Web News Expert Jim Iovino Speaks with GMU Students
By Ginny Atwood, George Mason University. Feb. 12, 2009
- 1. Color coded navigation tabs
- 2. ITunes style image scrolling
- 3. Catchier, edgier content
The internet has struck again, transforming yet another industry. We all know what it did to the music business and the risks it poses to information security, but NBCWashington.com Editor Jim Iovino suggests journalism is taking its lumps with a little more poise.
On Feb. 10, 2009, Iovino visited the Fairfax campus of George Mason University to share his expertise with Steven Klein’s online journalism course.
Iovino studied sports writing at Penn State University and took a position at the Pittsburgh Tribune Review after graduation. He followed a winding journalistic path to several traditional news rooms in print, radio, and television before he noticed potential in the rising popularity of the internet.
The Internet revolution is a force that everyone in this country has felt. It has forever changed the lives of those in almost every line of work and, according to Iovino, has secured itself as the way of the future for all journalists.
The cover story of the American Journalism Review in June 2006 said it best : “Adapt or Die.” However, continuously changing tools and technology make keeping up to date a difficult but increasingly vital task.
Content Management Systems are a development that Iovino says spell good news for new journalists. They enable people with no knowledge of HTML code to easily add and manage content on their sites. Now older generations and laypersons have access to the myriad internet opportunities.
This has made linking so easy that it has spawned a new type of news gathering called link journalism. Now even obscure journalists and bloggers may have their articles “pulled” by a major new site and put on their webpage, says Iovino.
Tammi Marcoullier, vice president of Publish2, who guest spoke in Klein’s class in January, aptly quoted a popular new saying in the online news industry: “Do what you do best and link to the rest.”
NBCwashington.com is putting that idea to use with a new feature on their website. “Hotspots” compiles news about the D.C. area from hundreds of blogs and news sites and displays the information on an interactive map.
According to Iovino, NBC uses a strict vetting process to ensure the credibility of their sources, however not all website do this. False information and personal opinions have leaked into many news sites and it can be hard to tell the difference.
“There is a lot more responsibility on your part now to be a good media consumer,” Klein said.
NBCwashington recently redesigned their website for 2009 with some nice updates. Including:
“We have a lot more snarkiness on our site now,” said Iovino about the slight change in the tone of their articles.
The era of single-medium news rooms with once-a-day deadlines may be ending, but demand for news is still strong. The news industry, nervous about its future, is shakily moving in a new direction.
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