Brad Kalbfeld talks about digital journalism
Brad Kalbfeld
Brad Kalbfeld knows what it’s like to be a journalist. He has been doing it for more than 36 years.
Three weeks ago, on Tuesday, April 5, Kalbfeld joined students in Steve Klein’s COMM 361 Online Journalism class and spoke regarding the implications of the iPhone.
He brought with himself, a typewriter, a Telex machine, a bulky laptop and an iPhone.
“From typewriters to laptops, journalism has taken a drastic turn of events…for the best,” said Kalbfeld, a former international correspondent for the Associated Press.
Kalbfeld also helped in writing the 2006 AP Style Guidebook.
“I used this Telex machine where I would have to pay by the word,” Kalbfeld said.
Sound similar to something we used nowadays to save words? TWITTER.
As the discussion continued, Kalbfeld displayed a chart that showed the difference between the analog world and digital world.
“The analog world goes like this: event occurs, the reporter writes a story on it, the copy editor edits it, the section editor edits it, and the managing editor edits it until it goes to the reader.”
For Kalbfeld, they are all filters to the public.
“In the digital world, anyone can write a story and it goes straight to the audience, without any filters.”
This gives readers the power to decide what news is and what is not. However, there is one problem in citizen journalism for Kalbfeld.
“There is no balance. We take a picture and it only represents one side of the story. A lot of times, we fail to give the whole picture,” Kalbfeld said. “It is the citizen’s responsibility to be skeptical!”