to think – only to produce ... just about every journalist of our age knows that feeling intimately."
Aly's words ring true to every journalist, no matter what they cover and who for (with some notable exceptions). Online, print, broadsheet, trade. It’s as true for the team at AdNews, as it is for those at The Australian, the Australian Financial Review, The Age, The New York Times or The Huffington Post.
Aly should know. He is a columnist at Fairfax Media, where a shrinking team of journalists are under pressure to do more with less and marked, among other things, by how many clicks their articles generate.
Aly's talk made me think about how we operate here at AdNews. I didn't rush home to write this piece as I normally would, but mulled it over and over the weekend, in an effort to put into practice what Aly is saying.
We are a small team covering a vast and ever-expanding industry where there is no shortage of fascinating, newsworthy things occurring on a daily basis. Our struggle, as I repeat almost daily to anyone who will listen, is being able to cover as much as we'd like as deeply as we'd like.
Aly described the dichotomy between commercial pressures and journalistic ethics facing media organisations as a “diabolical equation”. He said journalists were “vulnerable when we face commercial pressure”.
“I'm constantly wresting with my work and figuring out if I'm doing it with integrity or succumbing indefensibly to compromises. And I know from talking to my colleagues that I am far from alone in being this quivering wreck,” he said.
I know that I'm often a quivering wreck – at least internally.
Aly’s point is that the media and what it reports is becoming homogenised. The race to be first is driving down quality. In the rush to be seen as being across the big news, news sites become indiscriminate, covering the same stories. This is partially being driven by shrinking newsrooms and resources, as well a closely controlled PR machine that allows journalists little time to deviate off piste or challenge the status quo.
I know that we at AdNews are occasionally guilty of that. What we should be doing, and do as often and as much as we can, is crafting our own stories, seeking insightful commentary from experts who have been given time to think about the problem, and think of a response.
The volume of information distributed to news organisations on a daily basis fosters a mindset to try to cover it all. The challenge is in not appearing 'on the back foot’ for not covering what everyone else is.
It’s a lose-lose situation. Applying the principle to us in the marketing trade space, announcements sent to every media outlet at the same time, with no prior discussion and often during the busy morning rush, there is a race to cover it at the same time as others. Journalists rarely have time to think about the best way to cover the news, to think about what else may be relevant, such as the context or the bigger picture. So the news gets skimmed over.
It’s our job to break news and to add value and thought to the stories and content that we produce. It's something that our monthly print magazine allows us to do with both long and shorter-form features that are beyond the daily rat race of the news cycle and delve into deeper issues. But while we do have that premium product that gives us space to breathe, we also compete online, and more media is moving in this direction.
And there is a battle against the expectations of those who think their news demands to be covered immediately and purely because it has been sent via email to the news team.
I lost count a long time ago of the number of occasions I’ve received terse phone calls from my peers on the other side of the fence in PR an hour after they have emailed me a press release that has yet to appear online. The press release has been mass-emailed to me and my rivals and a multitude of other news outlets at the exact same time “for immediate release” with no prior notice, explanation or a phone call to even make pitch for the story – just a blanket expectation that it will get covered just because it has been sent, and a demand to know why it hasn't got the attention it deserved.
Well, next time you have a story that you think deserves attention – why not think about giving a journalist – whether that's at AdNews or elsewhere – the time to give it the attention it deserves. Not in the morning rush, but tap them up a day or two before to give them time to craft a better story, under embargo if required. Explain the context, the angle – why you think it's of relevance to our readers.
It is our readers that get the raw side of the deal. A much better and more interesting story can be written with a little more time to think, ask questions, and shape a better article. We want to be the most reliable news authority in this space, it's what we strive for on a daily basis and I think we hit the mark more often than not – but we could still be better, and that is our goal.