Stir it up...

Well I seem to have created a few sparks with my comments on We Media - so let me pour a little more petrol on the fire. (Although i will resist Adrian Monck's entreaty to start a full playground bundle as we used to call it!)

A coincidence of comments, observations and conversations are reminding me that social media, citizen journalism and participation alone cannot make things better - and reinforcing that old media view, more appropriate to a man of my age and employment, that what we need are editors, high quality first hand reporting, evidence and verification in "the conversation". However, I'm in good company.

In no particular order, Tyler Brule, about to launch Monocle magazine, calls for more original journalism and less PR.
Craig Newmark in Miami has an "Aha" moment: "The Wisdom of Crowds sometimes leads to mob rule, panic, or bad decisions. We need ‘representative democracy’ on top of that. We need editors."

Last week (and I hope he doesn't mind me saying) I had a great chat with the excellent Ben Hammersley who, having helped launch CommentIsFree, is now keen to assert the importance of first hand reporting. With a blog title like mine I would agree with him, wouldn't I.

And then there's the excellent piece by Bill Kovach in the latest edition of the Nieman Report.

Looking at the content of journalism today ...it is hard to ignore the fact that in many ways journalism is more dependent for its content on the handouts and assertions of ... other institutions than it is on independently verified information. To mention only one obvious example, think of the virtually unchallenged assertions about weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the war on Iraq, assertions Colin Powell now confesses to be false and a "blot" on his career. This dependence is made all the greater as news organizations, in reaction to shrinking audiences, cut back on their newsgathering resources.

So what this amounts to is this: as we rightly celebrate the opportunities for public participation in, and direction of, "the conversation" we must not lose sight of the need for high quality, evidence based, verfiable information to feed it. Of course citizen journalism allows the expertise and knowledge of the public to do so - but that alone will not be enough. And as media organisations struggle with the impact of the internet and rush to find new ways to engage their audience and take them on board, primary newsgathering is at risk and the dependancy on agencies (of which there are few), PR, and government information departments grows. (See Julian Henry in the Guardian a couple of weeks ago). It's sometimes said that news is now a commodity like water out of the tap. But tap water has been treated. You can choose to do many things with it and use it any way you want - but most people prefer the treated version rather than bathing in a bucketful taken from the pond.
I relish the explosion of comment, discussion and debate - but I want it based on facts not spin.
Of course there have been journalistic and media failings - but that doesn't mean the values of objective journalism (not to be confused with impartiality) are wrong. Far from it - we need them as much as ever. And it's not an "us v them" struggle or an attempt to reassert old media values (sigh). It's saying we need each other. New Media can innovate, strengthen, reinvigorate, open up and enrich our news in particular. I celebrate the way it's transforming journalism. But rediscovering some of those old values can strengthen it even more.

Comments

[Ken Lempit]

I saw Craig Newmark speak at an ibreakfast.com event in NYC in January. A lot of his talk was about online media and the impact on journalism as a profession and on the publishing industry. His presentation also touched on the variability of blog site reporting quality. An idea dawned on me that serious blogger-journalists might benefit from an independent service that provides fact-checking and related editorial services, increasing the quality of their sites' content. Just a thought -- anyone want to start one?