The Evolving Newsroom

UK journalist Alison Gow does a nice job breaking down the lifecycle of a news story - how we used to do it in newspapers and how we can do it now using web2.0 tools and networks.

Here's an excerpt:

Step One
Reporter gets potential story (Web 1.0)
Via: Phone call or meeting with contact; letter to the editor; email; comment on the newspaper's web forum; item in a publication or website; video on YouTube; punter walking in to the front office and asking to speak to a journalist.

Reporter gets potential story (Web 2.0)
Via: Any of the above PLUS link posted on a social network; RSS feed of news and message board posts;status update or link on a micro-blog; Twitter search;search of blog posts;comment on the reporter's blog; online forums; email/post/link via the reporter or newspaper's Facebook page; a podcast; online searches;threaded video debate; an incident live-streamed onto a website.

Step Two
Reporter researches story (Web 1.0)
Phones/meets contacts to verify information; searches Google for background/experts; finds expert and emails questions; includes response in article; sets up photo opportunity with picture desk; writes article and sends to newsdesk.

Reporter researches story (Web 2.0)
Crowdsources idea using social networks; uses blog searches and blog translators to find posts and experts worldwide; uses own blog to post developing and ask for input and suggestions from readers; sets up online survey and poll (promotes these using links to it from own blog, Facebook page and online forums); posts links and questions on specialist messageboards; searches social bookmarking tools for related issues; uses video discussion site to seek views; records telephone interview for podcast; collates findings and discusses package with print and digital news editors; films video report; begins writing detailed, analytical article for print product, accompanied by quality images - some found by picturedesk searching photo-sharing websites' Creative Commons pool.

Shane Richmond at the Telegraph (London) gives hope to those in despair about the lightweight nature of stories that often fill up 'most viewed' and 'most emailed' boxes.

He has a theory about those 'man has sex with bicycyle' stories: while many different kinds of readers might check that story out, they'll then get back to doing what they came to the site for in the first place, whether that was to get sport scores, read opinion pieces or browse news. "In a Venn diagram of readers interests, the most popular stories sit in the centre. They've caught a little bit of everyone's attention but they might not be anyone's most important story."