The 'C' word

Convergence has been the buzz word in journalism for the last decade and for most journalists it means more work, less pay and less time to work on in depth stories.

Lest there be any confusion the 'convergence' I'm talking about here is the convergance of skills across a number of mediums that modern journalists are expected to work on; print; online; video; audio. The backpack journalist.

Is this convergence about serving the consumer or pandering to them? And are consumers (once known as readers) really served by this, or is it simply a case of less journalists to act as watchdogs?

The problem with newspapers being run like fast-food outlets (the minimal standard the consumer will accept with the least amount of staff possible) is that societey eventually suffers.

Less journalists = Fewer Watchdogs = More Corruption. A fair enough assumption I think.

That's not to say that there aren't positives to multi-media, or that audio, video and online don't enhance the media offering (if and when necessary.) And no doubt as younger journalists come into the industry, working across mediums will be easier for them.

But as Markham Nolan asks on his blog today, does multi-media = multi-mediocre? If today's online editions of Irish papers are anything to go by... Sadly, yep.