{"id":1783,"date":"2009-10-03T18:29:56","date_gmt":"2009-10-03T22:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/conference.journalists.org\/2009conference\/?p=1783"},"modified":"2009-10-03T18:29:56","modified_gmt":"2009-10-03T22:29:56","slug":"1783","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ona09.journalists.org\/2009\/10\/03\/1783\/","title":{"rendered":"Tech trends: Forward-thinking journalists wanted"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Juana Summers<\/p>\n

Amy Webb defines the leading edge of a field known for innovation. The digital media consultant, writer and adviser to numerous news organizations is engrossed in the intersection of journalism and technology.
\n\"amywebb\"<\/a>
\nWebb founded Webbmedia Group in 2005. The digital media consulting company helps businesses and media organizations adapt technology tools for everyday use. In 2009, under Webbmedia, she launched \u201cKnowledgewebb.net,<\/a>\u201d which she describes as \u201can affordable solution to learning and training for everyone and anyone working in content.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before founding Webbmedia, Webb wrote about technology and business trends for publications, including the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Newsweek and The Economist.<\/p>\n

The story of Webb\u2019s entry into online journalism could only be described as kismet. Webb says a number of her friends were working in engineering and technology jobs. Her own work in technology, as well as her personal interest in the field, grew out of the people she knew. \u201cPlus, I\u2019m an insomniac, and I think that helps a lot,\u201d Webb said during a recent interview.<\/p>\n

At this year\u2019s conference, Webb, who is a member of ONA\u2019s board of directors, recast her popular \u201cTen Tech Trends<\/a>\u201d talk for a 2009 audience. Webb has given the presentation at the last three ONA conferences. She said she constantly revamps the talk\u2014even down to the wire\u2013to make sure she includes the most up-to-date information.<\/p>\n

During the talk, she discussed the need to think about technology from a consumer perspective, rather than a reporter’s perspective and suggested new ways journalists should approach technology.<\/p>\n

Here’s a list of the Ten Tech Trends Webb highlighted this year:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The “Real Time Web”<\/li>\n
  2. Lightblogging<\/li>\n
  3. Personalization<\/li>\n
  4. Interactive TV<\/li>\n
  5. Identity recognition<\/li>\n
  6. Augmented reality<\/li>\n
  7. User-generated sensor data<\/li>\n
  8. Mobilife<\/li>\n
  9. Geolocation 3.0<\/li>\n
  10. The “Internet of Things”<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The overarching goal of the talk was to get journalists in any medium to be more forward-thinking in their integration of technology into their craft.\u00a0 She applied this same idea of broad technological literacy in her opinion on journalism education.<\/p>\n

    Webb doesn\u2019t think students should leave school having had an hour of Flash training or a short seminar on how to use Twitter. \u201cThat\u2019s not what the marketplace needs,\u201d Webb says.<\/p>\n

    Instead, she thinks journalism educators should focus on making students more aware of technology overall, rather than suggesting they learn a specific programming language or application. Webb calls it \u201cteaching to the technology.\u201d Webb is on the advisory board for Philadelphia-based Temple University\u2019s journalism department.<\/p>\n

    Webb said she\u2019s seen the challenges American news organizations face\u2014staff cutbacks leading to more responsibility for individual staffers\u2014worldwide. She says in all the news organizations she\u2019s visited, journalists are coming to terms with the idea that they have to do more with less.<\/p>\n

    Nonetheless, she\u2019s encouraged by the future of journalism and says news organizations like ProPublica and The New York Times have made encouraging progress integrating tech tools into investigative reporting. Webb says it\u2019s key that journalists continue to learn storytelling skills alongside an awareness of technology, rather than attempting to become engineers or developers.<\/p>\n

    \u201cJournalists should not be experts at coding,\u201d Webb said. \u201cJournalists should be experts at journalism and be able to have a conversation with coders.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Juana Summers
    \nAmy Webb defines the leading edge of a field known for innovation. The digital media consultant, writer and adviser shares her favorite tech trends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1877,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"start_time":0,"end_time":0,"moderators":[],"hashtag":[],"soundcloud":[],"scribble":[],"viafoura":[],"youtube":[],"vimeo":[],"facebook":[],"trint":[],"slideshare":[],"livestream":[],"resources":[],"video_embed":[],"first_name":"","last_name":"","title":"","organization":"","website":"","twitter":"","_sponsor_url":"","_sponsor_tagline":"","_sponsor_level":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[17,64,67],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/saaWrx-1783","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ona09.journalists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ona09.journalists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ona09.journalists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ona09.journalists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1877"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ona09.journalists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ona09.journalists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ona09.journalists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ona09.journalists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ona09.journalists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}