Spring 1995
The cliche of the haggard, disheveled journalist trying to ferret out stories in the local bar has been replaced with a new reality: the digital newshound.
In a presentation at San Francisco State University Saturday morning called Digital News Hounds": Way New Techniques of Editing, Reporting, and Visuals, members of the Bay Area media offered insights as to how the digital revolution affects today's media. San Jose Mercury News computer editor Dan Gilmor, said that computer based technology offers people an array of facts and ideas previously unavailable to them. "If a person sees something that makes them wonder about a particular issue, computer technology will enable them to check out the facts," Gilmore said. "For example, a journalist I know used the new technology to check out how often the famous groundhog accurately predicted the beginning of spring. She was able to determine that the groundhog had a 90% success rate. There was also a great story that used computer research to show how minorities are discriminated against when applying for housing loans. The banks denied it, but the facts were all available to us, right there on the computer."
Bay Area Guardian writer Martin Espinoza employs the new technology to enhance community-based reporting. Espinoza, who often writes about issues affecting the Mission Area, said that computers and online reporting function as journalist at neighborhood meetings.
"As a reporter, getting to know the voices and members of a particular community is important to me," Espinoza said. "What online technology does is create a forum for all these voices to gather and air their opinions. The gatekeepers of the media are replaced by memebrs of the community."
Addicted to Noise editor Michael Goldberg offers the rock music connoisseur something no other publication does: the chance to hear their favortite music online. The magazine contains online reportage of music from Alaska to Australia. Albums are reviewed, and brief samples of the music are also included.
"This way," Goldberg said, "rock fans can judge for themselves the quality of the music before having to dole out the cash for it."
One of the themes stressed in the presentation was that the new technology enhances, but doesn't replace fundamental journalism. Gilmor pointed out that no amount of technology can replace the basic premise of journalism: the ability to connect with people.
"Behind the numbers are people," Gilmor said. "Technology can help to disseminate information and make it easier to gather, but journalists still have to find human beings to define and illuminate the stories."