Stories2 streams

from STORIES to STREAMS THE EVOLUTION OF THE BEAT

MATT THOMPSON @mthomps mthompson@npr.org mthomps.com

TWO PARABLES

I: A tale of two scandals. Watergate v. Enron ladouceur78 / Flickr alex-s / Flickr

The Watergate Hotel - Noah Kalina / Flickr

The column that felled Enron FORTUNE, 3/5/01

from information scarcity …

… to information overload

II. The classic editor RAIJSI / Flickr

redmondbarry / Flickr

The water cooler eﬀect in reverse

A good newspaper, I suppose, is a NATION TALKING TO ITSELF ARTHUR MILLER, 1961

But that’s already happening… twistori.com

so what does a good journalist do now?

There is a new profession of TRAIL BLAZERS – those who ﬁnd delight in the task of establishing useful trails through the enormous mass of the common record. VANNEVAR BUSH, 1945

Nobody is looking for another thing to read.

The biggest shortage in journalism right now isn’t good writers, or even enlightened proprietors willing to fund investigations. IT’S CRITICAL READERS. FELIX SALMON, 2010

Step 1: MASTER THE CONVERSATION.

Talking Points Memo

tell us everything we need to know about something

draw patterns connect dots build context

not a series of isolated dispatches. A STREAM.

Step 2: NURTURE THE CONVERSATION.

traditional reporting is about building a ROLODEX

a b c d e f j 

tomorrow’s reporting is about building a NETWORK

A B C D E d j G e f   

turn sources into commenters

WBUR’s CommonHealth

… cont’d.

Step 3: EXTEND THE CONVERSATION.

you have to go where the conversation is before you can go where it isn’t

The column that felled Enron FORTUNE, 3/5/01

Vanity Fair’s Bethany McLean was also at the breakfast, and she conﬁrmed that the blogosphere is a goldmine for people like her who want to understand the [ﬁnancial] crisis. FELIX SALMON, 2010

Imagine an alternate history

@mthomps mthompson@npr.org mthomps.com Thank you.

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Stories2 streams

by Matthew Thompson

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