SacredFacts

Any future for Foreign Correspondents?

Last month, at a conference in the US, Global Voices Managing Editor Solana Larsen predicted that there would be no more foreign correspondents in five years time. She explains why on her blog and others, including BillT, have picked up on it too. I was at the conference and, surprisingly to some, sort of agreed with her. Before any of my esteemed colleagues turn on me, let me explain. Her point was that the skill and ability of local journalists, supported by new technology, means they will soon be able to provide a far better service than a western correspondent who has only limited knowledge and contacts parachuting in. I actually pointed out that the BBC already has more bureaux with correspondents based on location than any other broadcaster and that the World Service operates a network of some 400 local language service stringers. In some some senses we are already a model for what she is advocating - although with the potential to take that strategic advantage further. Of course that's only part of the story. One of the reasons for the western model of Foreign Correspondent is that they are meant to have the communication skills, as well as subject skills, to convey to an audience at home in a compelling way what's going on. And local journalists may not necessarily have the skills to engage an audience that hasn't seen or heard them before. But that feels like an increasingly patronising view. However, neither am I casting aspersions on the brave and compelling reporting of the BBC's World News team - many of whom are close friends or I appointed at some stage in the past!

I do believe, though, that something is shifting in the expectations, and mindset, of the news audience as well as in the technology available to communicate between countries and cultures. One of the marks Al Jazeera International made, when it joined the band of global news channels, was in the diversity of its reporting staff.  I also believe there's a question of authenticity. "Dish journalism" has been lambasted before, notably by Martin Bell who calls it puppetry, and I find myself increasingly agreeing. I think as technology and the internet make more and more alternatives available - in the way Solana Larsen talks about - we will need to demonstrate better that our reporting is close to the ground, well informed and authentic.

Reporting Kenya

The BBC World Service Trust has produced this report on the role of the media during the recent violence in Kenya. A formal review of media in Kenya is underway by the government after allegations of hate speech from community radio raising the spectre of the role of Radio Milles Collines which instigated widespread violence during the Rwandan genocide. It has also raised questions of whether media can be too free in fragile states such as Kenya. The Trust's report

"dismisses such conclusions, and - while highlighting the abuses that did occur - argues that the crisis demonstrates that a free and plural media are as much an answer to Kenya's democratic deficit as they are a problem. It argues that the role of the local language media during the crisis was the product of a chaotic regulatory policy and the lack of training - especially of talk show hosts, whose programmes provided the platform for most of the hate speech. It argues that many local language radio played a role in calming tensions as well as inflaming them, and could be a powerful mechanism for reconciliation."

It's one of a number of reports looking at the role of the Media during the unrest.

Where's the best angle?

Philip Trippenbach points out that some of the "crowd-sourced" video of the Olympic torch protest in London was better than the BBC's. And rightly says with more and more amateur video on the web we'll see more of this...

Flash Storytelling

A close look at my recent links would reveal a growing interest in the use of Flash to tell stories or support multimedia journalism. It can be incredibly powerful. Try these:

It's probably reasonable to ask if this is what the public wants. But whether it is or not, I'm going down the "teach yourself flash" route to see what happens...

Let me know of others you like.

Political Tweets

There's a lot of talk about how social media might revitalise politics. And a lot of attempts by polticians to use social media to circumvent the press and broadcasters and reach the public direct.  So I wasn't surprised to see 10 Downing St using Twitter to send out messages from their press office. But I was surprised to see them respond to questions via Twitter - it seems to be genuinely two-way. Good for them, I hope they manage to keep it up.

Unlike the US Presidential candidates for whom Twitter is a strictly one-way street.

Media Re:Public 2

Some other observations from the day:

Paul Steiger, former Managing Editor at the Wall St Journal, has launched ProRepublica - an online investigative journalism site.

Lisa Williams from PlaceBlogger had uploaded her slides to Flickr and played them off the site. Some great observations:
"Problems are distorted and global; Media is consolidated and local"
"News organisations take things that are free and add value; Web organsiations take things that cost and make them free"
"Community is shared, lived experience; News is a tiny fraction of that lived experience"
And "Don't wait for Google to invade your newsroom - launch a counter-invasion. Join Google!"

Solana Larsen predicted there would be no Foreign Correspondents by 2013 - international events reported by those who live there. I agree the model of Foreign Correspondent is becoming rapidly outdated and needs re-inventing, not least to have authenticity with the subject which is lacking from many blow-dried parachute journalists.

Jonathan Krim of the Washington Post called for an end to "He Said, She Said" journalism in favour of declarative journalism where reporters say what they really know rather than ascribe it to others. I suggested that as long as journalism was evidence-led and transparent, reporters could already say anything they wanted. It's called objectivity (based on evidence or fact) as distinct from impartiality (absence of bias).

A great demonstration of Helium from Mark Ranalli - very interesting CitJo site. Peer based rating leads to true meritocracy in articles offered. They have 100,000 writers, and amassed a million articles in 15 months. Effectively they outsource the editorial process and allow peer review to ensure quality rises to the top.
They are also working with the Pulitzer Centre on supporting a number of projects designed to engage those who are currently un-engaged in issues. The most impressive seemed to be a multimedia project: Hope (living and loving with HIV in Jamaica)

Doc Searls also walked us through his VRM project and the RelButton which could redefine our relationship with vendors....

Media Re:Public

A really stimulating 24 hours at the Berkman-Annenberg conference on Journalism and the net.

