It’s All Journalism

I was sad to see that Michael O’Connell has wrapped up the It’s All Journalism podcast, which he hosted 650 episodes of across more than 12 years.

I’ve learned a lot from listening to it, from big picture thinking about the nature of what we do to nuts and bolts details of the daily operations of a newsroom to everything in between.

Listening to an episode where Michael interviews Simon Galperin about a new model for local news funding prompted me to reach out to Simon and connect around experiments in local news aggregation. That connection has grown and became the foundation of my journalism degree program’s capstone creative project.

Indeed, one could probably spend quite a long time swimming around in the conversations, knowledge, links, references and questions that the podcast has surfaced. I know I’ll never have the time to fully appreciate all of the episodes, but I’ll probably still try.

Michael offers some final thoughts, including:

What I’ve learned in podcasting for 12 years about the changing state of media is that it will continue to change and we will need to continue to change with it. That means mastering new skills, thinking new ideas and challenging ourselves to do better.

Collaborate. Innovate. Question authority. When a person of color or someone in a marginalized community says to you that they’re being prejudiced against, listen to them, acknowledge their truth and report their story.

This is the parent in me: Do good journalism, yes. But be smart, be safe and don’t be afraid to ask for help. It may feel like the world is on your shoulders. It’s not. Rotten, troubling things come in many sizes. Remember, all news is local. Right the wrong that’s in front of you.

Thank you, Michael, for all that you’ve done for journalism, publishing and local news.