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“The New York Times is looking for a technology-savvy journalist”, thus begins the job offer.
It is a short text, written in that style in which half of humanity is being gradually discarded.
In the first line I was the ideal candidate along with so many talented colleagues, of course.
I kept reading.
“The producer will be expected to work with reporters, editors, producers and software developers (…) to conceive and produce multimedia features for both news and enterprise stories, across multiple platforms”.
Not bad. Over the past five years I have done just that, I said, feeling a bit of excitement. I began to imagine a life among skyscrapers.
In the next line I fell. We fell (to be inclusive).
“Expertise with Web development tools -especially Adobe Flash, HTML and Javascript- is required”.
I read it again. How? Adobe Flash? Javascript? HTML? Hold on… Am I reading the right ad? Are they looking for a technology-savvy journalist?, or a journalism-savvy programmer? What kind of hybrid is The Times loking for?
Certainly one that has little to do with me or with any of the journalists I know.
Questions began to crowd my soul. Should I be an expert on Flash? Do I really have to be proficient in Javascript? When, where, how, why, what…? I closed the page.
I started looking for a definition of multimedia journalist: I contacted colleagues, read blogs, reviewed manuals.
Programmers or journalists
Because the New York Times ad did not end there: the list of requirements grew and expanded in all directions.
“Demonstrated ability to create multimedia packages that intelligently incorporate audio, video and still images (…) Experience with Final Cut Pro, photo editing, and digital photo processing and color correction (…) Ability to meet deadlines and to adapt to change in a daily news production environment”.
Besides: writing, editing and research with the highest standard. “The ability to write solid captions is required”.
I began to suspect that what the New York Times was looking for was not a simple human being, but a computer.
That blend of programmer-journalist probably exists in some multimedia newsrooms.
The truth is that it is already common to find reporters of notebook, pen, tape recorder, camera, video, blog, Twitter, SEO awareness and some coding…
But I seriously doubt that someone can be an “expert” on each of the above requirements.
My experience (as a web-design savvy journalist) tells me that in the every day digital newsroom that mixture usually resolves in a teamwork effort based on different specializations.
A great colleague, Adam Webstbrook, thinks journalists should aim to be a “jack of all trades and a master of one”.
And I agree, but doubt still remains and maybe the journalist of the future, the one who writes a “punchy” headline with the same talent as he writes sleek lines of Javascript, already wanders around current-affairs reporters and editors.
retoNet is multimedia: it is a site to explore new technologies. It is design: a place to create beauty on the web.
SERGIO ACOSTA ~ Web designer and multimedia producer
MIRYAM AUDIFFRED ~ Multimedia producer and voice over artist