A tool might be able to create a shiny artistic jumble for you, but it can’t find you the story in there or explain to your readers why they should care. The essential complexity is not to be abhorred, it’s to be celebrated. So embrace that. Stop hoping for a silver bullet. Learn to program. And remember, no tool will save journalism.
Good post up at Nieman Labs about journalism and technology.
The secret: Do something cool. But don’t do it assuming it will be the future. Do it because it’s cool. (Fun fact: I knew nothing about PHP until I dipped into SFB. My HTML was rusty. My CSS was outdated. But I still figured it out. Create a reality distortion field for yourself — assume nobody else will do it.)
(via shortformblog)
