Are journalists missing 75% of the story?

Friday, Aug 21 2009 | Filed in: media

There’s an interesting piece out today by Matt Thompson at Newsless.org ruminating on the key portions of the news that reporters either cover poorly or miss entirely.

I’ve come to the conclusion that there are four key parts to news stories, and we typically only get one of them, even though journalists possess all four, and the other three are arguably more important.... As long as the news is structured solely around what just happened, journalists are going to be fighting a rough battle... As news consumers, we should be demanding these [other] things as well. After all, right now we’re only getting the lamest part of the story.

I think his analysis is sadly all too true, and fits well with my longstanding negative critique of the current state of journalism today. If you’re at all interested in the profession, and what could be done to make it better, this is a must-read.

-posted by Paul

Tags: newsless, journalism