Shedding light in the Rabbit Hole

Via Scoop.it - Sociological Imagination
I don’t need to tell you that the Scientific Revolution kickstarted the modern age. Kevin Kelly lists the discovery of the scientific method alongside the invention of libraries and the printing press as “meta-changes” — the evolution of evolution, changes in the ways things change.   The scientific method isn’t a single thing. It’s a collection of conventions and best practices, rigorously applied. While the need for journalism and the demands on it differ in many ways from those of science, it is a discipline that — like science — seeks truth. There is no “journalistic method” to rival the scientific one. But in that body of conventions and practices, there’s much that journalists should emulate.   - The beauty of process Science places much more of an emphasis on processes. Journalism places much more of an emphasis on outcomes. 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. I encourage the journalists I work with to think in streams, not just discrete stories. Your feed is more important than any single post, and a subscriber is more valuable than a visitor. If you can hook people into your ongoing quest for greater understanding of a beat or topic, you wield a much more powerful asset than the crowd of random people who happen to find one of your stories….. [read full article http://j.mp/qf8D7g]
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