*Or at least some of them
Dubbed journalism unicorns by Harvard University's Nieman Lab, journalists who can both report and code are a rarity. Their skills, however, are in demand. In the words of those at the forefront of digital journalism, here's why...
“The oversimplified explanation is that most journalism students can't code or do math, while most computer science students don't know storytelling. Hybrids on either side are rare, and we're scooping them up as fast as we can.”
“There is something about not just being able to think and act like a programmer but also to be able to think and act like a journalist, which is quite demanding... It's an unusual skill set. Newsrooms are crying out for these skills.”
“If you're an aspiring journalist who knows how to code really well, you are in a very hot market.”
“Journalists should learn more about code. Understanding our medium makes us better storytellers.”
“Having some dev skills is important because it allows you to better tell the story the way the story wants to be told. Not all stories are best told through articles, yet that's what most people know, so that's what we get. Even though sometimes charts, maps, diagrams, video, animation, drawings are better ways to tell stories. Having dev skills and thinking like a developer opens up a lot of these possibilities. It just makes you a better storyteller.”
“When covering a story, you'll think in terms of data and interactivity from the very start and see how they can become part of the narrative. You'll see data everywhere - from the kind that floats in the air thanks to augmented reality, to the more mundane version contained in endless streams of status updates. Rather than being intimidated by the enormous amount of data, you'll see opportunities - new ways to bring news and information to the community.”
“If you want to work on a subject like school performance, crime, government spending, or any of the countless others that involve complex data, having a technical toolset is important. A little bit of code can give you a big leg up in terms of finding, cleaning, and exploring data. If you think you can compartmentalize the "data" work and give it to someone else, or that you're fine only reporting stories you can find browsing Excel, someone else is going to eat your lunch.”
“Being able to program (or otherwise obtain and analyse datasets) essentially opens up an entirely new avenue of obtaining sources and stories that was previously closed to the newsroom. It allows you to assemble and query information as a source to see trends, anomalies and facts. This might be an important political story, like writing a program that can spot undisclosed political donations by cross-referencing databases, or it might be in culture, such as examining how our movie and music tastes have shifted over time. The importance of this will only increase as more of our world and its functions, be they social, commercial, political or cultural, become more reliant on and integrated with technology.”
“Digital newsrooms of the future will see journos and developers working more and more closely together. The traditional divide between product and editorial will disappear. Journos and devs are already both content-makers - the only distinction is that journos write copy and devs write code. Very often the result of both is story telling. In these newsrooms, the most effective team members will be those with both sets of skills. The better a journo understands the web development world, the better he or she will be able to utilise the strengths of the online medium to tell stories.”
“Pretty much everybody that we hire at The Texas Tribune comes to us really knowing quite a bit about data, if not knowing how to build massive data sets, but they know how to manipulate small data sets so that they can use them in their stories. Pretty much everybody who comes to work for us has a basic understanding of Microsoft Excel, knows how to do some basic coding.”
“It's rare to have someone who's a skilled journalist and a developer, and all the leading experts in digital journalism say those are the two critical skills to have... In my opinion the ABC desperately needs more people who have both these skills.”
“As online and mobile more clearly become the future of media, recruits are needed who can combine editorial judgment and sensibility with a technical understanding of what's possible.”
“The marriages between owners and editors - between technologists and journalists - need to learn to operate on mutual respect. Putting technology to use for journalism needs not two distinct cultures but a new and unified one. Anything else would be flagrant and frivolous.”
“Newsrooms need a template for unicorns, particularly young ones, before they find themselves pigeonholed. Maybe it means creating new positions that take advantage of their hybrid skills. Maybe it means rotating them between writing and technology jobs. Or maybe it means pairing them with managers, like the ones I was lucky enough to have, who can resist exploiting their scarce tech skills in order to develop them in other ways. Either way, it starts with believing they exist.”