All journalists of a certain age have had to learn the computer. No, they’ve even been grateful for its forgiving nature, especially those who can remember when press day meant the clatter of thirty typewriters in a hot newsroom. And we more recent entrants of a certain age have had to catch up on our own: we word process, we email, we surf the net – what more can be expected of us?
I seem to have joined the blogosphere at a time when debate is raging about the place of the internet in news. Turn this notion on its head: those who long ago embraced blogging, social networking and image sharing are now questioning the place of printed newspapers in news dissemination. Are traditionalists right to worry about the appeal of the screen to the next generation of their customers? And is the gap between techies and luddites really getting wider?If so, howardowens.com has thrown down a timely gauntlet to journos to become fully wired up in a year. Call it a new year’s resolution: we’re to blog, upload our videos, share photos online, launch a virtual social life, subscribe to news on RSS and reveal our favourite web haunts with a social bookmark. Howardowens.com means to have us fluently mashing and twittering by the end of 2008.
Well, this humble freelancer might not be eligible for the prize at the end of it, but I’ve certainly looked around the ideas, thanks for the links. First the blog: just created (thanks Katy!), this is only my second post. I haven’t even decorated it yet so don’t get too critical; treat it like I just moved in.Next I visited YouTube and chose a video that refused to do anything but stare back at me. My computer politely informed me I needed some new software which it promptly refused to download – short, apparently, on Java-literacy. So many obstacles when the spirit is willing but the hardware is weak.
On social networking, Facebook sounds good, it’s where many of my friends are and probably the logical place for me. But the neophyte is rebuffed from the off by needing to be a member before they can look at anything. ”Trust me,” the software seems to say, “the water’s warm and you’ll love it once you’re in.”I remain unconvinced by social bookmarking and even RSS. Isn’t it all a bit addictive and time-consuming, I mean, when do I get the day job done? or do you guys stay up all night?
So I’m going the slow road, gently blogging, learning html so I can build a website, oh, and perhaps a computer upgrade at some point. Who knows, I might even make it on YouTube and Facebook by the end. But hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day, or a year, was it?
