Paper tigers

The paper mentality annoys the crap out of me sometimes. Ink on paper is what they do and  don’t care about other formats unless they get into trouble.

Here’s where it all began: the portuguese national football coach Carlos Queiroz described the portuguese football federation’s structure as “amateur” in an interview to a weekly newspaper. Of course he was quoted on that, but he now says that the journalist who interviewed him is a “dishonest, lying crook” and denies the statement. The journalist says his conscience is clear because he has a recording. Ok, he’s off the hook. But why the hell haven’t they used the recording in the first place? The newspaper has a website, they would get thousands of hits just to hear the man say that, especially when he already attacked the Federation in a previous passage as a national coach in 92.

This reminds me the story of the portuguese deputy that stole the tape recorders from two journalists while  being interviewed, but as an old fashioned guy he forgot he was being filmed (he already returned them to their rightful owners).

So we have other media involved in the process of news gathering but they’re just for private use?  Priority to the paper product, not to to the audience? And you wonder why people take the chance to attack you? I’d like to have access to full interviews on a news website, no editing unless justified, the rough matter of news exposed. Hell, if it was good I’d even pay for it. But no, let’s put it on paper and that’s good enough.

Related posts:

1. Why i’m not enthusiastic about NewsTilt
2. Social Healing?
3. Decline in print and rise in online journalism: an interview
4. Of Past and Future: Archives and information’s lifespan
5. PortugalDailyView.com: Portuguese news in English

Alex Gamela é jornalista freelancer e um pensador sobre os novos media, e é Mestre em Jornalismo Online, na Birmingham City University. É o autor do reputado blog The Lake | O Lago, dedicado à evolução e ao futuro do Jornalismo. Este é a continuação do trabalho iniciado aí.