Convergence- the broadcasting side of the story

I've really enjoyed reading Jackie and Jamie's blogs about convergence. It's interesting to know what people on the newspaper side have to say about the issue. I felt the need to chime in on the broadcasting side. I remember when the word sent shivers down my spine. At one time I think I can honestly say that I hated the idea of convergence. When asked about the issue I would tell people "Look, I went to school to be a television journalist, I have no interest in writing for a newspaper." Boy how the times have changed....

Mind you, I'm still not in love with the inverted pyramid style of journalism....I still have no desire to write for a newspaper on a daily basis and I don't have the right skill set for it...but I've learned to adjust to it on occasion and to realize that this is the future. Like it or not, people are getting their news in different ways. We tv and newspaper people also post stories to the web everyday. That's another platform that I'm sure none of us particularly wanted to get into.

Just like with anything else, I think there are positives and negatives. On the positive side, you've got multimedia journalists who can now cover events for several different outlets, meaning one person can now do the job of two or three. Another positive, as a journalist you're better equipped to succeed in the future business of journalism. And one more, it streamlines the coverage meaning less room for errors.

The negatives as I see them... you're having people do jobs which may not necessarily come naturally for them. TV people write in short, choppy sentences. We get straight to the point, we don't bog you down in details, and half the time what we're saying is probably not perfectly grammatically correct. Newspaper journalists are thorough, they give you all kinds of background information, and they can spot grammatical errors in a second.

There's a reason for this. In tv we have a matter of minutes, if not seconds, to get your attention, tell you something, and then move on to something else. You can sit, read and re-read a newspaper article. Well as you can imagine, it's not exactly easy for tv people to write newspaper articles. It's just not the way we've trained our brains to work over the years. And as you can also imagine, it's not easy for newspaper people to be on tv. Heck, it's not easy for anyone. It takes time after time, year after year, to get comfortable on camera and to learn what works and what doesn't work.

Another negative- you're having people do a job that they're not in love with, and we all know how that goes. You tend to be a lot more invested and passionate about something you're interested in...that's life.

Despite the setbacks, the positives definitely outweigh the negatives here. I remember convergence being talked about as a new and emerging concept when I was in college. We all thought the day would never come when we actually had to do all of these different jobs....well, my friend, the day is here.

Yesterday I wrote an article for the newspaper, covered the same story for television and posted an update on the story to the web. Yes, I'm pretty confident in saying convergence is here to stay...and you know, I'm actually kind of happy about it now.

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