jtm2008

Setting the agenda: Alterman tells where we are -- now we decided where to go

I'm hoping many of us will read Eric Alterman's skillful piece in the current New Yorker (link below), which comprehensively covers developments over the last couple of years pointing to the breakdown of the support systems for the newspaper industry, and hence our primary source of traditional journalism. Without being critical of Alterman -- he, like all of us, fails to do what is the very hard thing -- focus on solutions. That's our charge at NewsTools2008 -- not just suggest them, but scope out and even start the construction of them. And here's the article link itself. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/31/080331fa_fact_alterman

A way to start is to weigh in on our wiki page of disruptive/transformational technologies affecting journalism.  Have we picked the right 10? Who should speak about them? Are they mixed together correctly? Comment on the bottom of that wiki page, or below this post. Another way to help is to look at the growing list of proposed breakout topics for NewsTools2008, put your name as a collaborator on one or more, or propose your own.

Richard Sambrook from BBC Defines Four Types of Citizen Journalism

Through tales I've heard that this conference (three years ago) was where "boss Rosen" proclaimed the battle between journalists and bloggers over. That soundbyte has pushed forward the conversation of online media.

We will see what comes out of this conference. Follow me on Twitter if you want.

I took a video last night of Richard Sambrook describing the four types of citizen journalism. I'm very glad Richard went into this - all too often people assume that the first type of citizen journalism is the only type. Something I've written about in length here.

I got a new toy (a camerae that takes video - sorry if it's shaky, I'm still getting used to it).

Startup Weekend Concludes in Colorado

Startup Weekend is openly looked at as one of the inspiring forces guiding us as we organize News Tools 2008. At this startup weekend in Boulder guests included Loic Le Meur, Guy Kawasaki, Eric Litman, Jeff Pulver, Stowe Boyd and more.

I was able to keep up with the happenings in Boulder because Tara from Lijit and MediaCasters did an excellent job of broadcasting the event via Qik, Ustream, Twitter and any other tools available to them.

The goal of News Tools isn't to create new business' over the course of a weekend per-say.  But we do want to learn about and from the culture of technology and innovation that allowed a group of geeks to come together over the course of a few days and build the following:

 

To innovate, start small and see how it grows

clipped from www.howardowens.com A common complaint in the journalism world is that newspapers aren’t innovative enough.  The complaint usually goes something like, “Why didn’t a newspaper invent Google or Yahoo! or MySpace?” And then there is some finger pointing at executives for not funding R&D or being bold enough in their visions. This “why didn’t we come up with the big idea” is one of the myths of innovation. The problem with innovation in incumbent industries isn’t the lack of big ideas. It’s the failure to see the importance of little ideas, because they don’t point the way to immediate profits commiserate with current company values. All innovation starts with taking a look at what tools and materials are available now and how they can be used differently. It involves finding a job to done and figuring out how to modify what’s already on the table.  Or it involves, “oh, I can use that thing differently and I bet this will help other people, too.” That was true of the light bulb, the telegraph and YouTube.

VIDEO: 'Mapping the newsroom' underway at UC-Berkeley

Key collaborators developing the program for NewsTools2008 met on Monday, March 17 at the University of California Berkeley School of Journalism to begin "mapping the news ecology" for the future.

The conversations ranged from what tools are disruptive to journalism, to the changing job description of journalists - whether we call them 'community organizers' 'guides,' 'curators,' etc. The conversation was diverse and in-depth. The goal of the meeting today was to map out the structure of the newsrooms of old.

Take a look at the video below and ask yourself: What is the hierarchy of relationships in this newsroom? How does the 20th century newsroom manage its relationships to sources, readers, advertisers, publishers, etc? We spent the day mapping those relationships out. Tomorrow we will discuss how the newsroom of this next century will be entirely different.

Also: For a quick snippet of part of our conversation - see the video below:

The new newsroom? Joel Kramer, (portrait, right) editor/publisher of MinnPost.com, stands behind the Minneapolis newsroom with key editors seated, clockwise from left, Susan Albright, Corey Anderson, Don Effenberger and Casey Selix (who blinked). (Click on either photo to enlarge).  

What Will Get You Hired!?!

Via Steve Yelvington I came across this great post:  "Tips on Keeping Your Print Journalism Job."

It's fantastic advice for any journo who feels threatened by current market forces.

What I'm interested in, however, is advice for young journalists. Considering the list of disruptive technologies that we are hoping to identify and build upon in our wiki, what should young journalists study, how should they adapt and what mindset do they need to even start in this industry?

I am a big believer that you need to be a web native. To what extent, I don't know - but perhaps our conference will help.