Abstract
Jake Batsell’s new journalism book Engaging Journalism: Connecting With Digitally Empowered News Audiences brings forth a transitional point of view of not only a shift and change in journalism, but in the way in which journalism professionals approach journalism in the field. Throughout the book, Batsell relays insights from leading news outlets from NPR to Washington Post to new emerging news outlets like GeekWire.
Yet, Batsell’s discussion in many cases on what newsrooms and journalism professionals need to do to engage their audiences almost sounds like traditional public relations strategies. There were points in reviewing this book I had to double check to make sure this was a journalism book I was reviewing rather than a public relations book. The themes of interacting with audiences, listening and engaging audiences as part of a conversation, and even setting up face-to-face meetings and events sound like the same strategies you would read in a public relations textbook. Even Batsell discusses how the book is about people and not necessarily the technology they use to communicate and interact with each other.
Many of the principles, trends, and even industry changes noted in this book are also happening in other respective fields, not just journalism. It appears marketing and journalism professionals have been looking at social media historically as being a tool, whereas social media is about engaging dialogue between audiences, relationship management, and the hub for content creation and curation. Even though Batsell emphasizes these points in this book, it still feels as though the field of journalism is approaching social media (and other new media platforms) as another channel of communication to reach audiences, rather than have a conversation with them. Promoting stories and getting the news out is one thing, but striking a meaningful conversation to build relationships for two-way dialogue is another point that needs to be considered.
Batsell spent several years interviewing and observing newsroom in a truly transformational period where journalists and reporters not only integrated new media as part of their news reporting duties, but also embodied the overall essence of what makes new media “social” in the first place. These interviews were extensive, diverse, and a blend of historically established news platforms and ones that were started as startups.
We see this throughout the book with examples of providing and creating experiences that provide value and meaning. Yet, the role of a journalist and reporter is to report the facts and information to their audiences, which is different from what Batsell is discussing in this book. Yet, this provides a window into the growing paradigm shift we are seeing in the journalism profession. Journalists are not only representing their own media outlet, but they are their own personal media outlets as well. Batsell also discusses this point when he focuses on the news not from just reporting updates and information, but as a way to start a conversation. What is interesting is to explore the various changes we are seeing not necessarily with the tools, but the behavior the reporters have to consider adding into their professional regime as they interact with, correspond, and respond to their various audiences. Although this is not necessarily a new point to consider for new media professionals, it is interesting to examine the attitude toward the news from these reporters as a way to hand over some control over the story to their audiences to create their own experience.
Engagement is a word that is used quite frequently in the new media circle among practitioners and researchers. However, in this book, Batsell conceptualizes engagement as being “the degree to which a news organization actively considers and interacts with its audiences in furtherance of its journalistic and financial mission” (p. 7). Although this may be conceptualized as engagement in journalism, this is not the overarching definition of engagement for all respective disciplines, which may be a point for Batsell to consider here when defining this term this way. Engagement is not limited to just a news organization, and the overall purpose is to sustain relationships with audiences in real time and for the long term.
The overall presentation of this book reflects extensive research into journalists and their viewpoint on how to empower and engage their audiences with their stories through new media platforms. Each chapter reflects at least five strategies to accomplish these points. The interviews conducted in this book provide a diverse point of view of the growing opportunities, challenges, and best practices newsrooms and journalists face on a daily basis with new media. Both professionals and students need to be aware of these in and outside of the classroom.
Yet, one of the missing tasks here in this book is to provide directions for what future journalism students and professionals should take away from these insights. What are the next steps for engagement for the news community? In addition, though the outline of the book provided clear themes related to engagement, there were parts where the reader felt that it jumped from one idea to another without a strong transitional connection between the two.
Essentially, this book could have been broken into several parts focusing on the evolution of the field of journalism and duties of reporters in the 21st century, new media practices and case studies for journalism, and best practices for personal branding using new media for reporters.
Several questions came up when reviewing this book—where would this book be placed in the journalism curriculum, and would other majors such as advertising and public relations students have an interest in reviewing this book? The answer is yes. This book does have a place as an introductory reading piece possibility for new graduate students before they enter their respective master’s program. This book does present an integrated view of how our respective disciplines in communication are not silos anymore, but rather entering a world where the barriers and lines are blending more together. This book also represents an opportunity to provide students with a window into the field in case they are looking at entering the journalism field, so an introduction to journalism course at the graduate level may be another appropriate venue to explore incorporating this textbook in.