Journalist and blogger Shane Richmond makes some interesting points about the internet and journalism at his Telegraph blog. I’d just note that adding more doesn’t mean changing what’s already written.. or, at least, it shouldn’t..
The years of habit, the mere notion of a final edition, have created the illusion that news stories can at some point be considered finished.
All we ever do when we publish a newspaper is run out of time. Given more time there would always be more to add to a story, more angles to pursue and newer stories to find space for. We can never be completely correct, only as correct as possible in the time available. We check as much as we can but we still get it wrong sometimes, all of us. And there it is, off stone, in print. Unchangeable.
The internet removes the time barrier. Without it, we never stop, and still we’re never completely right. But everything can be changed. Publish what you know now; learn more, add more. It’s never finished and it’s never completely right.
Indeed. It can be positively Baconian, as someone might have said..
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