Friday, 11 March 2016, 11:30 a.m.
It’s the great newsroom double bind: keep up with new technologies or risk becoming obsolete,. but do it while keeping up your day job (which takes all your time). If everyone in the newsroom feels this pressure, the news apps developers and CAR reporters who thrive on being the cool kids on the bleeding edge can feel it even more keenly. In this session, we'll consider some of the methods we use as individuals and as teams to overcome this challenge and build an environment that fosters continuous learning. A few questions we'll consider: How do I continuously hone my chops and keep current with changing technology if that’s not the only thing I do with my time? What strategies have individuals and teams developed that build learning into their workflows and routines? How can editors help create a team culture that supports learning and experimentation without sacrificing productivity? And how can these lessons be applied more broadly to help less technically minded reporters catch up and keep up?
- Troy Thibodeaux, AP
- Gabriel Dance, The Marshall Project
- Mariana Santos, Chicas Poderosas, Fusion, FIU
- Adam Schweigert, INN
Adam Schweigart
No background in news or tech. Learned everything he knows on the job/hobby.
Biggest problem is finding a balance that works. Always behind, which is hard. The confluence of news and technology is especially difficult. We're trying to solve hard problems.
How do we hold each other accountable for learning so the whole team can move forward?
Mariana Santos
No breaking news, so we have more time. Use of VR: They built their own. Excited about new tools, how can we use them the best? How can we do data visualization in addition to VR? It has to be useful, otherwise why use it? Look at new technologies and ask how can we apply this to journalism?
As a manager, I'm cheerleader of the team, what's your passion, what are you interested in pursuing?
Gabriel Dance
Internal pressures vs. External pressures
If you don't feel like you're struggling to keep up, you're probably not pushing hard enough.
Struggle can be useful because it's interspersed with successes.
"You're going to fail, all the time. And occasionally, hopefully, you'll succeed."
External pressures
Editors, elsewhere
Someone sees the latest cool thing and they just want to do it.
We must help educate. We take that on when we run teams. "Deflect and protect".
Mariana Santos
If editors want a technology, we think about how it can best apply. Plan A is wild success, Plan B is less ambitious and easy.
Evergreen projects provide flexibility
Gabriel Dance
Failure is an interesting word; There are different levels of failure.
Build different strengths within your team. Makes complete failure less of an option.
Adam Schweigert
Building different strengths helps with hiring too.
Where are we weakest?
Failure is fine as long as you learn from it.
Spending 5 minutes vs. 5 hours vs. 5 days exploring something.
Gabriel Dance
A nice way to create an evironment for success is to "not hire dickheads."
"You need to hire people who get along with one another."
"People are successful when they're happy."
Troy Thibodeaux
"Tech-tosterone"
Mariana Santos
Organize workshops for everyone. Invite editors and producers. Fusion does once a month.
Gabriel Dance
Brownbags. Everyone's busy, but take the time.
If your team is congenial, some of this happens organically.
A lot of it just involves speaking to one another, which sounds obvious but a lot of teams don't do it. Foster an environment of communication.
Adam Schweigert
Places where everyone goes home at 5, eats lunch alone are kind of depressing.
Remote teams have to work extra hard.
Office hours, community call, project feedback, multi-organization Slacks.
Treat the team and process almost like its own product.
Mariana Santos
Think about your audience and where they are already.
Gabriel Dance
Keep an eye on the people you admire. Have heroes.
Be tapped into the pop culture. Figure out what they're into, and why they're into it. Pivot into one of your own projects.
Adam Schweigert
Watch artists and comedians. They're doing this too. Look outside of news.
Gabriel Dance
Also advertising. Advertisers' jobs are to get your attention and convince you to do something. That is also our job.
Gabriel Dance
The best journalists I know are the hardest working journalists I know.
If you're doing what you love, you'll do it all the time. It's not work.
Iterate. Every time we do a project, there needs to be a gain that the next project or site can benefit from.
Adam Schweigert
A lot of our work is based on how it can apply to the most organizations.
One-off projects can have value. Creativity, boundary-pushing.
Mariana Santos
Point out where we did badly and can do better next time.
Gabriel Dance
Must be honest. There's always room for improvement. Debriefs and reviews.
Adam Schweigert
Share your work. Write about it. Get it out of your head.
Gabriel Dance
Documentation! Organizations change, people leave. Institutional Knowledge is very important.
Q: What are some good conferences that are off the beaten path?
A: Mariana Santos: Ads conferences. Art conferences.
Adam Schweigert: Lectures and meetups can also be useful.
Gabriel Dance: Conference cynic. But have a hobby. Will expand your mind into other opportunities. Journalism can be an echo chamber.
Q: How do you build community on a team, make an open environment?
A: Gabriel Dance: Hire the right people. Always be candid, say what you mean. That's not being mean. Talk about your personal failures.
Adam Schweigert: Have standards, a code of conduct. Institutionalize it as part of the team's values.
Q: How do you balance team friendship with diversifying newsroom?
A: Mariana Santos: Easier said than done. There are still disagreements among friends. Can be harder when you're good friends with everyone. What is best for the company? Be kind. Say hello in the morning.
Gabriel Dance: We're fallible. Trying to hire people exclusively for skills doesn't necessarily make good teams. Diversity is important. Different people see the world in a different way. It's not impossible to find nice people who are diverse who have good skills, but it is harder. We undervalue diversity and overvalue skills.