With my last post i added a “More on” section to my posts. This move was to some degree triggered by the discussion that was started by Scott Karp’s “Reinventing Journalism On The Web: Links As News, Links As Reporting“.

Here are some of my thoughts on this discussion:

• Linking is THE essence of the web.
• Transparency about the sources, as well as stimulating the readers to dig deeper and make up their own minds are the immediate are IMHO the two most important benefits for online journalsm. Hence it is a no brainer for me that links have to be a core part of ALL online articles (Note to self: check if there is ANY post on this blog without a link . If so, why is it there in the first place?
• I know that linking that is actually adding value to an article is not easy and time-comsuming. But this IMHO is the core of online journalism. So if you’re not doing it you might consider stop writing online.
• A thoughtfully and carefully edited collection of links, provides added value. It is preferrable to have some introductory text that provides some context (see transparency), but if there is a decision to be made to publish the collection of links without context and not publishing at all, i’m always in favor of publishing. Readers are intelligent persons. They might figure the context by themselves ;-)
• I’m surprised that this kind of discussion is starting now in journalism, i thought this issue was resloverd at least a couple of years ago.

More on: Link Journalism

Link Journalism: Is Linking to News a form of Journalism?

…link journalism. “Link journalism is linking to other reporting on the web to enhance, complement, source, or add more context to a journalist’s original reporting,” he wrote. Links as journalism is something that Karp has been writing about recently; it ties into new media and citizen journalism, and it is something that we think warrants a c…

Citizen Media Business Issues: Review and Comparison

…is not journalism, and it raises far too many serious ethical concerns to merit a recommendation. Chances are good that you already have an idea how each of these would play out on your site, but if one doesn’t jump out at you, how do you decide what the right first step is? The elements of creativity and customizability are substantial enough i…

How Link Journalism Could Have Transformed The New York Times Reporting On McCain Ethics

…LINKS to the the actual reporting that has been done over the years. For the occasion, I’m going to coin a new term: link journalism It’s what I attempted to describe the other day in the post on Links As News, Links As Reporting. Link journalism is linking to other reporting on the web to enhance, complement, source, or add more context to a jo…

Reinventing Journalism On The Web: Links As News, Links As Reporting

…cornerstone of journalism has always been reporting what key sources say, put in context and given perspective, alongside reported facts. It’s time to reinvent that process on the web — make it dynamic — using the fundamental mechanism for connecting information and people: the LINK “Do what you do best, and link to the rest” is Jeff Jarvis’ mot…