Inside Editorial: The best and worst of times

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

Cited and referenced endlessly over the past 150 years, Charles Dickens’ timeless words could easily apply to the state of the news business now.

People are reading, watching and listening to more news than ever before but trust the media less than ever before. There are myriad new mediums and platforms for journalists to use to tell the news but these same mediums have wrought unprecedented disruption on the very business models that support the news. News is more accessible to more people than ever before, but fake news can also spread further and faster than ever before.

It’s a topsy turvy, fascinating time for journalism and here in Barbados and at the Nation, we are not immune to the changes buffeting the industry worldwide.

Amidst all of this, one thing that is increasingly becoming clear to journalists is that we need to do a better job of telling our own story. To us, the news business is straightforward, our decisions understandable and reasonable, our methods logical.

However that is within the bubble of the newsroom. To the outside world, picking up your daily newspaper can give rise to all kinds of questions like:

Why don’t the pictures on the front page match the headlines?

Why didn’t you cover this particular story?

Why did you cover that story?!

How do you even decide what goes into the paper?

Well here is the place to get the answers to all of these questions and many others besides. Inside Editorial will be your window into the workings of the newsroom, explaining the how and why behind the news products you get every day.

Feel free to email me at amandalynch-foster@nationnews.com with specific questions on what you want to understand about the Nation.