Online journalists – are there any others?

You probably cannot even remember how everyday journalistic activities looked like without Google searches.

Typewriters, agency ticker machines, radio magnetic tapes, TV tapes... all these things are now in your computer.

Unlike FIFA, which stubbornly refuses to use replay as a way to avoid arbiter errors in the football field, journalists are simply forced to accept the tools offered via computers, mobile phones and the internet.

Journalists who cannot see that their mobile phone is in effect a mobile office, photo service or a TV van are seriously lagging behind others. Global media like CNN, BBC or SKY have long ago recognized the importance of "amateur" or user-generated content and some of the major stories have carried photographs and video clips made by mobile phones. The first photographs of the terrorist attacks several years ago in London were made by mobile phones. The same thing happened during the attack of a hooligan, Uros Misic, on a police officer at the Zvezda stadium.

Simply said, good journalists and media outlets that have recognized all the advantages offered to investigative journalism by the web are already busy using them to create great stories. For example, the Facebook phenomenon. I believe that it is not enough only to write stories about how many users the social network has, how many of them are in Serbia, how alienated people have become etc... instead, journalists should join it, create a profile and begin their search for stories.

There are several, excellent examples of great journalistic stories that have found important pieces of the puzzle on Facebook: "Attacker on Velja Ilic has a Facebook Profile" or "Arrest of football fans who threatened Brankica Stankovic on Facebook".

Another excellent example is the last year's Iranian "Green Revolution" that is today called "Twitter Revolution" because young Iranian protesters used the Twitter network to directly inform the world, most of all the global media, on events in Tehran. They did it from the streets, using their mobile phones. At the time Twitter announced that the system had to cope with up to 220,000 messages per hour!

A year later, I can recommend Twitter's easy search of topics, people and the media as one of the best sources for stories from the internet.

Of course, the main thing to have in mind when using the web as a source is that information has to be verified with other sources. Since the internet and anonymity go hand in hand, stories from the web have to be verified – who wrote it and who conveyed the information?

Therefore, web surfing is one of the crucial tools for high-quality work in an editorial office, not only to monitor the competition's activities, but to find stories. If you know where to look, the web is a spectacular source of information and ideas for journalistic stories.

I believe that today it is unacceptable to say – "I don't have a story – there are no news". No editor can accept such explanation.

News are everywhere, only a few clicks from us. We need to make an effort and reach them. Journalists who join social networks and find the right RSS feeds, online widgets or video subscriptions will come to a conclusion that their life has become faster, easier and prettier.

Daniel Bukumirovic

About the authors

MC Newsletter, July 2, 2010