I couldn’t have said it better myself…”journalism is a sausage factory. It’s messy, but at the end it’s delicious!”
Those words led off the panel, “Process Journalism: Getting it First, While Getting it Right.”
It was a discussion of the ability to break news stories using technology, using social media and using citizen journalists. Jesus Diaz of Gizmodo, Moka Panteges of Wikimedia, Monica Guzman of seattlepi and Robert Mackey of the New York Times spoke about using all three sources to do some really good journalistic work. It was their point that you need to use all three of these concepts to be the all-encompassing journalistic outlet.
All three aspects intertwine and every panelist had a great way of discussing how to use them for journalistic purposes. Robert Mackey used the example of covering the recent protests in Iran. He noted that Iran has a good amount of bloggers and citizen journalists. When the NYT used these sources, they were very transparent and pushed the fact that the NYT was having a “conversation” about the what was on the web concerning the protests. For Mackey it is about using the web to find clues and there are multiple clues out there to find! For example, he found clues about the validity of protest video on youtube by looking at street signs in the video and then checking them using google maps. He also believes that user and reader comments are extremely important. Those comments are usually from people who are passionate about a subject and know a ton about it. Those comments help to verify clues on the web.
For Monica Guzman, Twitter has become an incredible tool. “It’s one voice to make up many voices. It takes many voices to make up a story,” said Guzman. When Seattlepi covered a citywide murder story, the Twitter feed from those in the city became an incredible source of clues to the story. The tweet is a starting point and the journalist needs to use common sense. However, Guzman shows that citizen journalists do good work. They want to be reliable and in this instance, citizen journalists would correct themselves if there was a mistake. “People have always been police scanner junkies,” said Guzman. “Now when there’s a crime, they tweet about it.”
Moka Panteges discussed how Wikipedia is changing the world of the “overall story.” Wikipedia entries become a dynamic articles that expand over time. She understands that a Wikipedia article is not original reporting, but it is a real time aggregation of the news. The numbers for Wikipedia are astounding. There are 365 million unique visitors a month, with 15 millions articles in over 270 languages. That’s a ton of eyeballs looking, editing and discussing posted topics. Wikipedia puts an event into context. It is the nature of the wiki-beast that over time the article becomes clearer and more accurate. It’s a technology that needs to be understood. While it is not a source, it is a starting place of real time news gathering.
It was Jesus Diaz who really brought it all together. As a blogger, he broke the story about Steve Jobs and his deteriorating health. As a blogger, he got a tip, he checked his sources, he broke the story, wrote it with journalistic integrity and then…got slammed for not being a journalist. To be honest, it did not matter; he had the story. Here are two great write-ups! I highly recommend reading the original blog post.
CNBC tries to Catch Up with the Story
Thanks to Diaz, it is a perfect example of blogging beating the journalism elite. It is time to recognize that blogs and citizen journalism do exist and they can do a damn good job!
Overall, the panel was incredible, as actual working journalists showed incredible examples of technology, social media and citizen journalism changing the face of journalism. I think I see a crack in the ivory tower.
Oh if you want to check out the slides and information used…. Bit.ly/processjournalism More great stuff from Jesus Diaz in the slides!
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I feel this article touches on some valid points about citizen journalism. It can be a very powerful resource if used properly and should not be ignored. If the “journalism elite” rejects online citizen journalism, then they will severely limit the timeliness and breath of their news articles. This will rapidly make them obsolete, as more and more people turn to the Internet for complete and up-to-date information.
I agree with Robert Mackey. When using citizens as a resource it should be made clear. The information a citizen provides may be inaccurate, biased, or completely fabricated. In contrast it may also be the fastest and most insightful way to gather information. A journalist needs to find creative ways of checking the accuracy of information provided by citizens. How far is citizen journalism from becoming the mainstream news? Would professional journalists be reduced to mere monitoring and fact checking?
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This post truly speaks to the future of journalism, most especially in print and Web writing fields. The use of the three elements mentioned — technology, social media and citizen journalists — are vital to journalism’s future. The panelists’ take about using all three of these elements at once provides true insight as to how journalists today are expected to do more than just write and do research in one or two formats. Robert Mackey’s ideas about doing research through little clues in videos on the Web and looking at viewers’ comments are just a few ways in which a reporter can obtain information for stories.
The information about Twitter and blogging are important as well. Both tools can be used in citizen journalism, aggregating data and breaking a news story. It’s good to see professionals talking about these tools and how they can be used to do real reporting rather than just posting someone’s thoughts on a certain subjects (as many people today still believe these tools are only used to do just that). As long as journalists continue to evaluate credibility of sources and Web sites while still maintaining their own credibility by using diverse sources (ranging from professionals to regular Joes).
Overall, it seems as though this panel brought much insight into using social media tools to get the story out as quickly as possible in formats other than a formal newspaper. Will journalists continue to use these formats and adapt to them? Will they use them correctly by double checking their facts and continuing to be objective? Only time will tell.
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That panel was really amazing. As a former “in the newsroom” journalist and now being a blogger, it was incredible to hear real world examples of the quick change in journalism techniques. I don’t expect citizen journalists to take over the world, because in reality I don’t see too many citizen journalists covering boring city budget meetings on their free. However, citizen journalists will be out there and doing good work for what they have a passion about.
I highly recommend you look through the slides at the bottom of the post. That link has some really good stuff!
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I like the ideas that are presented in this topic and feel that this is the same sort of ideas that most of my professors have been preaching to me the past few semesters. The importance of utilizing your technological resources to bring breaking news to the media without reporting the incorrect message is amazing.
Other than this topic, the session also seemed to focus on programs and there credibility. One that seemed to be discussed in more depth in particular was Wikipedia. the article states that on Wikipedia, “There are 365 million unique visitors a month, with 15 millions articles in over 270 languages.” That is an awful lot of potential posting on topics, taking away from the websites overall credibility.