Nieman Reports

THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY VOL. 64 NO. 2 SUMMER 2010

video games semantic Web Net Generation serendipity sharing immediacy PowerPoint news grazers information overload YouTube computer science augmented reality interactive

Google storytelling iPad Pokémon smartphone absorb iGeneration

personalization news literacy distractions connectivity

the brain mashup think engineers e-paper social media

The Digital Landscape ‘to promote and elevate the standards of journalism’

Agnes Wahl Nieman the benefactor of the Nieman Foundation

Vol. 64 No. 2 Summer 2010 Nieman Reports The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University

Bob Giles | Publisher Melissa Ludtke | Editor Jan Gardner | Assistant Editor Jonathan Seitz | Editorial Assistant Diane Novetsky | Design Editor

Nieman Reports (USPS #430-650) is published Editorial in March, June, September and December Telephone: 617-496-6308 by the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, E-Mail Address: One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-2098. [email protected]

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THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY VOL. 64 NO. 2 SUMMER 2010

4 The Digital Landscape: What’s Next for News?

Brain Power 5 Feeling the Heat: The Brain Holds Clues for Journalism | By Jack Fuller 7 Our ‘Deep Reading’ Brain: Its Digital Evolution Poses Questions | By Maryanne Wolf 9 Novelty and Testing: When the Brain Learns and Why It Forgets | By Russell Poldrack 11 Thinking About Multitasking: It’s What Journalists Need to Do | By Clifford Nass 13 Watching the Human Brain Process Information | Conversation with Marcel Just 15 A Big Question: ‘How Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think?’ | By John Brockman

Digital Youth 18 Lessons for the Future From the First Post-Pokémon Generation | By Mizuko Ito 20 Digital Demands: The Challenges of Constant Connectivity | Excerpts from Frontline’s “Digital Nation” interview with Sherry Turkle 21 Generational Divide: Digital Technology’s Paradoxical Message | Excerpts from the BBC’s interview with Sherry Turkle 24 Understanding the iGeneration—Before the Next Mini-Generation Arrives | By Larry Rosen 27 Revealing the Digital News Experience—For Young and Old | By Amy Mitchell 29 Journalism: English for the 21st Century | By Esther Wojcicki 31 E-Textbooks to iPads: Do Teenagers Use Them? | By Esther Wojcicki 33 The Future of News: What Ninth-Grade Students Think | By Palo Alto High School students 34 News Literacy Project: Students Figure Out What News and Information to Trust | By Alan C. Miller 35 Critical Thinking About Journalism: A High School Student’s View | By Lucy Chen

New News 37 News in the Age of Now | By Nicholas Carr 39 There’s More to Being a Journalist Than Hitting the ‘Publish’ Button | By Douglas Rushkoff 40 Categorizing What Works—So We Can Apply Those Lessons to Future Endeavors | By Michele McLellan 42 Establishing a Digital Value for Watchdog Reporting | By Stephen Janis 45 A Message for Journalists: It’s Time to Flex Old Muscles in New Ways | By Ken Doctor 47 Twitter: Can It Be a Reliable Source of News? | By Janic Tremblay 50 YouTube’s Ecosystem for News | By Steve Grove 52 Video Games: What They Can Teach Us About Audience Engagement | By James Paul Gee 54 News-Focused Game Playing: Is It a Good Way to Engage People in an Issue? | By Nora Paul and Kathleen A. Hansen

Hacks + Hackers 58 Hacks/Hackers: Bringing Journalists and Technologists Together | By Burt Herman 59 Joining Digital Forces Strengthens Local Investigative Reporting | By Brant Houston 61 The Peril and Promise of the Semantic Web | By Andrew Finlayson 64 Journalism on the Map: A Case for Location-Aware Storytelling | By Krissy Clark 66 Digital Immersion: Augmenting Places With Stories and Information | By Mike Liebhold 69 The Future of Storytelling: A Participatory Endeavor | Conversation with V. Michael Bove, Jr. 71 Storytelling in the Digital Age: Finding the Sweet Spot | By Hanson Hosein 73 Apple’s iPad Meets Hamlet’s Blackberry | By Peter Cobus 75 The Tablet’s Mobile Multimedia Revolution: A Reality Check | By Juan Antonio Giner

3 Curator’s Corner: Fairness as an Essential Ingredient in News Reporting | By Bob Giles

76 Nieman Notes | Compiled by Jan Gardner 76 From Rejection to Success—With ‘Radiohead Journalism’ | By Paige Williams 78 Class Notes 83 End Note: A Nation’s Past and Promise: A Shift in the Meaning of American Symbols | By Derrick Z. Jackson

Digging Deeper: Our Digital Library

In assembling this edition of Nieman Reports, the magazine’s contributors helped us create a collection of resources and arti- cles that dig deep into the landscape of digital media and speak to the journalism issues written about on the following pages. Visit our digital library via a link at www.niemanreports.org/ digital-library. Once there, you will find volumes connected to topics covered in the magazine, such as youth & media, multi- tasking, the brain, and social media. Over time we intend to expand this library and invite you to submit relevant articles, videos, blog posts, or stories. Send your links to [email protected] and we will put them in the appropriate digital volume.

Cover graphic and illustration for the Nieman Reports’ Digital Library (above): Diane Novetsky/Nova Design

2 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 Curator’s Corner

Fairness as an Essential Ingredient in News Reporting The Nieman Foundation’s Taylor Family Award recognizes journalistic fairness— and we learn from the stories it honors how newspapers achieve it.

