Below the Fold

Making “Journalist Citizens” – Journalists, Institutions Should Heed Gillmor’s Call for Fostering Citizen Media

Dan Gillmor, one of citizen journalism’s “founding fathers,” is again breaking new ground by starting a nonprofit Center for Citizen Media. He says the Center’s goals “are to study, encourage and help enable the emergent grassroots media sphere, with a major focus on citizen journalism,” as well as to “foster a truly informed citizenry.”

These are noble and welcome intentions. But there is another aspect to Gillmor’s initiative that is just as vital – something beyond getting the public involved, engaged and inspired to be part of the evolution of news. And that is convincing journalists to evolve as well.

“Journalist Citizens”
Mainstream (professional) journalists also need to be citizen journalists. Ideas and participation need to come from the “edge-in,” as Gillmor says, but also from the “center-out.” Citizen journalists need to be more than real-time letter writers, and mainstream journalists need to look at news as something that is shared, not owned.

Or to put it another way, there should be no line between where the journalist ends and the “citizen” begins. Let this be the beginning of the age of the Journalist Citizen.

This is easier said than done. Too many in today’s working news media are a lost cause, preferring to stand by the devil they know and demonize the future of news as led by a horde of blathering bloggers in bathrobes.

But the future cannot be attenuated. A new generation of journalists is seeing to that.

This is a generation that is in journalism school right now or about to be, a generation that looks at the audience as partners – as fellow reporters with a common purpose. A generation who are to modern media tools what fish are to water.

Gillmor gets this (of course) – his Center will work with the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. But other top institutions – especially journalism schools – should get involved with Gillmor’s center, too.

Make Way for Journalists Who “Get It”
At schools like Kansas, Kennesaw State University in Georgia, and the Missouri School of Journalism, students are learning about and practicing citizen journalism every day.

Kansas’ “EHub” experiments with blogging and video podcasting. Kennesaw’s Public Journalism Network (PjNET) -- run by Leonard Witt, another modern journalism innovator – is “a global professional association of journalists and educators interested in exploring and strengthening the relationship between journalism and democracy,” according to its charter. “We believe Democracy benefits when journalists listen to the people,” the charter states.

Missouri’s online MyMissourian is run by student journalists but publishes citizen-produced stories, photos and commentary – content that is equal to the traditional print Columbia Missourian coverage rather than supplementary. And Missouri’s Reynolds Journalism Institute will focus on "advanced studies of journalism and its role in democratic societies."

We need more experiments and institutes like these to create a journalism that is relevant, engaging, and empowering – a journalism without cowardice or fear of its own future.

Not all citizens will or should be journalists. But all journalists must be good citizens for journalism, and Democracy, to survive.

journalism media citizen journalism mainstream media blogging Dan Gillmor trends

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“Journalism Hope” Launches With a Message For Us All

A while back I published the Journalist’s Creed, written in 1907 by Walter Williams, the first dean of the Missouri School of Journalism. It begins with the sentence “I believe in the profession of journalism.” I do, and always have, just as I believe in the profession of public relations when it is practiced with integrity.

Yet hardly a day goes by in BlogWorld when there isn’t someone saying something about the death of journalism. Mainstream media blunders, online media anarchy, newspaper payola and the scourge of ink-stained fingers. It’s enough to make you want to stick your head in the sand and never come out – or worse, become one of the millions of Americans who get their news from Fox, talk radio and White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan.

But alas, there is hope – at least that’s what Kpaul Mallach believes and why he has launched Journalism Hope, an online community dedicated to the idea that the best days of journalism are ahead of us. As Mallach said in his introductory post:

“Journalism is worth saving. There are money issues with some of those who own the companies, but there is hope. The paradigm is changing. I really believe that. And if it is, there are going to be those both in and out of the mainstream who help spread hope for Journalism.”

There’s no denying that the business and practice of journalism has changed, is changing, and will change considerably in the months ahead. Not only can we not deny it, we should embrace the changes with arms wide open. But in doing so, we also should not deny the contributions made by thousands of mainstream journalists for decades, who gave us the basics of fairness and accuracy and who had the passion to provide voice and context to issues large and small.

Mallach again:

“I think there's hope if we can concentrate on Journalism and solving the problems before us. I still believe that the new media independents are perhaps more important in this stage of the online medium's development because of their ability to change quickly, to adapt rapidly. Again, though, there are many thousands of journalists doing things to make all journalists proud even while toiling for big media. We're all important.”

