SoloJourno

Via The Accidental Journalist:

My last post about citizen journalism and the horrific Haitian earthquake got me thinking about the skills needed to be a reporter. Media commentators, for example Jeff Jarvis and Roy Greenslade, are known for saying that today’s journalists need to be entrepreneurs.

It’s no longer enough to be able to talk, listen and write it down. Anyone who wants to be involved in the business of reporting news now needs to understand how to put news together. We need to get to grips with what’s behind a news report: getting the photos, videos, audio, quotes, interactive maps, charts, graphs and quizzes that make up the news package. Journalists, particularly citizen journalists, must be able to write, film, record, blog, comment, fund and somehow make money along the way.

We need to be entrepreneurs. As Jeff Jarvis puts it:

“We all agree that it’s important for journalism students — and journalists — today to understand the economics of news. Some of us add that it was irresponsible of our institutions not to teach this in the past. We agree it is important to bring entrepreneurship into the industry. Some of us concentrate more on new entrepreneurial ventures, others more on bringing innovation into existing companies. Some say journalists aren’t cut out to be entrepreneurs (I disagree) but all agree that entrepreneurship is a way to teach both innovation and business.”

Read the full article.