Transcript: Rob Orchard on The Slow Journalism Revolution at TEDxMadrid

Rob Orchard at TEDxMadrid

Rob Orchard is the Co-Founder and Editorial Director of The Slow Journalism Company. Here is the full transcript of Rob’s TEDx Talk titled ‘The Slow Journalism Revolution’ at TEDxMadrid conference.

Listen to the MP3 Audio here: The slow journalism revolution by Rob Orchard at TEDxMadrid

TRANSCRIPT:

Everybody in this room deserves better news journalism. I am here to tell you that the fundamental nature of news journalism has changed for the worst in the last 20 years, almost without anybody noticing. And many of the things that we looked at journalist to provide us with accuracy, impartiality, context, depth are all under threat.

I would also like to try to convince you that an antidote might come in the form of a new slow journalism revolution. I’m going to make my case to you with the aid of 7 headlines.

Here is the first. “Guilty Amanda Knox looks stunned as her appeal against murder conviction is rejected.” It’s a headline from the MailOnline from October 2011. The MailOnline is the world’s single most read English language newspaper website. It has just under 190 million unique visitors every month. The story refers to the court appeal of Amanda Knox, who is found guilty of the murder of British student, Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy in 2009. The court appeal generated massive international news interest. But as many people in this room will know, there is a problem with this headline. It is the complete opposite of the truth. Amanda Knox’s appeal was successful. Her conviction was overturned and she returned to Seattle, where she’s been living for the last 3 years.