Running for Your Life: Who, What, Where and WiFi

If I were to teach a course today in journalism this is what I would call it. There was a time when a version of this phrase – in its pre-Internet form – said it all when it came to news. It amounted to rank order topics of interest: The Who, What, Where, and Whys of my day – the 1970s – actually constituted a primer for how to be an informed and responsible citizen.

The “Why” kicker always coming back to the core. Why do we care about the topic? Hopefully that answer reflected on what you intend to expose to make the world around you a better place. To comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Who, What, Where were the preamble; Why, the essence of the citizen constitution.

Now, though, in our ironically “connected” world, that pre-Internet “Why” has been replaced by WiFi. A story isn’t a story unless it has an extra life in social media. Reporters don’t have a platform to say anything unless they have a gazillion “followers.”

Take the New York Times Magazine makeover. Why do the editors choose to allow a comic-writer clown of a Russian American, Gary Shteyngart, to write his impressions after bingeing on Putin-era TV? Because he is getting to “Why?” No. Because he has a gazillion followers. And those followers will bring the new nyt magazine to the conversation: Hastag nyt. Relevance? Not in the noble tradition of Who, What, Where and Why but the ignoble one of Who, What, Where and WiFi.

When it comes to Who, What, Where and WiFi, journalists aggregate followers first and then the news. Actually report the news, bring a critical vision to public affairs? That’s not a journalism class; it’s a history class.

Next: Running for Your Life: Draft dodging in Canada, circa 2015