Get (a) Shorty

110303 shortyDamon Kiesow over at the Poynter Institute has a piece up on how our own Atlanta Journal-Constitution is up for a Shorty Award.

Shorty Awards are given out to award “the best producers of short real-time content.” How short? Just 140 characters. Kiesow’s piece has a link to a video, complete with silhouetted staffers and digital voice changes, the AJC put together to talk about the awards. And there’s one line in there that really resonates with me.

They did it as a spoof anonymous source piece because they don’t want their audience to identify with an individual but with the AJC brand.

That, to me, is important. The AJC brand has a far greater value – both in reality and potential, I think – than any individual. News organizations need to take advantage of that to move forward. The internet may give everyone a platform, but a well established, trustworthy, thorough and agile organization can still be successful.

Mark E. Johnson

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