Journalist/Coder Debate: Exercise in Futility
There's a misguided journalism vs. coding debate flaring up in the wake of David Cohn's recent blog post (and the flare-up isn't Cohn's fault, it's just a side effect).I think we all agree that journalism is important and coding is important, but things get messy when we hear dramatic cries for more "journalist-coders." Do we really need journalist-coders? I'm certainly not against them, but I also don't think the future of journalism (or coding, for that matter) lies in a journalist's ability to code. The crux of journalism is, and always will be, storytelling.
If you can code but can't tell a story, you're a sucky journalist. Where's the benefit in that? Now, if you're a journalist who has an interest in coding -- as David Cohn does -- then by all means, go forth and acquire the kung-fu programming skills you need to make your interactive ideas come to life. But this idea that journalists need to code is nonsense.
Scott Rosenberg from Wordyard addresses the issue eloquently:
"But the pressing need is not for people who can write code with one hand and stories with the other. What journalists do need is working digital literacy. They need to understand something about how the technology that’s reshaping media works, how it’s built, what its strengths and weaknesses are, and how to harness it."
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