I have been writing these broken thoughts down for years and our company has grudgingly benefited from the ideas expressed . Opposing views are rare inside the fort. When people think about them , the ideas and ideals are not far from the ideals most people grew up with . The trade has drifted that far . It takes between a year or two years for an idea to roll around , and a solution found . Two years will be cutting it close .As they say,” if you don't stand for anything , you will fall for everything”. Hum
Now the those who hate are walking into our newsroom screaming their froth and we sit back and wonder what to do. Some people just need to be punched in the mouth . It would have happened twenty years ago. No Sh_t.
Spelling and grammar ,are my unfortunate , life long learning disability ,but I never let it hold me back – I can read it a hundred times and mistakes seem to persist – photography is more forgiving ,in that the language of pictures is universal , few rules – I cannot be stopped or fixed at this stage – sorry for that offending part of the message . I am used to it .I still worry all weekend that I will be fired on Monday.
Fifty percent of Canadians have reading and writing disabilities and I count my self as one of them . No contest . Words are just words , they can be read or not read. Once they are read they cannot be unread. I have the advantage of having original ideas over many who can master language details but have nothing to write . The opportunity lies with this 50% with reading problems ,our online product can reach these many more potential customers .Cheers
Information is controlled in ways that journalists have never seen before .The landscape for information has changed in a fundamental way , first with political parties , corporations , now athletes . People lie to journalists and there is no failsafe for that . We simply repeat their lies . Steroid abuse and weapons of mass destruction are glaring examples.
Newsrooms are small , the ability to cover daily news is questionable and the expense of project journalism is usually out of the question without private funding. We all stay busy , it is what we are good at.
Our core readership is the dominant demographic and they are no longer taking the paper .Young people will never buy a paper . Technology is overwhelming our craft in waves , citizens are speaking in many voices, too strong to ignore. At some point someone has to ask questions about the content. Comments , some say are the most interesting part of the newspaper experience Adding ,Online magazine subscriptions are selling well . The internet is not killing the magazine trade.
The face of this business is changing , faster than you think . Good spelling is the least of our troubles .
The ideas still stand , in two years more people will understand . The business of journalism gets stuck and it is stuck now. Writing and journalism itself has gone through major changes in style and content at twenty and thirty year intervals. . Unfortunately this change does not come gradually . The business has always needed a hard shake . In some ways we are in the shadow of the 1950's , but change occurred then and in the late 1970's 80's , and it is on the verge of change again .
We work hard and our brand of journalism is at it's peak .The business still shrinks. Every aspect of what we do , everyday has to be examined . I am writing directly to hundreds of people in the hopes the one or two that have the power to make change begin to think of this valued service in different ways .We have a valuable service that is being taken for granted , inside and outside the walls . There are aspects of , exclusivity of thought , and the core belief in “the news angle “ that are outdated . Writing down what people say has a flaw when people lie to us.
We need to know that virtually everyone has been interviewed by a newspaper . People see how it works. Context is a consistant complaint over the ages . Context must be getting edited , i guess.
We are not seeing the changes our culture has experienced since the Canada US Free Trade Agreement .There is impact on the buying habits and attitudes of Canadians . We are feelng the impact of our own , information free trade agreements . All this impacts our view and our actions in the world as well as our own back yard .
Let us use an example of a basic cultural shift , take the old stone religion vs the new metal roof churches with acres of parking .Are we the old stone church ? It has nothing to do with stones or roofs.Isolated people are searching ,and what about social media - more searching . We are here and our message is "what" ?
Jack - Colleen Simard is our contributing columnist.
Topic: Really Bad , comments (Read 2678 times)