Podcasters Across Borders

Some news organizations have embraced digital media as part of their service offering in a way that’s changed how people receive and interact with the news. Then, there’s journalists who’ve saddled up the tools in a way that redefines how we relate to the news and the people who deliver it.

CBC political journalist/parliamentary blogger Kady O’Malley (or author0b70f as she’s identified on CBC.ca) has changed the way federal politics is reported — professional with a dash of human. Armed with a Blackberry (we’ve heard sometimes two of them!), Kady covers the political scene and its personalities in near real-time. She has a passion for politics that borders on the unhealthy, and has liveblogged and Tweeted her way through hundreds of committee meetings, press conferences, judicial inquiries, budget launches, cabinet shuffles, and even the odd constitutional crisis. Oh, and yes, her Boston Terrier really is named “BlackBerry.”

Kady has become a strong media brand within another strong media brand, both of which are making the news and politics — amazingly — more interesting and interactive.

We cornered Kady for a digital scrum*.

What is your best memory of creating media for other people to enjoy?

That’s a tough one, actually. I absolutely loved liveblogging the Obama visit last February, because it was such a great way to share the experience, from the absolutely insanely tight security to the mood on the front lawn of the Hill, where thousands of people showed up just to catch a fleeting glimpse of the president. That was a one-shot deal, though, and I also get a kick out of being able to follow a story as it unfolds, in realtime, like at the Afghanistan committee, particularly the day that Richard Colvin testified, and everything changed. I don’t know if I can pick a favourite moment, to be honest. The trick to this job is finding *every* moment memorable, and doing your best to convey that to your readers/listeners/viewers.

Which media creator has been most inspiring to you and why?

There are lots of obvious, big name choices here, but I’ll have to go with the Ottawa Citizen’s Glen McGregor, who is a role model for every journalist who has glanced at a long list of numbers and names, blanched, and gone off to do an easy story instead of digging into the entrails to find the truth. He was also the first Canadian journalist to livetweet a trial from gavel to gavel — the Larry O’Brien case last summer. The Guardian for the groundbreaking Comment Is Free. Really, you can find inspiration everywhere. Isn’t that the whole idea of the internet? Who needs a single muse when you have distributed brilliance?

What do you think is the most important consideration to media relevance?

It strikes me that it is, indeed, the oldest question in the world for news gatherers/artmakers/thought sharers: How do you ensure that people actually want to read/hear/watch what you produce, particularly given sheer volume of, well, content that is available for the perusing? It is a competitive world, and if I had all the answers … well, I’d probably living in quietly blissful luxury on my own private island (with highspeed and beach-to-beach wifi, of course). But, I’m not, and I don’t.

Give the people what they want seems like a good start, although you can also reverse the formula, and give what you’ve got to the people who want *that*, specifically, provided you can find them, and let them know you exist.

The real danger for those exploring the uncharted territory of the pixelverse — as well as the old world media landscape — is meta-induced paralysis. Stop thinking so much about what you’re doing, and why, and concentrate on *doing* it. Sometimes you’ll screw up and misread the map to a spectacular degree. But if all you’re doing is marvelling over the tools and the dynamics and the potential, you’re not going to get anything of substance done.

If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently?

That presumes that I actually planned anything I’ve done up until now, doesn’t it? Honestly, I’m not sure what I would change. Which isn’t to say that all my decisions have been eerily prescient, but this is getting a bit existential, isn’t it? I guess the only thing I wish is that I’d made the shift to the pixelverse earlier.

How do you hope your PAB2010 session will change the way people think and/or act?

Gosh, I don’t know, although coming up with another term for “branding” — one that makes human being sound slightly less like virtually identical inanimate objects or theoretical concepts — would be ideal. Oh, and I do wish people would stop pitting new media/the internet/”bloggers” against traditional/so-called mainstream media/”journalists”, as though somehow, one must die so the other can survive, but that seems a bit optimistic.

Photo: Kady O’Malley arrives by G20voice.

* Scrum – A scrum is a group of reporters crowded around an individual directly related to a story. Journalists will likely be yelling questions in an attempt to learn more and further their story. This often happens outside of courtrooms or even at individuals’ homes. (source)