Artley discussed the importance of making mobile friendly content for digital journalists.
In this interview, Meredith Artley, editor in chief of CNN digital discusses the importance of digital journalism, and how it has changed the way journalists can tell stories. Atley first discusses the benefits of telling stories on the web. She says the web combines the best of everything in journalism through text, video and interaction with viewers. Through digital journalism, she can tell a story in multiple different ways like text and a graphic or video. She says you start with the story and can then use many mediums to tie the story together. This creates a unique and engaging way of storytelling that didn’t exist before.
Digital journalism also has benefits as there are better ways to analyze the audience. They can get real time data about the viewer’s time of day, content and device they are watching or listening on. Through this research they have found out the benefit of social media and news; viewers don’t want to seek out news. They want news delivered directly to them. Digital journalists can make content exactly the way their viewers want to see it.
However, digital journalism has also changed the way journalists do their jobs. Now everyone is involved with the digital aspect of journalism in some way and every journalist needs to do a little of everything. Teamwork is important as many things go into a successful digital journalism piece: social media, graphics, audience analysis, etc.
Another thing that has changed with digital journalism is the idea of immediacy. The rise of digital journalism has also led to the rise of citizen journalism, or journalism submitted by non-journalists. Artley says this is not a bad thing, and is actually a benefit, because it is an opportunity for journalists to see what news people are interested in and possibly reach their audience better.
This means news people are interested in can be reported quickly. Immediacy has affected journalism too. Artley notes that while there is added pressure to be first, it is more important to “take a breath” and get it right, as well as being transparent about where the information is coming from.
Artley and CNN Digital have made CNN’s site the most viewed on mobile devices and desktop computers. Their strongest competitors in the digital realm are Buzzfeed and The New York Times, as they are stronger digitally than big news corporations like Fox and MSNBC. Artley notes that Buzzfeed is strong in the news department as they are putting journalists all over the globe and she enjoys lists as they are a good way to tell stories sometimes.
However, CNN still stays strong as it has a successful global network and 24/7 news TV. For newer developments, Arley is proud of CNN’s Snapchat, because it is a way to tell stories in a different way that will appeal to a younger audience. As far as the future, Artley thinks there will be exponential growth in the way journalists can tell stories. However, the story will always come first as far as who wants to hear the story and why.
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