Link Journalism

The proposal for link journalism is not a new concept, though the phrase is good. This is something that bloggers have been doing for years and have been imploring the corporate media to adopt for years. On paper, you can provide references in the footnotes or endnotes, or you can mention "unnamed sources", but in the age of the Web, it is sheer blindness not to use links - nobody will trust you if they cannot click and instantly verify your statements. Remember - no links, no reputation.

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Good question. I think the answer is Yes. It will become less work as people design easier ways to do it, and they will design it if there is a demand/need for it.

We are considering the idea of adding links both in the video and on the page but haven't done it much. It might make the each short video story less authoritative if people can see all the data that gets boiled down. You'd have less control of the message in a way. Not to mentioning linking to sites you might not want to promote.

New Scientist now always asks me for relevant links when I submit a story, so I think things are definitely trending that way. I hope so. I can't imagine NOT making use of hyperlink technology in journalism, especially now that everything's moving online. We don't want to be spoon-fed our news anymore! :)