The dangers of the “good enough” concept in journalism…
August 10, 2007I am spending this week in Washington, D.C. attending the annual convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. On Wed. I was part of a panel on convergence and the future of newspapers in this country. Other panelists included folks from washingtonpost.com, The New York Times and the Honolulu Advertiser. A lot of talk took place on the fact that journalism on the net contains more errors and more mistakes than its counter-part in print. The need to speed to publish was mentioned as one reason and the young age of the medium was another reason. The scary part, at least to me, is that statement which I have now heard for the third time at the last three different conventions I have attended around the country. All what journalists need to do to go online is to have a “good enough” product. I heard the same message preached over and over by all kind of experts who are trying to help newspapers transition themselves from print to the web. For some reason my heart aches every time I hear the phrase “good enough.” What type of future are we heading towards if we are going to settle for “good enough?” I was so thankful to hear Bill Moyers, the convention’s keynote speaker last night, reminding people that “journalism matters.” He repeated it time after time during his address and recited name after name of journalists who were killed in the midst of doing their job of “journalism that matters.” Journalism that matters cannot be journalism that is “good enough.” Please spread the word. “Journalism Matters.” Thank you Mr. Moyers for being the voice of hope and wisdom in the midst of the jungle of “good enough journalism.” Thank you for reminding us that “journalism matters.”
Mr. Magazine 
Well, Mr Husni
I think you’re actually comparing apples and oranges. The journalism and the total quality of the product published are not one and the same. What a lot of – heavily Hayden Christensen influenced – media people are trying to do is to stop overthinking online products. I actually think that “good enough” is a great way of conducting journalism online, to actually get off our lazy behinds and start publishing real stories (done in the proper way) online.
If we apply the same rules for our online products as we do for our print products – there is just going to be a lot more non-journalistic products eating up our reader’s time. As journalists and publishers we must understand that the web poses not only the traditional editorial challenge but also a massive challenge where journalism is not the only reason for publishing any more – publishing is the reason for publishing. The net lives on – and by – it’s constant stream of information and the longer we wait to go online and the longer we sit and figure out what the perfect solution would be (which is impossible when development is at such a pace) the more obsolete “real journalism” will be online. I firmly believe that journalism’s not only a pillar of democracy but also an aquired taste – therefore we must let people taste it and taste it regularly. And if that means publishing “good enough” now…well, then I rather take that than “perfect” never.
Best regards
/Fredrik, Stockholm