Patrice Riemens on Sat, 24 Nov 2018 14:20:30 +0100 (CET)


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Re: <nettime> Seth Abramson: We need a new kind of journalism (Guardian)



True, but I believe that the problem that Seth Abramson points out is that as a consequence of de-funding investigative journalism by the big mainstream media a gap arises between day-to-day news (& instant analysis) journalism and historians, who usually come several years after the events. Of course, books are also published covering a particular situation in depth (?) quite soon, like his, but then there too, rushing to publish may leave big lapses, of fact maybe , but even more of interpretation/contextualisation.


On 2018-11-24 13:50, David Garcia wrote:
Assuming there is any truth in the hoary old cliche that "journalism
is the first rough draft of history"
then how does Abramson’s notion of “curatorial journalism”
differ from the role of historian?

The act he describes of "going beyond a recitation of the facts
reliably sourced, to establishing a readily digestible
narrative that establishes how and why we have come to the point we
have – without sacrificing the
complexities of the subject” sounds to me a lot like taking a few
steps along the way to the writing of history.
Do we actually gain anything by way of insight or illumination by
introducing the term “curatorial”
to the methods and the journey that take us from journalism to
history.. And isnt this another sign that
"curatorial” is rapidly becoming an overextended concept in danger
of losing all meaning.

David Garcia

On 24 Nov 2018, at 10:41, Patrice Riemens <patrice@xs4all.nl> wrote:

In each of these cases, what is needed is not just a recitation of
facts but an encompassing, reliably sourced, readily digestible
narrative that establishes how and why we have come to the point we
have – without sacrificing the complexities of the subject. Done
well, the result of all this compiling, connecting and synthesizing
will be not just a thorough history but also the production of new
knowledge on each of these critical topics.
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In this way, curatorial journalism can help ameliorate the deficits
of understanding our digital age inevitably produces, leaving us not
just better informed but also more trusting of the work done by our
most deeply committed investigative reporters. Here’s hoping this
new subgenre of new media journalism continues to inform us at this
critical juncture in history and perhaps, in time, gets its due.
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