From Aza Raskin’s lecture at the #MozNewsLab on Monday, we learned that
“The real problem is that we don’t understand the problem.”
This sent me into a tizzy – a mental topspin of wondering which problem I’m really seeking to address for the scope of this 4-week class. I felt like Woody Allen, paranoid and self-conscious, attempting to figure out which problem was in fact the real one.
First I asked myself: “Is the topic of this post the right question I need to be asking? What does it mean to make news cool?”
I took a long, slow, sip of my coffee and decided to break it down into baby steps.
Firstly, I thought about what I know.
1. People care about the issues that most closely affect them.
2. They like to share their revelations.
3. There’s never been more news content available to us.
Then I let it simmer.
Yet after banging my head against the wall for a few days, I still didn’t have an idea of where to go.
But what I did have was more questions.
1. How can we unearth great revelations in journalism?
2. How can we create the next generation of stars?
3. The current fire hose of available content makes it difficult to sort, read, process, reflect, and engage. How can we make news a straightforward and relevant experience?
4. How can we make it fun to go to one place and get everything we could ever want?
I ran to the end of the tail, figuring I could chew at both ends of the solution and the problem while fleshing the entire thing out along the way. After all, as we also learned, it’s important to work on iterating on the solution while continuing to get a better grasp on the problem.
Potential Solution:
Something like a Google alert vs. Google News vs. Flipbook vs. PopURLs vs. http://www.nytimes.com/recommendations.
I quickly mocked up a sketch, one that somewhat brought to life my idea, but also something wouldn’t be married to.
I talked myself through some workflow of how the concept could potentially run.
And now, I know that it’s perfectly sane for this to be wrong. All wrong. Yet asking more questions was critical in helping to contextualize where I’m going with this idea. This step was like sketching the shape of a circle in my mind when initially I wanted to draw a line.
To be continued…
With regards to (1) and (2), there’s always Facebook, where people post the news they like and stuff that’s local to their community… so you’d have to be careful not to try and invent the next Facebook, I think.
I’m really intrigued by the “news isn’t fun” problem, but I think it might also merit thinking outside of the web. I really love printed magazines because they force me to take some time, sit down and savor every story, whereas online I often skip even the most brilliant of content because I’m more rushed, maybe just reading the news during a 5-minute work break. Same reason why Instapaper + Kindle is doing so well, I think.
Another area where we can improve is, I think, conversational journalism: having journalists participate in comment threads, on twitter and on Facebook, being available for interaction with readers, doing open newsrooms, answering reader’s questions and guiding coverage based on what people want to know. In short, creating a real community around a news website. Because content has become a commodity but community hasn’t.
I don’t think having a one-stop place to get all your news is really what we need, and I’m not even convinced that there’s a technical solution to be found to this problem. I think making the news fun/interesting/cool again depends on journalists approaching how they interact with their readers in a different way than most do today.
My semi-random thoughts anyway
Cheers,
Stijn
Thanks Stijn! I totally agree. Journalists can go in so many different directions these days to engage their fans. Take Nicholas Kristof of the NYTimes for example. He’s done a great job of connecting with users on Facebook and the company even uses him as an example when teaching best practices to other organizations.
You asked a lot of good questions here. In regards to your first question…
Q: How can we make the news Cool again?
A: (my answer) Jon Stewart
News doesn’t need to be an activity that feels like a social obligation. It could be something that resembles hanging out and having a good time, in other words, leisure and news could go hand-in-hand. Stijn is right — Facebook has done a lot to make information-sharing fun and interesting. But there’s more to coolness than just community; games, funny dudes and other sources of engagement and entertainment also help.
You’re right! Thanks for the feedback. There are so many different mediums that maybe it’s a good thing. We can incorporate news into games, videos, apps, and all sorts of other unique places. That uniqueness paired alongside the discovery process makes news fun.
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