We can’t break into camps or factions – there is enough cynicism about journalism among the public to go around. And we certainly don’t need journalists Like Steve Lopez who, in a recent NPR commentary, dismissed bloggers as “unapologetically biased hacks who haven’t left the house in five years.” Steve is a great L.A. Times columnist and an excellent reporter. Although some of his commentary was tongue-in-cheek, he should know better, and all of us need to take a deep breath and find our inner civility.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again: this is the best time to be a journalist, a public relations professional, a citizen with a point of view and a desire to share it. We all matter – and if we can learn to get along and make the inevitable changes together, then there is not only hope for journalism, but for the world.

journalism Mainstream Media citizen journalism Professional Journalism blogging PR public relations media NPR Los Angeles Times

2006: Year of The Vanishing Blogger

The First Age of blogging – the age of novelty – is coming to an end.

It was fun, wasn’t it? The bloggers who blogged about blogging, the apoplectic glee over the beta releases of innocuous software tools, the autoerotic joy of being an “A-lister.” The professional communicators who urged their peers to start blogging, only to skewer them in a global display of schaedenfreude when they failed to follow some unwritten rule of blog etiquette.

Oh, and all the PR bloggers who now thought they were journalists because they were getting “pitched” stories, and then publicly complained about receiving poorly crafted or off-topic pitches – the same complaint made by journalists since the invention of the byline. I’ll miss that the most.

All good things must come to an end. The First Age was great, but now it’s time to move on.

From Novelty to Utility
2006 is the year when blogging moves from novelty into the “utility” phase, where the mere act of blogging is subsumed by what is being published, as well as how to find, use and participate in that information.

Blogging has produced a dizzying amount of content. It’s online to find, provided you have the patience, tenacity and time to look for it. Because most people also have jobs and only a basic level of technical skill, establishing some logical order is paramount for self-publishing to realize greater impact.

Already we can see this trend toward aggregation and organization of blog news and commentary. Tagging is a powerful tool that allows creators to categorize their own content. Commercial blog “networks” are being formed and expanded – Gawker Media, Weblogs, Inc., and Pajamas Media are just a few. Sites like J-Log and Corante find the best blog posts about specific topics and put them in one place – yes Virginia, there are still editors in the blogosphere. And then there are the Huffington Post and Truthdig, not traditional blogs but not traditional mainstream media, either.

This doesn’t mean fewer people will start their own blogs – on the contrary, I expect the meteoric growth of blogs and self-publishing to continue (this includes My Space, Gather and other social networking sites). People will still gossip, share recipes and debate “Lost” plotlines – and some will publish news and share their expertise on any number of topics, either by blogging themselves or by commenting, starting and joining conversations (blogging is still the ultimate “social” media – without links and conversations, blogs are just brochures).

But eventually, individual blogs will be less important, and likely less visible, than the content published by the creators and the conversations that ensue.

Is Cathy Seipp a blogger or a writer for Pajamas Media? Will that distinction matter as long as she attracts readers – more importantly, readers that advertisers want to reach? Bloggers are learning that they are not only more visible but also more financially appealing to business if they band together. Or as Spock would say, the good of the many is more important than the good of the few or the one.

(By the way, that was my first Star Trek reference in more than 80 posts – that’s got to be some kind of blogger record.)

No More Bloggers
As technology becomes more essential, it becomes more invisible – and when everyone is blogging, there are no more “bloggers,” just people interacting in ways they never before could have imagined. After all, someone who talks on a telephone isn’t called a “phoner,” any more than someone who communicates via a blog today will be called a “blogger” tomorrow.

“Bloggers” will become writers, publishers, producers, filmmakers and multicasters. More mainstream media will use blogs and more “just folks” will become part of larger citizen media publications such as Backfence or other hyper-local enterprises like Muncie Free-Press, the Missourian or Bayosphere.

The perception of blogging and blogs will change, too. Mainstream media will be less cynical and defensive (funny what loss of audience and revenue will do), and new efforts to marginalize inaccurate or untrustworthy content will move blogs up from the kids table of online discourse. As Jonathan Landman, Deputy Managing Editor at the New York Times, said in a memo to his staff: “Some blogs are lousy. So are some newspapers. Some blogs reject journalism. Some practice it.”

I agree. Some blogs are good, some are bad, and in 2006 we will pay more attention to banishing the bad and rewarding the good.

Rejoice. The Second Age has begun.

blogs social media tagging modern media journalism news media public relations Blogging

Journalism Next: The Three (or Four) Branches of the New News Media

The online world – for all its vastness, connectivity and influence – is insulated. That’s not a problem for most people, considering that the online world often makes more sense. But unlike your typical EverQuest player, I have to live in the real world, too.

I was in the real world over the weekend – specifically at Target and Wal-Mart. These are the places where real world people gather, where they buy goods without paying for Super Saver shipping; where people talk to each other rather than communicate in symbols that look like a computer got stuck on the shift key and threw up.

I didn’t do a survey, but if I did, I expect most people would have felt left out of the online world, not “Linked In.” Tagging would have been something you do to a freeway overpass, and blogs would have sounded like some new snack cracker (“Try new Nabisco Blogs, now with 50 percent less spam!”)

