Engagement and Relevance

It is a tough task to produce stories that are not only relevant to current situations around the world and in peoples lives, but to make them interesting at the same time. It is important to not fill the news with fluff that no one can relate too, even if it is entertaining, but at the same time, it is also important to not just throw out articles full of facts that no one wants to read. 


As the book said "Journalists must make the significant interesting and relevant". To do this, a journalist has to dig deeper and become an investigative journalists. Stories pertaining to significant material is not just going to jump out at any given moment. For the most part, it takes time and effort. While this might be time consuming every now and then, in the end it makes a journalist more credible and is more likely to ensure that a viewer will come back. 


The book talks about the "Infotainment strategy". While this will likely draw along a few viewers for awhile, there is no real substance to it. There is pretty much just facts being regurgitated to viewer. It's fast and it's fresh, but it doesn't last beyond that. There is no depth, emotional , or hard value to it. It may attract viewers in the beginning, but what keeps them coming back is the consistency of good, quality news. 


It is important for journalists to have a narrative approach when writing. This doesn't mean that a journalist should strictly just go for the emotional side of a topic, or make things up, but they should incorporate a style that will engage those that are viewing or reading it. 


Becoming an engaging journalist takes work. The best have to learn by failing at times. However, through trial-and-error, a journalist can perfect their work so it is interesting and people keep coming back to it. This is a goal that all journalists should have. 


Journalists also need to make sure that what they are reporting on is relevant to the people they are reporting too. If it is not, they will lose a fan base that will be hard and expensive to rebuild. It is best for a journalism company to have a wide variety of experienced journalists that are able to write articles that will be relevant to all. It is also important to create new information, and not just regurgitate information found online. In the world today, it might be easy to do just find information online and talk about it in a broadcast, but it is more important for a reporter to find new information and new stories to report on. 




Interesting links on this topic: 
http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=162593
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2008/mar/03/relevantjournalismthedigita
http://www.innovationjournalism.org/ij6ac/papers/Uskaliweaksignalsdraft.pdf