There are some real dinosaurs in the journalism game. I just can’t understand the way some of them cling to the “way things have always been done” and refuse to realize that the world is being shaped by young geeks and we’d better fall in line or get left behind.
Some of the stodgier ones among us expressed surprise and dismay last week that the Ontario Ombudsman used Twitter to announce that he had finished his report on a controversial closed-door meeting of London City Council. They were also disgusted that Premier Dalton McGuinty released a You Tube video in which he launched an appeal to teachers to take a wage freeze for two years.
What was the alternative? Was Andre Marin supposed to chisel out a press release on tree bark and hand-deliver it to news outlets via pony express? Did they really expect McGuinty to subject himself to a news conference and a battering by reporters with questions over a very negative issue? Marin’s tweet was picked up by media in an instant and McGuinty’s video was shared across the province within hours. Come on, people, social media is here, it’s huge and along with texting and email, it’s the way most people communicate. It may not be the way YOU communicate but that’s not the point. Unfortunately, some of my peers can’t seem to see past the ends of their own noses as they dip their feather pens in their inkwells.
On Council itself, 5 members tweet and the luddites don’t see the point. On the weekend the London Free Press included one of my own tweets in a round-up of peoples’ experiences with the strong winds. Sure, it was a lazy way of gathering those experiences but they were gathered nonetheless. And talk about concise! You don’t have to worry about editing or misquoting someone when they express themselves in 140 characters or less.
It’s widely understood in broadcasting that the actual radio is going to become the least popular way we deliver information. It may take many more years, but that’s the way we’re heading. It’s all about Facebook “likes” and Twitter followers, websites and text-alert sign-ups. All of those delivery paths can be consumed quickly, in high volume, and sold to sponsors. They’re picked up by users when it’s convenient for them – not when we choose to put it out over the airwaves. This is how the industry is evolving and it’s time that those of my generation and the one before it get with the program or find themselves forever fossilized in amber.