I’m a big fan of Stephen Quinn’s (Zayed Uni, United Arab Emirates) work. As I’ve posted here before, Digital Sub-Editing and Design and Convergent Journalism are two of of best textbooks for teaching general news editing skills and online journalism respectively.

But Knowledge Managment is aimed at a slightly different audience to the work above. It’s aimed at media managers and editors. Of course students and rookie journalists will find much to love as well.

A few of the key areas explored:

• News organisations must change to accommodate the new technology used by audiences to access content. He also discusses how readers have moved from ‘information scarcity’ to ‘information overload’.
• Design of newsrooms. ‘Geography  directly influences the flow of information,’ states Quinn. He continues: ‘Knowledge-age newsrooms need to look and work differently." [Ed’s comments – it’s really important for media managers to understand the newsroom environment – it even contains ‘artist’s impressions’ of the newsrooms of the future]
• Convergence journalism – what does it really mean? Case studies of how publications in the US, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore handled it. [Ed’s comments: Despite all the recent announcements from Telegraph, Emap and The Guardian – you can only conclude from reading this section that we’re pretty far behind in the UK]. It also discusses the impact convergence has had on industrial relations in these countries.
• Technologies used for collaboration within the newsroom – [One thing we need to be clear about is that journalists need training, time to develop their skills and to reflect. Unfortunately, the pressure of deadlines and the cutting of training budgets mean that journalist are often left to teach themselves.]
• Mobile Internet – Quinn argues that mobile technology could allow journalists to do what they really should be doing – i.e. getting out of the office and meeting contacts. [Will it be used for this? Wouldn’t it be fantastic if mobile technology released reporters from the chains attaching them to their desks, where all they do is top ‘n’ tail press releases? I fear it ain’t going  to happen!] 
• Journalism teaching at university – Journalists of the future will be working with technology "not yet imagined." Through a series of interviews with academics around the globe, Quinn comes up with new strategies for teaching.

This text was written way back in 2002, a lifetime ago when it comes to the speed of change in this area. But it’s far from out of date. In fact this really goes to show how ‘ahead of the curve’ Dr. Quinn has been. Newspapers and magazines in the UK are only recently adopting the sort of changes outlined in this book.

Recommended for all editors, publishers and journalists. It’s well worth taking some time out from those never-ending deadlines and grabbing a copy. Also Dr. Quinn has a background in journalism, so those with a little time to spare will appreciate how he gets to the point quickly.

Amazon.co.uk link – see inside the book Knowledge Managment

More New.Journalism.Review comments on other books by Quinn