So I wondered, as I rushed past the guy signing up volunteers to patrol the California-Mexico border: how will these people, this “general public,” get the news?

The Rights of the Majority
OhMyNews says “every citizen is a reporter,” but that’s not possible. Yes, every citizen can be a reporter, but not every citizen should or will. Every person will get news, but not in the same way, not at the same time, and not with the same perspective.

The future of journalism will be far more distributed than centralized – far more participatory than solitary. Journalism has already changed, but to say any one form is dying or giving way to others is to deny the value each brings to the equation and, in a real sense, excludes the multitude who do not have or cannot afford computers, don’t have access to technology or are too busy feeding their families to set up an RSS feed.

News must include everyone, especially those who either don’t want to or cannot participate in creating news, or who do not have the technical or financial means to be “modern” news consumers – in other words, the majority of people on the planet. So how do we serve and protect their right to be informed, regardless of race, class or social standing?

As anyone who has been following this topic can tell you, the questions come easy – it’s the answers that are hard. I don’t know what will happen either, though I go to bed each night praying that Geraldo Rivera gets amnesia and starts a new life as anything but a reporter. It’s not much in the grand scheme, but at least it’s progress.

Branches of the New News Media
Nevertheless, regardless of my poor prescience, I see the “new” news media functioning as three branches of involvement, each as vital as the other and with appropriate checks and balances:

•    Mainstream Media – Yes, there will still be a mainstream media, though its purpose will be more focused and its purveyors more humble. Mainstream media will create journalism in a public service role, making the most of its experience, depth and access.

•    Citizen Media – Citizen media will create public journalism in a mostly “hyper-local” role, focusing on issues close to home. And it will hold the mainstream media accountable to both the public and the truth.

•    Consumers – otherwise known as Just Plain People. They will participate by reading, watching and listening – and when they choose (whenever they choose), they will comment and interact. They are just as much a part of the “media” as anyone else, because media is no longer a passive exercise. Media are now accountable to each other, from the Wal-Mart shopper to the head of CNN.

There is a “fourth branch” as well – the former “mainstream” journalist who works exclusively online, or the journalism school trained reporter who has only worked in new media and not for a “traditional” media outlet. This journalism version of a mash-up may prove to be the most popular of all, as today’s reporters become more disillusioned and tomorrow’s reporters become more comfortable with all new forms of media.

The online world is insulated; the real world often is left behind. Journalism transcends both worlds – and it can be the force that brings the two together.

journalism new media news media citizen journalism mainstream media journalism next

Deep Throat is Dead – Long Live Communal Journalism

Deep Throat, the most famous informant since Judas, is once again making headlines.

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the two Washington Post reporters who brought the Watergate scandal to light – and in doing so helped fill the nation’s journalism schools with aspiring investigative reporters, myself included – recently donated their story notes to a University archive. Many hope the notes will reveal the 33-year-old mystery behind “DT’s” identity – a man (or woman) who was the key source in the Post’s Watergate coverage.

And last Sunday, former Nixon White House Counsel John Dean further fueled hopes of unmasking DT, claiming that he is ill and that the Post has already written his obituary.

Whether we learn DT’s identity is interesting but not important. The bigger issue is that while Deep Throat the person is sick, Deep Throat the symbol is already dead – and that has significant implications for the news business.

Communal Journalism
The days of confidential, “deep background” sources are waning. Other than Seymour Hersh’s stable of anonymous Bush Administration sources that give him information about the war on terror, sources today don’t remain in the shadows for long. In a world where everyone can be a reporter, no secret is safe for 33 minutes, much less 33 years.

Armed with blogs, I-Pods and video phones, the “former audience” as Dan Gillmor calls them have forever changed the often nervous ballet between reporter and source. Journalism is more communal, more cooperative than ever. Stories are “reported” across multiple mediums by any number of individuals and organizations with varying degrees of experience and expertise – and they are all connected to each other in a newsroom-as-commune environment. What began with reporters publishing their e-mail addresses to encourage openness with their readers has evolved into reporters with blogs and a "distributed" model of journalism that would make any 18th Century Pamphleteer proud.

Unfortunately, the pursuit of truth is not the only motivator within the new journalism commune, or even the most prevalent. Too many seek recognition or celebrity status as a reward for their participation. Who needs journalism school when you have a Blogger account?

Nevertheless, communal journalism is both an inevitable and essential evolution of news. We could use more reporters, especially good ones. We could use more people who understand how to use modern tools to tell better, deeper, richer stories.

And we need more Deep Throats, no question.  Only this time, they won’t lurk in dark corners of underground parking garages – they will be part of the commune, they will participate in the conversation, and they almost certainly will have a blog.

Additional links:
Dan Gillmor on Distributed Journalism

Woodward and Bernstein Collection

MSNBC story on John Dean