I’m trying an experiment this semester in Border Beat. I was worried about it last week and am feeling somewhat better this week. In class we had a talk about it.
Wondering about the Internet got me thinking about deadlines. So did all the “advice to aspiring journalists” I was reading, especially in columns either on or linked to by the Poynter Institute. Two strands of thought led me to the same conclusion: the idea of deadlines might be dead.
For online publications, the deadline is every minute, or as soon as a story is ready to put online. There is no press that needs to be turned on at 1:30 a.m. and the red “on air” light doesn’t flash at 6 p.m. The website is just there, waiting, always ready for more. I stopped seeing the sense in ordering a deadline of, say 3 p.m. Thursday, for a new set of stories.
Online editors and others in the news business seem to value entrepreneurship, self direction and motivation, new ways of thinking, presenting, or approaching stories and subjects, and personal responsibility. More content than ever, it seems, will be provided by freelancers, or as they are now euphemistically called, “private contractors.” Truth, accuracy, and very high quality writing, audio, video, or photography are all assumed. Objectivity, not so much anymore. Also assumed is that an individual must work hard and produce a lot to make a living in today’s multifaceted journalism world.
So my experiment consists of giving Border Beat students, in effect, a quota of work that they are expected to produce before the end of the semester at the beginning of May, 2010. But no specific deadlines. Here’s what you’re expected to do. I’m here to help you get it done. Now, do it.
I hope they will take advantage of the freedom and produce a wide variety of stories that they might not have done if they were required to file say, one story a week, due on Thursday. Hopefully some will get going quickly and get a good part of the work done toward the first half of the semester. Others might work on larger, multiple part projects that might not get posted until April. Others might take more time getting comfortable with new multimedia applications and then jump into real reporting. We’ll see.
During our discussion, students seemed to have mixed feelings. A few of them said they needed “a gun to their heads” to make them get anything done. Others thought the freedom to work at their own paces would be good practice in discipline. The members of the editing team, for their collective sanity, wanted more structure, not less. The decision we came to was that reporters would choose stories and set and commit to deadlines they selected. But they would be held accountable for those deadlines. The editing team agreed to work three evenings a week and they would accept copy for editing that night only up until 5 p.m. those evenings.
So, in light of all that, it was great today to receive this semester’s first stories to put online. Five of them kicked off the semester. Good first efforts, all.
Amanda Portillo is already a skilled newswoman. She covered a voter registration kickoff at Rudy Garcia Park in South Tucson. Her story included good information, links, and a slideshow. Well done. In class tomorrow I will show it to everyone. The only thing I will point out about how it could have been better is adding audio in her slideshow. Natural sound would have been fine as would snippets of sound from people who were working the event or registering to vote, some for the first time.
Mateo Alvarez wrote a great story introducing us to soccer phenom, University of Arizona sophomore Renae Cuellar. Nicky, Jocelyn, and Jackie rounded out the reporters who have new material up.
We’re off to a good start.
There are also 12 new blog posts. I was especially impressed with the posts put up by Mattie, Jocelyn, Christina and Nickki. Not that there was anything wrong with the others.
I really hope some of tour Border Beat staffers will add their say to this blog and let you know what the inside of Border Beat looks like from their perspectives.
