Dr. Richard Welch is one of many
journalists that has adapted to new media. Welch, a lecturer in
Communication at Georgia State University, teaches his journalism
students how to adjust to new technology, which is critical to know
for their future careers.
Journalism consists of investigating
and reporting, and new media is one way that journalists can
communicate to their audience. New media consists of digital
technologies that are interactive and give on-demand access. Today,
because it is the most popular medium used to receive news, most news
agencies rely on new media; however, Welch remembers a time when
journalism was simply ink and paper.
His first journalism job was in 1973 at
the Statesboro Herald, a
small town newspaper in Statesboro, GA. His father worked for a
newspaper as well, but he never guessed he would follow in his
footsteps. After the first week Richard fell in love with his job.
He favored seeing his results fast, describing it as instant
gratification, similar to seeing an iron instantly removing wrinkles.
However, it wasn't as simple as ironing.
“You
have to understand, I worked on a manual typewriter, " Welch said. "I had to write
the story, pull it off the typewriter, hand edit it, and turn it to
my editor. Sometimes in just 15 minutes...I did everything myself.
I wrote the stories, I shot the pictures, and I printed my stories.”
Richard was one of
two reporters, literally having to write half of all published
stories. His average output was six stories per day, everyday.
Despite the hard-work process, he still was amazed by the finished
product in the short amount of time. Little did he know, a few
decades later there would be technology that could cut this time in
half.
With
the development of new media and technology, Welch still believes his
work is the same, just produced faster. “I write now the way I
wrote for the Statesboro Herald.
Everything I write is storytelling.” He believes that journalism
hasn't changed because you are still doing your reporting, getting
quotes, finding facts, and organizing it in a way the reader will
understand the story. The process is not different, it is the
technology that allows us to get the story told that is different.
He
compares this to the social network site Twitter. “I was tweeting
when I was at the Statesboro Herald.
I had to count characters when I wrote headlines. If you can't
write a good headline, than you can't tweet.”
Digital Journalism
is the title of one of the many courses Welch teaches at Georgia
State University. Within this class students learn how to work with
new media by creating news stories through video production and
blogging, then promoting their content on social media sites, such as
Twitter. Students use the skills they already have – writing,
newsgathering, and reporting – and Welch teaches them how to apply
these skills to the technology.
“We
see that technology is being adopted, but not adapted," Welch explained. "It's being
adopted by professionals, but the professionals are not adapting it
to meet the professional needs, but they are trying to adapt
themselves to use the technology.” Welch also teaches the students
the difference between personal and professional use of new media.
He believes the only way to correctly use new media in journalism is
to stick to story telling and use minimum opinion.
“Those
who couldn't make the shift were dead in the water, because you
couldn't adapt. The fact is, adapting to the new technology is
critical to you career and to your success," Welch said. "You have to understand
how those systems work so your good writing could go where it needs
to be.”
In the 2012 Modern
Media Conference, Dr. Richard Welch was an invited speaker because of
his outstanding teaching curriculum. He chose to speak on how
journalism is about getting information to the public efficiently
without wasting a word by getting to the point. At the conference,
Welch explained to other speakers, students, and entrepreneurs how to
get to the point by tightening up their writing style and learn to
clean up their mistakes. He was delighted to be apart of such a
great opportunity involving journalism.
“I've
taught more than 50 different courses, including public speaking and
I once had a student who became a valedictorian at one of the schools
I taught at. Her speech was unbelievable, a really good speech," Welch explained. "But
during the speech in front of everybody, all of the faculty and all
of the students, she thanked me personally for how I have helped her
become a better speaker. This was one of my most greatest
accomplishments.”
Dr. Richard Welch
plans to continue teaching at Georgia State University and impacting
the lives of students, whether it is by helping them polish old
skills, or simply how to adopt new ones.
