This Poynter piece by my Argo partner-in-crime, Matt Thompson, effectively gets at what we’re encouraging across the network: Getting beyond thinking of our work as individual stories, but instead making the journey of your discovery, the educating of your audience over time, be your key focus. To wit:
Journalists think in discrete stories. As in, “I’m finished with this story. Onto the next.” We often aim to produce these polished gems of Aristotelian narrative, bearing arresting ledes, explosive kickers and genuine catharsis somewhere in the midst. In science, the continued journey toward greater knowledge is an unending quest. Scientists spend entire careers advancing the state of knowledge in their field, not whizzing from discovery to discovery, but gradually pursuing an ever-greater understanding. The ability to turn the process of reporting into a compelling, unending story of its own is becoming an increasingly vital journalistic skill.
The lesson here? Think about your site and your radio reporting as part of an ongoing quest. Let each post build on previous ones. Follow threads that emerge from posts. Resist the urge to work so hard on your weekly banner pieces that you neglect the bigger picture — that it’s our jobs to connect these posts and pieces together.
