The rapid growth of technology has changed the role of the journalist from reporting and writing in one platform, to someone who has to gather and distribute information in many different multimedia platforms. The basics of a convergent journalist remains the same, in that in order to be effective good reporting and writing skills should be the basis of their skill set.
A modern day journalist has to have the technical skills of a whole news crew. While some of the skills may be known at the basic level, they still must be able to take pictures that can be used in print and online, take video and edit it, write for print, broadcast, and online, and know how to post their content to be seen on the Internet.
Once a journalist has learned how to convey their message through writing they have to be able to gather information from many different sources such as the Internet, in person reporting, and archive research, and build a story from these different streams. They have to manage this stream of information to decide what is relevant and newsworthy.
Often times the information that comes across the web is user generated and has to be filtered and reviewed by a convergent journalist in order to verify the information and validity of the content. The digital rights of the content that is going to be disbursed has to be examined and managed to ensure that copyrights aren’t infringed upon.
Once the story is created, a convergent journalist must distribute it through interactive content, social media, video, and written content. Using multiple platforms to tell the story is how a convergent journalist engages different audiences and demographics.
Being able to create, edit, and share content makes multimedia journalists more adaptable and valuable to news rooms. With a wide and varied skill set, the multimedia journalist can take bring the newsroom anywhere.
Serena Phillips 