Springfield News-Leader Executive Editor David Stoeffler announced today that reporters will participate (within certain limits) in online discussions of news articles on the News-Leader web site. I think this is a good move.

I also thought opening the comment system to anonymous users was a good move. I have come to believe that news organizations ought to begin encouraging more civil and thoughtful discussion by offering levels of service that encourage people to participate openly. Don’t eliminate anonymity; marginalize it.

Stoeffler’s announcement prompts me to think about online comments as an interesting rhetorical situation for reporters who are used to dealing with the public in a very particular way. What exigencies will prompt them to respond? What will be their persuasive intentions? What will be there rhetorical strategies?

How will they deal with trolls?

That first list of questions requires some data and analysis to answer (so I’ll be watching closely). But I’ll take a stab at the troll question now because it involves the concept of stasis — the very thing the skilled troll attempts to destroy. And I have plenty of “data” from many years of experience.

(History buffs may wish to check out the story of alt.syntax.tactical — a Usenet group set up to start flame wars. This group is famous for attacking the group alt.rec.cats back in the stone age, aka. the 90s.)

A common tactic of the troll today is to deny stasis, i.e. not allow the point of contention to be agreed upon so that it may be discussed. There are ways to do this both skillful and ham-handed, and we see the entire range on the News-Leader site.

Most commonly it works this way:

1. Point A is made (either in print or online).
2. Troll asks a reasonable question regarding point A.
3. Troll follows up by changing discussion to point B.
4. Troll follows up by changing discussion to point C.

And so on…

Depending upon the skill of the troll, the conversation can slowly devolve into ranting and nonsense because the troll finds and pushes the emotional buttons of the participants.

So what’s a reporter to do?

Do your job: Your value to the community is your reporting, not your online commenting.

Answer a commenter’s question only once: As the example above demonstrates, a troll wants to sucker you into a longer exchange for their own entertainment. Refuse to play.

Post links to additional information: A good policy in any online discussion.

Limit the scope of your participation: Develop a short disclaimer to append to all your online comments that explains what you will and will not respond to and why.

Identify and share: Did you detect a troll? Share your information with the online community and the newsroom. Post the username. Refuse to acknowledge that username in the future.

Remember: Trolls are NOT civic actors of good will. Their goal is to make your life hell and destroy the quality of discourse in online comments. Don’t let them win.

Also remember: I think most online participants are sincere. Don’t confuse a lack of rhetorical skill with trolling.

UPDATE: In response to an e-mail asking if I’m being a bit traditionalist re: a reporter’s relationship with the community: I am confining my remarks here to dealing with trolls. I think reporters can and should use the comment feature in numerous ways to enhance their reporting. More on this later…

Technorati Tags: Journalism, Media Ethics, multimedia journalism, opinion journalism, punditry, Rhetoric, Social Media

Didi Tang, of the Springfield News-Leader, has a story on today’s front page about MSU’s high-tech classrooms. I teach multimedia journalism in the collaborative classroom in Siceluff hall — our highest of high-tech rooms.

What am I teaching in there?

The class is surely about technology just as surely as it is about using technology to do good journalism. The class is about a medium — the internet — and how that medium conveys other media and how to use the particular way it conveys other media to do good journalism.

When you teach print journalism, you (must) teach print technology.

When you teach broadcast journalism, you (must) teach TV/radio technology.

When you teach multimedia internet journalism, people get bent out of shape.

The class is producing the Ozarks News Journal. You’ll start to see real news coverage there very soon. Students are blogging on the site now. We still have a few odds and ends to take care of getting the site fully functional. This is the first class to work for ONJ (there is also an associated TV show), so they are playing a big role in creating it from scratch.

Take a look at the syllabus linked above. Notice what I have listed for Weeks 4 through 15: “Produce the ONJ website.” That means: cover the news and publish it. That does not mean, as Dr. Melvin Mencher is quoted (linked above), that we have:

Technorati Tags: Journalism, multimedia journalism, Rhetoric

The Ozarks News Journal is taking shape.  Students have begun blogging on the site with brief introductions and biographies.

Their first post was simply an easy exercise to make sure everyone is up to speed on the basics of WordPress. So far so good.

Up next: I’m going have them work on a bit of experiential reporting this weekend so they can post next week incorporating a photo, a video, and a simple podcast.

Here are some resources for following the class:

Class textbooks:

• The Elements of Journalism
• Journalism Next

ONJ Twitter feed: ozarksnews

The students also have individual Twitter accounts dedicated to the class. You can find their tweets using the #sgf hashtag. And we have a class Twitter list.

News coverage will begin soon.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Journalism, multimedia journalism, Rhetoric, Social Media

I’ve spent a lot of time this summer designing a new class called JRN378 Multimedia Journalism. The idea is to give our students a solid grounding in web and social media tools for journalism by having them publish an online news magazine called Ozarks News Journal.

There’s not much to see now — just the basic design. Soon, however, you’ll begin to follow along as these students learn to built a web news organization. My hope is that in addition to producing some fine examples of multimedia journalism, students will also be exploring what it means to be a web-based news organization.

What features of the craft and ethics of traditional print/broadcast journalism ought to be preserved? What new ways of understanding journalism does the web make possible? What will be the craft and ethics traditions of the future? What roles will journalists play in civic discourse, and what will be their relationship to an audience?

It’s their revolution. I hope they discover/create some interesting answers.

Here’s a bonus: The ONJ website will also operate as a converged news product with our ONJ TV program available on Ozarks Public Television and Mediacom 24. You’ll be able to watch the shows on the web, too.

Take a look at the site. And be sure to drop in after school starts (a week from today) to read and comment and … you tell me … what is your role, dear reader?

Technorati Tags: Journalism, multimedia journalism, Social Media