Also being blogged by Ethan Zuckerman, David Weinberger, Charlie Beckett, David Cohn, and Martin Moore among others. This was a campfire gathering of some of those most engaged in the challenges of serious journalism and participation/collaboration.

Headlines for me.

Manuel Castells:
The link between power, democracy, communication and the media.
Power is asserted through the construction of meaning in people's minds - it is a relationship and democracy is the set of rules by which it develops. Communication delivers meaning - emotions are fundamental in the construction of meaning. (Examples, "War on Terror" the Green agenda, the way women think about their social role) Media is the battleground where politics is played out.

The rise of social media (self communication) has become a decisive instrument in society - but paradoxically it is owned by corporate media (eg MySpace). Corporate media has to commodotise Freedom of Expression or face being subverted. Social Media has the ability to overthrow governments (cf: Spain 2004). The amount of content is so huge that even if the high value/quality material is a very small proportion, it's still significant.

Roberto Suro:

Need to focus on outcomes not Needs - does journalism have outcomes that make democracy better?
Journalism's social functions reflect time and place and evolve, affected by the way information is used, relations between journalism and government, journalism and the public. Should the goal be to produce highly informed elites or to move the masses? This has been a dilemma since the Founding Fathers (citing Hamilton v Jefferson) and is still reflected in bloggers denouncing media gatekeepers and the professional media citing the importance of their specialist skills.

Revolutionary fervour now in decline and we can recognise that social media and professional media can co-exist and support each other.

David Weinberger:

Many metaphors or frameworks for the web are too comfortable: "Ecosystem" suggests a natural balance where there is none, "Pro-Am" suggests money is key where really it's quality, "Info Flow" - news and journalism is about more than pure information.

He prefers "Abundance": We don;t know how to deal with an abundance of the good, control doesn't scale. "In an age of abundance of good the struggle is over metadata". We now have an abundance of metadata (where in old classification systems there was very little). This places more power in the hands of the reader, the public.

Metadata affects the mix of sugar and castor oil - how you tempt people to take the medecine, news that they might not choose but which an elite think is good for them. (Hammocking in TV) Those days have gone.

John Kelly:

Showed his work in mapping blogs and their relationship to other media and the links between them all. It reveals unexpected concentrations and pockets of interest. His maps show a network structure around what people are doing and talking about online.
He's mapped a number of languages including the Iranian blogosphere - main clusters of interest: poetry, secular - expat reformists/ conservative-religious. Most Iranian blogs are visible in spite of the authorities blocking some.
Ethan took better notes:

His analysis shows that different types of media have different attention patterns: mainstream news stories tend to peak very quickly, while wikipedia articles are linked over very long periods of time. YouTube videos tend to peak as quickly as mainstream media, with a small exception for videos that truly go viral. Kelly believes it may be more common for videos to be put on YouTube by people attempting to set agendas in mainstream media - they seed YouTube, then point to it as a way of arguing that “the bloggers are talking about a story”, even though they’ve planted the story.

The Way We Were

[Hat Tip Kristine Lowe among others]

Iraq anniversary

Reuters has produced a really powerful site marking the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War.

These kinds of photo-essay work so well on the web...

State of the News Media 2008

The annual report from the Project for Excellence in Journalism (in the US) had been published. As always, thought provoking and insightful. This year's themes:

News is shifting from being a product — today’s newspaper, Web site or newscast — to becoming a service — how can you help me, even empower me? There is no single or finished news product anymore. As news consumption becomes continual, more new effort is put into producing incremental updates

A news organization and a news Web site are no longer final destinations. Now they must move toward also being stops along the way, gateways to other places, and a means to drill deeper, all ideas that connect to service rather than product. “The walled garden is over.”

The prospects for user-created content, once thought possibly central to the next era of journalism, for now appear more limited, even among “citizen” sites and blogs. News people report the most promising parts of citizen input currently are new ideas, sources, comments and to some extent pictures and video. But citizens posting news content has proven less valuable, with too little that is new or verifiable.

Increasingly, the newsroom is perceived as the more innovative and experimental part of the news industry. This appears truer in newspapers and Web sites than elsewhere. But still it represents a significant shift in the conversation. A decade ago, the newsroom was often regarded as the root of journalism’s disconnection from the public and its sagging reputation.

The agenda of the American news media continues to narrow, not broaden. A firm grip on this is difficult but the trends seem inescapable. A comprehensive audit of coverage shows that in 2007, two overriding stories — the war in Iraq and the 2008 presidential campaign — filled more than a quarter of the newshole and seemed to consume much of the media’s energy and resources. Even as the media world has fragmented into more outlets and options, reporting resources have shrunk.

Advertising, rather than pushing change, appears to be having trouble keeping up with it. Like legacy media, advertising agencies have their own history, mores and cultures that keep them from adapting to new technology and new consumer behavior. . The question of whether, and how, advertising and news will remain partners is unresolved.

The report concludes: " Journalism is not disappearing, we concluded, but it is changing. Consumers trust and rely on journalists less, and expect more of them, because they have alternative sources of information. In subsequent years we have tracked the splintering of journalism into new norms, including the rise of a new commercially driven Journalism of Affirmation, the shift at many traditional news outlets toward becoming niche products, the emergence of what we call the new Answer Culture in news, and growing doubts about the ultimate potential of advertising online. We have also outlined ways in which newsrooms of the future probably need to change."

Well worth a read