future of journalism

Obviously, there will be a time when we’ll stop reporting on this story. As anyone who hangs around in web forum knows, eventually the conversation stops, no more new information comes in; the topic has saturated. But right now, most of the reporting and writing here, even the filed interviews, are part of an unfolding path, the contours of which are revealing themselves as we fall into them(in other words, they’re not listed on the map). Conceivably, anyone walking into the crowd could have a contribution to make (I’m speaking theoretically, not realistically). The reporting being filed will be taken to another level with help from those of you reading the material. Check out filed interviews and see if there are unexplored leads implied in the interview.

Francine Hardaway has posted a writeup of her interview with digital journalism pioneer Dan Gillmor.
Gillmor has become one of the usual suspects to interview when people are writing about citizen journalism or the future of journalism. Sometimes it can seem as though sources like Gillmore have been asked it all, that we’ve heard everything they have to say. Are their openings here that should be explored in more detail?

Geneva Overholser has a manifesto to save journalism (PDF Available). After 37 years in the business she worried about the state of journalism and finally decided to stop lamenting and instead "began to relish some of the exciting and interesting things going on in journalism."

What distinguishes her manifesto from other proposals I've heard is her focus – it's not about saving newspapers, it's about saving the practice of journalism -- a focus more akin to my own new media heart.

The 27-page manifesto lays out nine actions journalists can take to counter the problems ahead, including how nonprofit media companies can take shape and the role of citizen journalism. At an informal meeting I attended last Friday, she characterized these action steps as "constructive paths" that journalists often overlook. Some might even scare traditional journalists, which she says often "confuse tradition with principle." For example – Overholser wants to make the news, even traditionally "boring" news like town budget stories, interesting again.

"This is the kind of story copy editors can't stand to read, and they are paid to read it. But serious journalists respond 'we have always done budget stories' … But it doesn't matter if nobody reads them." The question is how to do these same stories, or the long vetted investigation, which are important for democracy, to engage readers.

My NewAssignment.Net brain began churning.

The online virtual world Second Life has enjoyed explosive growth, with double-digit increases in sign-ups in recent months.

At the same time, Second Life is drawing mainstream media coverage because of the new economy -- in which users can earn real-world money. One avatar reportedly earns her creator in the neighborhood of $150,000 a year from in-world businesses.

Significant nonprofit endeavors include forays by leading universities, including Harvard, that have launched research and educational programs within Second Life.

However, there is also tremendous uncharted ground for creative journalism within this expanding frontier.

Social news sites like Reddit, Digg and Netscape tend to judge submitted news articles by popularity. Often the snarkiest headline wins.

As sites develop niche communities, stories that are promoted often cater more to the wants and whims of the group. Recently this lead to some fake stories reaching the front page of Digg.

If the first generation of social news sites ranked stories in order of popularity, then the next wave would do well to find a new rubric of voting to separate themselves from the crowd.

Enter NewsTrust, a social news site that rates stories based on “quality journalism." The beta site is up and running for public testing and is worth checking out.

In early October, Columbia University received national media coverage after students rushed the stage in protest of speaker Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project. CTV news, the weekly Columbia Television Station, was there and obtained video footage of the event which was immediately posted to YouTube.com. For a week, the video was viewed by thousands who could not see it anywhere else.

Large media outlets including CNN, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, PBS, and FOX then requested a copy of CTV’s clip, said Bradley Blackburn, CTV news director. CTV gave the clip to the stations but recognized that YouTube is where the story started. “This story broke on YouTube and I believe that this is a trend that will happen more and more,” said Blackburn. Like TheSmokingGun.com, a Web site that aggregates paper documents, YouTube has breached into a similar realm thanks to the video footage it provides.

To know where online journalism is going we have to identify the big thinkers behind it.

The Online Press Gazette has made a list of the top 50 in the "new establishment" of online journalism. It's a little biased towards UK thinkers, but the list, which includes Rupert Murdoch and Oh Yeonho (Ohmynews) at the top, Jeff Jarvis and Nick Denton almost square in the middle and Dan Gilmore near the tail end, is insightful because of the few names squeezed in that have nothing to do with journalism at all.

Ranked 12th and 13th are Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe, founders of MySpace. What does Myspace have to do with journalism? A few comments on the post asked this same question.

One commentor wrote:

"MySpace may share an ultimate owner with Times Online, for example, but the two have very little in common in terms of their aims."

And he's right. Aside from being a horrible platform to blog, the social networking site has done nothing obvious for journalism. So why include it on the list?

Because it is THE social networking site, and in network journalism being interactive with the audience is a key shift. Kevin Anderson recently said

"Blogging isn't a publishing strategy; it is a community strategy. ... But I see the same mistake being replicated with blogging. Newspaper publishers and broadcasters often fall into the trap of trying to understand new media behavior through old media paradigms. Podcasting becomes another distribution channel, and blogging becomes another publishing platform. Adding comments to the bottom of stories or columns is a step, but it's missing the point."

The same could be said of social networking sites. They aren't just a place for journalists to find sources or a new web property for newspapers to buy up and place ads. Because of its size MySpace feels ubiquitous, but social networking sites have the potential to bring like-minded people together to help journalists tap into the wisdom of the crowd.

UPDATE: MediaVidea is extending the list to 100 and I think on the right track.

Danah Boyd is working on a timeline of social networking sites.