Back from the north…
It’s spring in Springfield, so in that sense I’m glad to be back from my visit with Doug McGill, in Rochester, Minnesota. We had a great time jawboning about the state of journalism and putting together our proposal for a colloquium on the topic “Who is a journalist?” I think we have a strong proposal. Now the waiting game begins.
Boiled way down, here’s what we decided: Commercial news organizations do not get to decide who counts as a journalist; audiences get to decide who counts. So would-be journalists must create legitimacy among the publics they would serve. And we suggest three ways that may be done outside of a traditional newsroom: 1) be loyal to the audience first, 2) make the invisible visible (i.e. cover those people and topics the so-called mainstream media ignore), and 3) operate with a discipline of verification and as a custodian of facts. Do these things and you may properly call yourself a journalist.
(Alert Rhetorica readers my be snorting: “But you used to claim that journalism required an editorial process! What gives?” Well, this: I’m apparently changing my mind about that. More anon.)
Bloggers vs. Journalists – A Reply to Stephen Waters
Sys- Yep. That’s the way Doug and I are going with this thing.
Don’t forget disclosure/transparency, and also to specify _what_ form of loyalty (serving the readers broccoli (credence goods) or bon-bons (solidarity goods)?
(The distinction comes from Tetlock)
And where _is_ Mr. Waters these days? he seems very quiet.
Anna… I’m glad to see the comments are working for you.
Yes, we’ll be addressing those issues. My presentation here is necessarily short. I’ll share more details as we develop the idea.
You are right on the money with your post. I think you’ll find an interesting parallel between your perspective and mine – which is available here:
http://nextnews.wordpress.com/2006/03/31/taking-citizen-journalism-to-task-a-professors-wrong-minded-idea/