Nothing puts me to sleep faster than journalists hosting webinars.
If journalism organizations took their own advice – tight writing, rigorous reporting, and don’t waste your reader/listener/viewer’s time – then maybe their webinars wouldn’t suck.
I can understand if accountants or park rangers hosted stuttering, meandering, dead-air webinars. Those professions don’t require college degrees with multiple courses in communication.
But watch the video above, which I clipped together from recent webinars hosted by usually kick-ass journalism organizations like IRE, ONA, NABJ, and IFJC. The irony is so thick, you could drizzle it on pancakes.
In just a few minutes, you’ll see all the typical sins journalists commit while webinaring. I could’ve included many more organizations and their webinars, but then the video would’ve been documentary-length.
Show don’t tell
I’m hosting my own webinar a week from today.
College Media Revenue Reversal strives to be everything these other webinars aren’t: short, sharp, practical, and visual.
It’s on a narrow topic (as all webinars should be). So if you’re not a college media outlet worried about going broke, this won’t tingle your toes. But maybe you should register just to see if I succeed or fail. Because this will either be an I-told-you-so triumph or an epic karmic humiliation.
Can’t wait to find out which.
journoterrorist 