Working in media: A collaborative effort

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While at times media may seem like a singular effort, it is in fact a very collaborative effort.

It seems like one person behind a screen tweeting or writing web content, but it's an army of people making sure the entire process runs smoothly to get information out as accurately as possible.

I've found this in my experience with media jobs, where you're never truly working alone. Whether it's copy editing content, shooting photos and videos for a piece, or working to keep a website running smoothly, there's constantly a team effort happening.

This week as we've discussed Wikipedia, I think we've seen the ultimate collaborative effort come into play. Everyone from around the world can contribute to Wikipedia and build an encyclopedia for the entire world. That's pretty amazing, just as average citizens coming together with knowledge. It returns to the idea we've discussed previously of "No one knows everything, but everyone knows something."

This applies as well as working in a newsroom. Often when a newspaper gets put together the general rule of thumb is that everyone has a skill that can make the paper happen. Maybe someone is better at putting the story on a page, and another person is good at taking photos. These skills are all put together to make one newspaper. The same is true with Wikipedia.

All of these jobs require a certain skill set, that then requires collaborating and working together. I think this is where the concept of collaborating really comes life where every person is a turning gear in a well-oiled machine.