Converge or Die – Journalism’s New Motto

Professional journalists are afraid to lose their jobs because of the credit crunch and also because of the ever-increasing power of the internet. 

While I think the first is a real problem (as publishers, broadcasters have to cut their budget to survive), I do not consider the latter one a threat to the industry.

Csaba Balogh, a Hungarian journalist and blogger told me in an interview: “It is exactly the internet why newspapers have a future.”

According to him, journalists have nothing else to do, but convert (converge) their knowledge and professional skills and start writing on-line as newspapers are “dying”. This, of course does not necessarily mean that professional journalists are no longer needed – although there is an increasing number of citizen journalists – as they bring their professionalism and investigative initiative to this quick-changing industry. They just have to learn to write in a different style and for a different readership.

These changes might be difficult but they also open up new opportunities: journalists can add links, videos, sound material, etc and even more pictures to their articles which make them interesting and unique.

I agree with this approach and as a journalism student I am happy to see that universities have understood these changes well and adapt to them perfectly.

E.g.: in the summer I got a phone call from my University (Edinburgh Napier) and they did a little phone-interview with me and at the end they told me that the course does not simply concentrate on newspapers, TV and radio any more, but largely on the internet and blogging, offering us a multimedia education; and honestly, what would we do without it these days?

A New Era for Me

Craiglochart Campus, Edinburgh Napier University - picture by sparky2000

As you may or may not know, I started my journalism studies at Edinburgh Napier University this year. We had to write four articles to start our new career with and as I never in my life have done anything similar to this, it was quite an experience.

The first one was an interview made in Princes Street Gardens so I grabbed my notebook and my pen and went for my “person hunt”. We had to find two people, elderly or tourists. I decided that the best would be to find an elderly tourist And so I did.

The first few people I asked said that they were not interested, they did not want to buy anything Even the elderly people were not kind and this was a shock for me. Grandma and grandpa are kind… Or at least they should be…

After walking my legs off, I finally found a gorgeous couple from Germany. The interview was exciting as I had no idea what to ask from them. Imagine: I had to write an article about a person’s life story… And I am not so good in preparing in advance, in fact, I do not believe you can prepare in advance for an interview if you do not know who the interviewee is going to be.

Anyway, I knew what I wanted to know I just did not have enough experience (especially in English), to ask the proper questions. After a while I got the angle of the story and I was unstoppable.

The second piece was an easier one for me: a profile of a journalist. I felt very lucky as I happen to know a Hungarian journalist (we went to the same University and had a class together), so I could do the interview in Hungarian and did not even have to struggle too much with the questions. We have known each other for three years now and I knew a lot of things about him.

Thus, I could prepare my questions in advance as I almost knew his answers as well. This happened to be an hour-long interview which I really enjoyed translating into English. I would love to do this all my life. It was also very comfortable as I did the interview through Skype and I could look into my lecture notes to check whether I was doing the right thing.

Our third article was a Parliament report. This was the hardest as I had to cope with the different accents of MSPs and also with words I have never heard before. I did not know the politicians either, so I tried to guess their names from the vowels I heard I was not sure if I could manage but I could even get some quotes.

Our final task was a feature for the BMI‘s in-flight magazine, the Voyager. We were asked to write something in connection with Edinburgh or Glasgow. As I work in a hotel restaurant this was not really difficult; I meet tourists every single day, I talk to them, I know why they choose certain restaurants and destinations so I decided to write about something regarding restaurants. I called the head-chef of the four star hotel, and we had a chat which I recorded. The result was a 1000-word article about the comfort of hotel restaurants.

In the future I would like to make a few changes: I would like to be more prepared as luck will not always accompany me throughout my academic studies. I will also have to get used to the different accents here and this might improve by listening to the radio or going to council meetings…and if I read more newspaper my vocabulary will improve and I will also get to know how certain articles look like, what makes them interesting and what readers want.

A True Story of Success – Csaba B(a)log(h)

Csaba Balogh - picture by Gabor Suhajda

Csaba Balogh has never looked back since launching his journalistic career on the world wide web. Now editor of several web journals and one of Hungary’s best known bloggers, he warns newspapers and magazines must embrace digital technology to survive.

In 2007, Balogh sent an email to the chief editor of a news website, Hir6.hu, saying that he would willingly write articles for them. To show he was serious he invited the editor of Hir6 to visit his blogs. Within weeks he was working for the website and in recognition of his technical skills, was made online director.

Balogh decided to be a journalist following a visit to the leading radio station in his hometown of Bekescsaba, Hungary. “It was totally a coincidence,” he said. The event had been organised by his mother because teenage Balogh seemed to like telephoning radio stations to request songs and she thought it would be interesting for him to see how things were in a bigger studio.

Once in the studio, the presenter of a youth magazine asked him if he wanted to go back on a Sunday to see how the programme was produced. When he went back, the presenter asked him just ten minutes before the end of the line-up to do a presentation.

“I wasn’t nervous at all as I didn’t have time to intercept what was going on,” he said. Later he was offered a job at the station.

In 2003, he joined the communications department at the University of Szeged. At the time he did not have a conception as everything interested him. “I would say that I either didn’t have an exact idea or I had/have a lot,” he said.

As blogging started becoming to be in the focus, Balogh started his own with some friends. Blogter.hu, the biggest Hungarian blog provider at the time, put his second writing on the front page as the leading article. He got encouraged by this and continued blogging and also success continued to accompany his efforts.

“One that cannot break through with the help of the internet does certainly not know his stuff,” he said. Balogh claims that the easiest way to success is through the internet as there is sudden feedback and viewers “might respond quicker then you leave the dashboard of your blog.”

The Hungarian talent also states that blogs are the future of journalism, rather than being a threat for the industry. “It is exactly the internet why journalism has a future. The same crew could publish with the help of a different medium.”

However, he admits that journalism as we knew it, is not that important nowadays as public communications, i.e.: news gathering sites and blogging, of course. He sees the importance of journalists in their relationships, acquaintances in the industry, politics and social life.

Balogh also has a slightly different view of the crisis of print journalism. According to him it is not only print, but online journalism as well, that is in a critical situation: “I think if someone thinks that it is only print journalism that’s in crisis as a medium, is wrong,” he said. The reason, he thinks, is that people prefer articles with a subjective and more frank style and those that have video and sound materials as well.

When asked about the credit crunch Balogh said: “Because of it a lot of media jobs have been cut but it also makes the companies to economize. However, it doesn’t matter if they do, I still welcome those who are good professionals because there aren’t too many.”

Balogh enjoys the freedom he has as a journalist with no specific working hours; he is an editor, writer, and content-developing advisor for Oroscafe.hu, and Mobilport.hu. Although he is looking forward to teaching at the university he studied at next year, he saya: ‘”Being a good journalist cannot be taught. Someone is either good or not.”