Reading material: What you should be reading if you work in media content (1)

Or journalism. Because is like some of you don’t yet know that you are no longer journalists, and we are all in the business of content now.

But that’s a matter for another day. Today, we will begin sharing with you, weekly, links that should put you in the mind of a professional that’s ready for the future of your industry, and your craft.

We’re working around the best way to do this, and to actually get you to read what you need to read. So for this week, this is how we’ll do it. We’ll take excerpts from the pieces and then we’ll drop the link and the rest is up to you.

That work? Yeah? Oya, let’s get right into it.

 

Number 1.

Before anybody puts words in my mouth, this is not my long-winded way of saying I don’t subscribe to the global warming hypothesis. I do—but at the same time, I keep my options open. The protectors of the ruling paradigm have an intellectual responsibility to mount disciplined defense against all comers. Even against crackpots.

“[I]f you present the facts calmly and without a tone of editorializing, you substantially increase the chance that people will hear you out and weigh the facts. That is why the tone of journalism matters so much. We need potential listeners and readers to believe we are presenting the facts honestly, and not to confirm our opinions.”

Full piece HERE.

 

Number 2.

On the programming side, innovators such as Ted Turner created channels for many different niches that broadcasters, with their serve-everybody mandate, couldn’t hope to reach. The incumbents, of course, scoffed that anyone would pay for cable when they could get broadcast shows for free. Hundreds of billions of dollars later, they’ve been proven definitively wrong.

Full piece HERE.

 

Number 3.

BOOM for this one. We have been saying this to ourselves for years! Share this with your readers. Let them hear the truth biko.

Fact is, there really is no such thing as “the media.” It’s an invention, a tool, an all-purpose smear by people who can’t be bothered to make distinctions.

Consider: There are hundreds of broadcast and cable TV networks, a thousand or so local TV stations, a few thousand magazines and newspapers, several thousand radio stations and roughly a gazillion websites, blogs, newsletters and podcasts. There’s also Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and who knows what new digital thing.

All of these, collectively, now constitute the media.

But this vast array of news and information sources — from the New York Times to Rubber and Plastics News — helps define what’s wrong with referring to “the media.” With so many sources, one-size-fits-all reporting is impossible. Those who work in the media don’t gather in our huddle rooms each morning and light up the teleconference lines with plots to nettle and unsettle you. There is no media in the sense of a conspiracy to tilt perception.

Full piece HERE.

 

Number 4.

You hear stories that attention spans are shorter and shorter and that people can’t even watch three seconds of video on Facebook before scrolling on. But time spent on our articles continues to go up. Our bet is smart interesting angles on difficult, dense stories. The mobile phone is the first screen, and people are spending 5, 10, 15 minutes reading an article that matters to them.

We’re at an inflection point now, with the chaos with the streams on Facebook and Twitter, and people will want to slow down a little bit. That’s where podcasting has taken off. People want to detach from the screen and do something else. People also look for deeper analysis.

Full piece HERE.

 

Number 5.

While he’s bashing the ignorance of old-media dinosaurs, Smith is also relying on their money and power. Vice is spreading abroad and expanding its television channel thanks in part to a $400 million investment from old media titan Disney, backing from 21st Century Fox, and TV distribution help from A&E Networks, owned by Disney and Hearst. 

As news and entertainment go through tectonic shifts, the traditional and digital media camps are holding hands and jumping into the unknown together — with some moments of awkwardness. 

Full piece HERE.

 

And number 6.

Because readers like to complain about every small thing, the New York Times decided to give them homework – that they can never pass.

Full piece HERE.

Welcome to a new week, people!

 

PS: See anything worth talking about on the ins and outs of the media business in Nigeria on TV, radio, print and online (could be news, tweets, photos, op-eds etc) send us a mail on [email protected] titled TMB. Let’s share the insight together!

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