Transcript
– Page
4 of 4
 Jan Schaffer
J-Lab Executive Director
Ruhl Lecture,
University of Oregon
School of Journalism and Communication,
May 8, 2008
Importantly, it calls for journalists to get off automatic pilot.
We need to re-imagine what we do and how we do it; we need to test drive
new ideas day in and day out. We need to expand our “tribe.” We
need to pay better attention to what consumers find valuable and not assume
we always know what’s best. We need to rethink some of the rules
of the road and not take for granted that the way we’ve always done
it is the only way that it can be responsibly done.
Citizen
media makers don't aspire to be big-J journalists. They are the small-J
plankton in our new media ecosystem. So,
who says they have to play by the same rules that produce the very
kind of journalism
from which they are seeking relief?
Most citizen media makers are
motivated less by covering community and more by building community.
Is that unethical? Are news organizations
allowed to have such aspirations?
Finally, the world of journalism needs to entertain
story frames other than "conflict" or "gotcha" frames,
or keeping that giant scorecard in the sky. Habits that used to safeguard
good journalism just might now be getting in the way of good journalism.
I believe
that we can figure this out if we just pay attention.
We
need to rethink some of the rules of the road and not take
for granted that the way we’ve always done it is the only way
that it can be responsibly done.
Are we allowed
to rethink and redefine what we do?
Today, “newsworthiness” more often is decreed
by the consumers rather than the suppliers of news. Heading into
the future, news becomes less of a concrete deliverable – a story
or package of stories occupying some form of real estate online or on the
printed page – and
it becomes more of an ongoing process, a back and forth, of imparting
and learning about information. The process of involvement in the news,
whether
it’s an interactive consumption or a proactive creation, becomes as
important as the output.
The goal is to relay and exchange information
that meets any number of benchmarks – but
not necessarily all at once. The information should:
- Yield useful
knowledge.
- Grow that information or knowledge.
- Surprise or enlighten.
- Move citizens to do their jobs as citizens.
- Hold public officials
accountable.
- Do a better job of holding citizens accountable.
- Help people
navigate their daily work and personal lives.
- Empower others to
discover or share their own stories.
- Engage people in opportunities
to participate in either the process of news – newsgathering,
news analysis, news reaction – or in addressing public problems and issues.
Habits
that used to safeguard good journalism just might now be getting in
the way of good journalism.
This is tricky terrain. For many of you, it may feel too
messy. It’s
so much easier to turn on the auto-pilot and continue cruising
down the road we know so well. We need to ask more often why we do things
the way
we do. Is it only because that’s the way we’ve always done it?
Or is there a better way? Amid all the handwringing about the future
of journalism, I am an optimist.
Many of you are communications researchers.
I hope I have sketched
out a menu of research opportunities for you today.
And I close
with this admonition: Let us not be so sanctimonious in our lip
service to ethics that we fail to understand that
others have ethics, too. Ethics and a desire not just to cover
community life, but to
help community life go well.
As Pogo said: We have met the
enemy. And, maybe, just maybe, it is us. ####
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Jan
Schaffer (jans@j-lab.org) is executive director of J-Lab: The
Institute for Interactive Journalism at the University of Maryland.
E-mail news@j-lab.org to get a copy of "Citizen Media:
Fad or the Future of News?."
Questions
or comments? E-mail Jan. |
