Just before I left for Japan, Terry Heaton posted a short essay on TV news in the age of online news. He writes:
One, TV news people are reluctant to get involved on the Web side of their stations… there is a sense that newsroom employees view the Internet as a bastard stepchild… I don’t care what your current priorities are, you are contributing to the demise of your industry by not personally gaining the skills necessary to compete in a multimedia world… Denying the realities of the shift from broadcasting to the Internet only accelerates your own obsolescence. Why on earth would you do that?
Here’s my question: what skills are needed to compete in a multi-media world? Do all reporters need to learn HTML (or Dreamweaver)? Do they need to become experts with Flash, Quicktime and Photoshop? Or do they need to learn how to create an effective non-linear narrative?
One reply on “TV in the Age of the Web”
the relation between internet and traditional media outlets is a strange one. neither one of them underestand the realm and functions of the other fully. they view each other as competition but are not sure how to deal with this competition. some blogs have turned into news broadcasters and some tv programs have turned into shows that read the weblogs contents out load. i’ll just give it a while (maybe a year or two)and then blogs will find out what is it exactly that they are meant to do.