Recently I had the opportunity to speak with John King, CNN’s Chief National Correspondent. I asked Mr. King for some advice, one journalist to another. Mr. King related that, when he began his work in journalism the field was quite different from today. 25 years ago journalism was primarily disseminated on paper, the radio, and morning and evening news programs on the 3 major television networks. He noted that today people get their news from reading the paper (mostly online on one’s computer, tablet or phone), watching the news (again, on one’s tv, computer or phone), or listening to the radio/podcasts. People used to generally have one primary source of news, now it is multifaceted. Mr. King shared that he needed to learn to pivot to this new manner of fractured media. Now, to be a successful journalist, one must know how to write for all types of media sources whether it be speaking on television or the radio/podcast, or writing an article for a newspaper, magazine or blog post. This makes the occupation of journalism much more challenging. Journalist’s need to be able to have a viewer read their article while simultaneously being able to present it to them over a screen and broken down into soundbites. Mr. King also told me that he sees his job as a journalist not to mainly convey breaking news, but instead to help his viewers/readers digest the news and understand why it’s important, and how the news affects them. He noted that most days when people turn on his news show they already know what is happening in the world from seeing the headlines on their phones, crawls at the bottom of their television screens, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram posts, they watch his (and others’) show because they want to learn why what is happening in the world is important to them. As Editor-in-Chief I take this to heart, FOCUS is not a newspaper that comes out daily, so we are unable to convey breaking news. Instead, we take relevant topics every few weeks, bring them back to life and dive deeper into what has occurred, as a way to help the Blind Brook community understand why it is important to have a deeper understanding of these matters. Speaking with Mr. King was an excellent reminder that as journalists, it is vital to remember we are not doing this work primarily to break news, but to help our readers digest the news and understand why it is important to them.
From Our Editor
