Somebody, plz, tell me what the f she means.....

Not to be dinosauric about this. But I sincerely want someone to explain to me what Meagan Carberry means here. She's a former newsprint person now working in multi-media. She wrote these grafs in a column published in the most recent Editor & Publisher.
She believes, rightly so in my opinion, that newspapers can never reach the so-desired "young reader" as long as they insist on geezers, dinosaurs, and lesser old farts deciding how to do that wonderful thing. She believes young people should make those decisions, and I do not argue that logic. But for the life of me, I do not understand her argument on how to do it.

(The parenthetical wiseasseries embedded are mine. Still, I truly want to understand what she would have us do.) Here goes....
*******


We're not courting young readers. We're building a new approach to journalism and the dissemination of information in our global society. It's not a committee or a font or an A1 story about "American Idol." It's a shift in the way we view ourselves and the news business initiated by leaders who instill the attitude as a virtue among their team members. It's blowing up that thing you hold in your hands and trying something drastically different with a sense of urgency. (And THIS next sentence makes my teeth hurt)....
It's the building of multi-media communities where social networking tools will bring us away from the speculation of editors at desks reading wire stories and closer to a model where users organically define what is newsworthy (now my hair hurts) and technology will deliver it in the packaging that makes sense. (Such as....microchips on the inside of one's eyelids?)

The transition will be forged by everyone from editors-in-chief to 22-year-old copy desk interns, but the task before us will be the same as it always has been: to deliver fair and accurate accounts of the relevant news and analysis of our time. And maybe let those precocious little millennial twerps show you how Twitter works. (Even as they drop cyanide tablets into the dinosaur pond.)

 

We need to change the way we communicate with readers, though we're not exactly sure how that is but it should be fancy and bright and new.

 

and go "ping"

 

Instead of editors at desks deciding what stories might actually be relevant to their consumers, put links to every story on the youngsters' MySpace pages and let them decide which ones they think are newsworthy.

Logical result of doing this: CNN renames itself the Britney News Network, and FoxNews pre-empts its election coverage for car chases in L.A.

Oh, wait -- FNC already does that. Never mind...

 

She essentially believes that group think is smarter than one individual sitting at a desk. And that group will collectively decide what gets in the paper and then you'll read it on your iPod or whatever gadget is handy.
It also means that she doesn't believe in the efforts of professional journalists trained to decide what is newsworthy and how it is displayed.
Much better for the myspace masses to decide what is important rather than the person who is boots on the ground and first-hand observing what is going on.
It is comparable to going to a message board forum to figure out what's wrong with rather than consulting a doctor. Stupid doctor, the forum participants will have been through it before and therefore know more than the doctor trained and educated in the field.
Of course that is also happening. But the forum people can get sued for malpractice if they give bad advice and someone dies.
Not their fault.

 

Meagan_Web2.0

 

Dave:

Have you seen the IBM commercial where they play "Buzzword Bingo" at the corporate strategic planning speech? Well, you just ingested a written version.

Good news, though. If your card boasted the following:

global society
multi-media communities
social networking
Twitter (which sucks)
organically
packaging

You win!

 

My brain shuts off any time I see 'organically' used describe something other than vegetation. Like the dopes who go to lunch and leave five minute messages on their voice mails about how they're 'exploring off-site rejuvenational opportunities.'

Social networking tools.....like Facebook? Maybe the writers can Friendship Request the kids, and ask what they want to read today, and then AIM them when the story is done?

I just like that kindred said f.

 

David swears like that because he's still thinking inside the box.

 

I like that he used plz. It made me giggle.

 

It's very polite inside the box.

 

We need mrscottnewman to sort this out. Somehow, he is responsible for this.