Journalism is one of the oldest forms of media. Over the course of a decade it has seen some turbulent times. Aside from the wave of new media, which seems to be increasingly the more dominant form of journalism these days, there appears to be an editing crisis within the industry. This crisis ranges from all aspects that concern editing in journalism. While new media has been a driving force behind the editing crisis seen in journalism, there are specific elements to which should be taken into account when considering the problem the industry seems to be having with editing. These elements span a long list of issues that have essentially placed editing in a crisis today.
One of the issues seen in editing today is the lack of careful and thoughtful examination of articles that appear to fly across an editor’s desk. Many of these articles go on published without the proper corrections given on grammar, usage, style, and even typing errors. Even with spellcheck embedded in most word processing software these problems continue to arise in journalistic writing.
Some suggest the issue comes from a continuous change in the English language. With so much culture trending on the web these days, it’s easy to see how the lines of proper writing can be blurred. The result from this growing trend is the pieces that are often seen now are often written poorly and can sometimes even cause a miscommunication between writers and their readers.
There are other trends that are occurring that appear to bring on challenges across the editing field in journalism, outside of the writing structure itself. In today’s digital age, the rate of how fast information is exchanged is very rapid. News organizations must adapt to the increasing demand of instant information. In fact, the exchange of information is moving so fast that it is resulting in a lack of fact checking. Media organizations have difficulty in publishing material at rapid speeds and insuring readers that the information provided in their news article is 100% accurate. The fact is a news industry must now show fluidity in providing content to readers.
The New School, a University in New York City, recently hosted a seminar called, Opportunities in New Media, an event that highlighted much of what has been occurring in media and journalism as whole. The panelist of the event included Anna Holmes, Digital Voices Editor at Fusion and Founder of Jezebel- Jake Horowitz, Editor-at-Large and Co-Founder of Mic - Danny Gold, Correspondent, Producer, and Writer at Vice and Aaron Leaf, Managing Editor of Okay Africa. Aside from the opportunities New Media has to offer aspiring journalists and editors there were also some notable challenges the industry has presented. One of the issues panelist Danny Gold found concerning was that while new media presented an opportunity to venture into cross-platform story telling, there seems to be a preference for digital videos rather than text writing for news. The problem is, as Gold puts it, with video there isn’t enough time to actually cover all of the details in a story the way there is with text news, whether it be digital or print. The problem Gold says is that much of the information to a story is left out. More so, he suggested that most media organizations seem to be concerned with journalists’ video editing abilities rather than their writing skills.
Anna Holmes says that while it is difficult time journalism, even in digital media, it still is an exciting time for the industry. However, she has expressed, in her views, how times have changed with regards to how one would go about becoming an editor after writing for a news organization for a long period of time. Holmes said that isn’t the case anymore. She attributes to the different voices that are now joining the field of journalism and how it presents challenges. Generally, it can discourage some writers from wanting to become an editor within the field.
In an article recently written for Medium.com, Shane Ferro, a former writer for Business Insider, described how once working at the digital media outlet had become increasingly stressful. After covering a slew of tweets by CNN reporter Tanzina Vega, Ferro detailed how her time at Business Insider was filled with constant pressure and anxiety. The problem was in keeping up with the highly competitive industry of content production, Business Insider, like many new digital publications, has begun asking its writers to produce a minimum of five to six articles a day. The problem is as Ferro put it, was that there was an obsessive focus on producing content whether considerations for authentic material. The culture of mass-producing content made Ferro miserable to the point she no longer felt the joy she originally experienced when she first started writing for Business Insider. With so many writers and written content there is a growing concern that with the editing crisis looming over the industry, there aren’t enough editors to accurately correct many of the inaccuracies in the published articles.
Vega’s tweets, which inspired Ferro’s article, alluded to the same message. “This is also coming at a time when resources are extremely thin,” Vega said. “Copy editing, production being passed on to reporters on top of writing. Echoing Danny Gold’s message at the seminar, the monetization for journalistic writing is dwindling. She added, “And that pace is unsustainable. Human beings have a limit before they burnout.” She believes readers still desire thoughtful and insightful journalism. Vega has publicly stated that some of her most recent popular pieces were 2300 words accompanied with a five-minute video. The problem, as many of the experts see it, is trending topics have become the priority over accurate news stories that carry substance.
In a culture of convergence, media organizations seem to be doing more than just converging content. It would appear as if they are also uniting responsibilities as well. Rather than separate the responsibilities among different people, the trend seems to be obligating writers to edit their own material along with producing visual aides to accompany their story. The problem also seems to stem from the consolidation of the media industry as a whole. With many of the media firms looking to merge with each other or attain each other through acquisitions, there seems to be a result of cutting jobs and downsizing in an effort to cut costs and increase profits. This also presents a worry of censorship and media control of content by writers and editors in the years to come.
One thing remains to be adamantly clear journalism is in a state of emergency. The first step to recovering the industry to what it once was would be to help it overcome the editing crisis it is currently in. In fact, the editing process should be the industry’s major priority as it’s what gives journalism the authenticity its readers perceive it to have. The responsibility should not be limited to legacy media companies as new media companies that dabble in journalism should be held accountable as well. With all of its content and for all of its readership, new media has an obligation to uphold the same principles and values as traditional news agencies.
