新聞媒體：改變中的行業

CC via Flickr by stevegarfield

今天是2008年的最後一天。

昨晚睡不著，掙扎地想著過去一年來的種種：
一場數位新聞實驗、在網路上認識的人成了同事、重新認識以前的同事、更了解自己在想什麼（雖然還是很模糊）...年終，雖然一切好像又回到起點，但這場實驗之後，總還是帶給我和同行同事，滿滿心得（lessons）。

吃早餐時看Twitter，看到Guy Kawasaki推這篇文章，就點去看看。過去一年來，我們所實驗的一些想法，這位Brian Storm的演講不都提到，而且清清楚楚？自己索性也不用再整理、再寫了，節錄以下重點，當做2008的註腳，也為2009，未來的堅持，打上一劑強心針吧！（Brian Storm成立了一個MediaStorm網站，看完他的文字後，值得去逛看看。）

新聞媒體產業，請想清楚你的到底要什麼？

The right question to ask yourself at that moment is what business am I in?
Am I in the horse and buggy business? Or, am I in the transportation business? Are you in the newspaper business? Are you in the magazine business? Are you in the broadcast business?
Or, are you in the business of storytelling?
...

世界已經變了，看紙媒體的人真的不多了。

Think about the companies and products that have only recently changed our lives:
How did we get rid of our junk before eBay?
How did we find our way before GPS?
How did we waste our lunch hour before YouTube?

Xbox,
PS3,
The Wii.

Really, your parents played board games like Monopoly and Yahtzee.
They watched commercials too. No TIVO.
Can you imagine a world without Google? A world where you can’t do reconnaissance on your blind date?

What did we do before:
Amazon
MySpace
Yahoo
Skype
Flickr

And of course, iPods.
Did you know that iTunes recently passed Walmart as the number one retailer of music in the world?

I’m so excited I just twittered.
...

新聞價值的本質是不變，但取得方式和製作方式多樣化。

I don’t think the communications revolution that we are going through is about some reinvention of storytelling or journalistic creed.
The way we tell stories has evolved over the years, but beginning, middle and end still works. Ethical and accurate information will still rule.
I think the revolution is happening because of access. Access to powerful tools and access to global distribution in an increasingly connected planet.
...

特別是新聞的品質，仍最重要。同時與閱聽人的連結度要更好。

Quality is what people care about. It’s what they are trying to pinpoint in a sea of information. It’s what they will forward to their friends when they do find it. It’s what they will blog post. We had one guy in Russia do a blog post about a story on our site and for a week straight our traffic was up 15 X. All coming from Russia with love.
One guy spread the virus through Russia with a simple blog post.
This surge of connectivity is another recent innovation that I’m hugely optimistic about. I think it’s the greatest hope for restoring quality journalism.
...

對新聞產業來說，現在是最美好的時光，能用的工具、科技和能接觸的閱聽人，都無遠弗屆，沒有限制。

It is one of the most exciting times in history to be a young journalist. You have an almost limitless palette of storytelling tools, an audience unbound by physical borders and the most powerful communications technology ever developed at your disposal.

延伸閱讀：密蘇里新聞學院演講全文--University of Missouri School of Journalism Commencement Speech