In ch. 9 of “Journalism Next” Mark Briggs discusses the importance of organization in a digital sense.  With so  much technology available now, it is essential that journalists take advantage of it to help with organization and story telling.  Digitalization was a major part of our class project.

One of the first points Briggs brings up is to use productivity tools to be more efficient.  It is not necessary for journalist to hand write every interview they do now.  Not only is using a digital tool such as a recorder more efficient, it allows for greater accuracy, leaving no room for a a misquote.  We took advantage of such tools during our projects by recording interviews and uploading them, rather than trying to transcribe it.

Another great tip Briggs brings up is to find as few solutions as possible to do as many things as possible.  Once again, efficiency is key.  Keeping information for a story in an easy to read program such as excel can help your organize your information to write a  more accurate story, but can also serve as a great visual aide for your readers.  Some of the charts we found online helped our group write our Fairfax Renaissance stories more accurately, but also explained the information in an easy way to the readers.

Finally, Briggs reminds his readers to keep sources, contacts, and other information in a digital format.  This allows for the information to be much for flexible.  The days of address books and rolodexes are no more.  Technology gives us the opportunity to carry all our contacts in our pocket.  For my group, we took advantage of this especially though the use of email.  That was often the best way to story contact information for sources as well as between group members.

Technology is a great tool in the journalism world, and everyone should take advantage of it.  Between reporting more accurate information and helping stories get to the public in a  more timely manner, the advantages of technology are endless.