My presentation for Poynter's Social Media Day.

1. from STORIES
to STREAMS
THE EVOLUTION OF THE BEAT

2. MATT THOMPSON
@mthomps
mthompson@npr.org
mthomps.com

3. TWO
PARABLES

4. I: A tale of two scandals.
Watergate Enronv.
ladouceur78 / Flickr alex-s / Flickr

5. The Watergate Hotel - Noah Kalina / Flickr

6. FORTUNE, 3/5/01
The column that felled Enron

7. from information scarcity …

8. … to information overload

9. II. The classic editor
RAIJSI / Flickr

10. redmondbarry / Flickr

11. The water cooler effect in reverse

12. ARTHUR MILLER, 1961
A good newspaper,
I suppose, is a
NATION
TALKING
TO ITSELF

13. twistori.com
But that’s already happening…

14. so what does a
good journalist
do now?

15. There is a new profession of
TRAIL BLAZERS
– those who find delight in the task of
establishing useful trails
through the enormous mass
of the common record.
VANNEVAR BUSH, 1945

16. Nobody is looking for
another thing to read.

17. FELIX SALMON, 2010
The biggest shortage in
journalism right now
isn’t good writers,
or even enlightened proprietors
willing to fund investigations.
IT’S CRITICAL
READERS.

18. Step 1:
MASTER THE
CONVERSATION.

19. Talking Points Memo

20. tell us everything
we need to know
about something

21. draw patterns
connect dots
build context

22. not a series of isolated dispatches.
A STREAM.

23. Step 2:
NURTURE THE
CONVERSATION.

24. traditional reporting
is about building a
ROLODEX

25. j
a b c d e f


26. tomorrow’s reporting
is about building a
NETWORK

27. j

A B C D E
Gd
e f  

28. turn sources
into commenters

29. WBUR’s CommonHealth

30. … cont’d.

31. Step 3:
EXTEND THE
CONVERSATION.

32. you have to go where the
conversation is
before you can go
where it isn’t

33. FORTUNE, 3/5/01
The column that felled Enron

34. Vanity Fair’s Bethany McLean
was also at the breakfast, and she confirmed that
the blogosphere is a goldmine
for people like her who want
to understand the [financial] crisis.
FELIX SALMON, 2010

35. Imagine an alternate history

38. Thank you.
@mthomps
mthompson@npr.org
mthomps.com