The Future of Journalism Summit
I spoke on a panel yesterday at the MEAA’s Future of Journalism summit in Brisbane on, “Tools or toys: techniques and technology for the digital age.” Margaret Simons opened the conference with some very straight-shooting talk on where she saw the industry heading and it looked vastly like unexplored territory. What makes her points so interesting is that she is one of the few journalists I know who is trying to forge a living from journalism outside of established media companies and she is very frank in saying that she is still trying to find out how to do that exactly. As Cameron Reilly pointed out the economics of media have shifted fundamentally and its time we looked for new models, but we are not going to find them by relying on the old way of doing things. Margaret said she believes the most exciting journalism in the future will not be happening in traditional media – something I agree with wholeheartedly. It’s not happening often yet, but it is starting to happen and there will come a time when traditional media is not the place where the most interesting stories are happening or even where most news is made.
The other point then is how do we find these stories? I like Jay Rosen’s video on “How to Digest News“, which goes some way in explaining why crowd-powered aggregation sites are so important. You can’t assume that on your own you can find the best news out there – finding a trusted site that filters news for you makes more sense.
My own advice for journalists on how to prepare for the future is to start investing in themselves and to experiment in online participation. Going from writing news in a straight non-personal style to writing online is quite confronting – I remember it took me some time to find my voice and gain some confidence in writing from a personal perspective. The best place to start to learn the nuances of online communication, in my opinion, is Twitter – and the key is not then to just create content, but to participate as well – a point Jean Burgess from QUT made during the day. It’s those who start taking the risks now that will be better off in the future. I know it’s a confronting situation, but it’s time to face reality – things are not going back to what they were.
UPDATE: You can find more coverage on the seminar on Lavartus Prodeo, and Wooly Days.
Hi Bronwen.
While I am a wholehearted supporter and participant in online journalism and have a pretty contemptuous attitude towards “traditional media”, as you term it, I do not have your unbridled optimism for a future of quality online media-of-the-people-by-the-people.
The idea is exciting indeed, but as Margaret Simons observes, the reality is that it is damned difficult to make a living as a citizen journo. I don’t see how this is going to change, though I would be thrilled to have some possibilities open up, and continue to live in hope.
It pisses me off that the masses flock to the established media blogs, and ignore those of individuals who are producing stuff of mostly superior quality (although, it has to be said, the general standard of writing on many individual blogs is pretty poor…but some of the dross you see on the mainstream media sites is down there, also – and these turkeys are getting paid handsomely).
The established media blogs are not blogs at all, to my mind, in that the interactivity that is supposed to be elemental to blogging is usually absent!
The journo throws out a piece and sits back on a silent pedestal as the masses scrap over the content.
Further, censorship is rife. There are journos on the West Australian blogs, for example, who simply who’t publish comments from me, no doubt because I have been critical of their pieces in the past. That just sucks. Trolls and nuisances are an irritant in any comment thread, but someone who makes legitimate comment that happens to oppose the premise of the blogger’s post with rigorous argument that may, from time to time, include ironic content should not be excised from the discussion. I won’t even look at mainstream media blogs now. That’s how I’ve been reduced to expressing my views.
Yet still the hordes flock to these bullshit established media blogs and give alternatives the arse. While this attitude persists – and I see no shift in recent years – I can’t see how a culture can be nourished which allows a brave new movement of citizen journalism to thrive. The movement has taken root, but unless something changes in the attitudes of the punters, I think growth will remain stunted.
Bronwen do you think we might be seeing something of a cycle in journalism here?
In days long gone we had the pamphleteers who would scribble their thoughts on a piece of paper and then stick it on the wall of a building or a pole in the stree where people passing would see it.
From that it seems that a rather robust form of journalism developed that was later subverted by the need to toe a certain line and keep the owners happy.
So are we seeing a return to those days of pamphleteers do you think?
The question of medium and content are interrelated but separate. The more I practice journalism, having come late to the craft via the blogosphere, the more I realise how difficult it is, and how responsible a good practitioner has to be.
How it is carried forth is another issue, though it does involve the vexed question of cash.
With all the marketing jargon hitting full steam in this country we’re being bombarded with so many buzzwords that it’s confusing many issues like this.
The first comment hits on some interesting points, I agree with a number of them however I think in Australia, at this point in time, there is a major confusion over what constitutes a blog, citizen journalism, and media.
Great article, I found it via your twitter.
Cheers, Matt
Rolan, I think you make some good points and I agree that traditional media has a long way to go in understanding the nuances of online communication. Opening up a story to moderated comments and the failing to engage with any of them is a serious failure of “control media”. I feel more optimistic about the future though and I think we all have to remember that, despite some of us having been involved in new media for some time, we are only just at the beginning of the fundamental shift. I think there will be a time when a lot of the most interesting news and opinion happens outside traditional news organisations. I don’t know how long it will take, but I believe it will happen.
Stuart, I agree there are some similarities between where journalism began and where it’s heading and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. As Margaret Simons pointed out at the forum that those who criticise the bloggers for their often opinionated style should realise that partisan reporting is where newspapers have their roots. The advent of advertising necessitated the notion of objectivity.
Whether we are going to see a new cycle of journalism remains to be seen.
David, indeed cash is the vexed question, but I think you are better placed than many by at least understanding the medium of online writing and it’s not a case of reproducing print articles.
Matt, I try and not talk in bloggers vs journalism vernacular so the definitions of terms is less important to me. We are all content creators. Admittedly I do use the term citizen journalist though, because it seems to be the best understood in explaining the Norg to people. Would prefer not to have to use it though.