Integration and Space

When digital news companies do have staff members with the skills necessary for design, programming, and game maintenance, the issue arises of where these individuals reside within the organization. Many work in either multimedia or development departments, and as a consequence don’t come from strictly editorial backgrounds. This is not problematic except that these departments often exclude writers and editors associated with traditional news production.

Chaplin recommended a team-based alignment consisting of a game designer, a system dynamics person, and a journalist, perhaps along with specific subject matter experts to manage newsroom information. She said it was increasingly “crucial” to have “interdisciplinary collaboration.” Her proposal has a corollary inside The Washington Post newsroom—after its significant rejuvenation over the last few years. Marburger described the innovation of “embedded developers,” who were hired and placed within the newsroom, first at desks and then as a centralized team. “Now they’re just completely ingrained in the whole newsroom process, just like design is,” he said.

Permutations like these seem to result in less a sense of hierarchy and more a “spider web” of potential people with whom to interact and produce news. Without seriously refiguring traditional news spaces and departmental structures, a disconnect can easily persist between traditional forms of journalism and its multimedia counterparts. Such integration may allow journalists throughout a newsroom to utilize their strengths in the creation of a multiplicity of products.