BY BOB GILES

or the past nine years, the Nieman Foundation has on the story, Fisher and Rainey were able to get close honored journalistic fairness with the Taylor Family to students, teachers, administrators, parents and drug Award for Fairness in Newspapers. Our goal is to dealers. Their patient pursuit enabled them to tell a story Fencourage fairness and ethical practices in enterprising that was honest but not judgmental, and accurate without news coverage by drawing public attention to exemplary romanticizing or denigrating the situation. work. The award is given in the name of the Taylor family A different dimension of fairness emerged in the 2006 whose stewardship of The Boston Globe over four gen- coverage by the Lancaster (Penn.) New Era for its series of erations was anchored in the belief of Charles H. Taylor, stories about the shooting of 10 Amish girls in a one-room the first publisher—that in the long run honest and fair schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania. The reporters faced a dealing will win. formidable obstacle: Many in the Amish community did We had no specific definition for “fairness” when the not want their names or photographs published and the competition began in 2001. To prepare their exhibits for state police, out of respect for Amish religious traditions, the Taylor award judges, newspapers were asked to explain would not speak for attribution. The solution was to report how stories were framed, reported and presented to read- so exhaustively that the stories could be written confidently ers in the context of fairness. It was our expectation that and compellingly, shedding light on a world usually hidden over time we would build a valuable base of knowledge from view without revealing the identities of those who about what constitutes fairness. A review of the award’s wished anonymity. winning entries does, in fact, reveal a range of journalistic In 2008, Howard Witt of the Chicago Tribune was rec- practices that have met the test of fairness. ognized for a body of work that focused on three Southern towns where he documented America’s unfinished business What Makes a Story Fair? of civil rights. Witt’s stories were not simple tales of good and evil. He wrote nuanced accounts of young people with Les Gura of The Hartford Courant received the initial blemished records whose predicaments could be traced Taylor award for his meticulous account of the badly to racially unjust legal prosecutions or school discipline handled investigation into the murder of a Yale student; meted out in racially disproportionate ways. a promising young instructor was implicated but never The commitment The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer made charged. His story forced readers to consider fairness from to fully represent the perspective of a major North Caro- every angle—by the news media, by the police, by the lina poultry producer was a key factor in the paper win- public, and by a prestigious university. He demonstrated ning the 2009 award. The reporters began talking with how the Yale teacher’s reputation had been shattered by company officials about health and safety violations nine the use of anonymous sources in other news coverage; he months before the stories were published. The paper twice used the words of only those who would go on the record. postponed publication to allow the company more time to In 2003, The Boston Globe was honored for the fair- respond to its questions. It posted full written statements ness of its reporting about the sexual abuse scandal in the from the company on CharlotteObserver.com. Catholic Church when it took on a highly sensitive subject This year, the Chicago Tribune won the award for a sec- in an environment of intense passions. Reporters examined ond time for an investigation revealing a secret admissions the fact that other denominations had sex abuse scandals system that enabled children whose parents had political of their own, that the victims were not all young boys, that connections to be admitted to the University of Illinois victims’ lawyers were not without blame, and that phony although they did not meet basic academic requirements. changes against priests constituted a real danger. The Globe The newspaper let university officials speak for themselves also sought to present the story from the perspective of at length while protecting the students who had benefit- the church and those who worked within it. ted from the system but were not demonstrably culpable. Reporter Robin Gaby Fisher and photographer Matt Each of these award winners has broadened our under- Rainey of The Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey won standing of how fairness strengthens the impact and cred- the 2005 award for a report on the lives of students and ibility of stories. After nearly a decade, this award affirms faculty at a New Jersey school that became known as “Last our belief that fairness will continue to be recognized in Chance High.” During the more than 10 months they spent its different manifestations in the years ahead. 

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 3 The Digital Landscape: What’s Next for News?

Journalism resides in the technological landscape of its time. Whether on parchment or paper, via the telegraph, radio waves, or TV signals, significant occurrences and utterances of a commu- nity have been revealed through words, written or spoken, and images, drawn, filmed or photo- graphed by the people observing them. In thinking about the telegraph’s effect on 19th century communication, the late James W. Carey noted that by rendering geography irrelevant, what had been a personal connection of journalist to readers was severed. And the constraints of transmis- sion, Carey wrote, “made prose lean and unadorned,” while at the same time words were tugged away from their colloquial roots and pushed toward a style striving for the tone of objectivity. Familiarity no long seemed the right touch with the expanding breadth of audience. All of this, Carey concluded, “led to a fundamental change in news.” A decade into the 21st century, the contemporary digital conveyors of news and information only underscore in our minds the telegraph’s slow and limited capacities. Yet as we think about our modern day digital landscape in the context of journalism’s possibilities, perhaps it’s wise to recall the interwoven tapestry of journalistic changes that Carey remarked upon as the use of the telegraph became widespread. In this issue of Nieman Reports, journalists and commentators, teachers and high school students, reading researchers and neuroscientists trek through our contemporary digital land- scape, mapping and exploring various pathways that journalists use or might soon discover. When phrases such as “information overload” and “news literacy” bump up against “augmented reality” and “semantic Web,” it behooves us to ask how this digital landscape is affecting the experience of producing and consuming news and information. It’s a good time to look, too, at what we are learning about the human brain’s capacity to absorb and process what technol- ogy’s advances make possible for journalists. From finding out how the younger among us use digital devices to wondering whether any technology can replicate the experience of deep reading, our writers stretch their thinking and ours. A word of thanks is extended to Andrew Finlayson, a Knight Journalism Fellow at Stan- ford University, whose own thinking about this topic coincidently arrived one day in my e-mail just as we were starting this project. In turn, he led us to several other Knight fellows as well as professors and speakers he’d heard, and their words, like his, now contribute mightily to this

Non Sequitur © 2010 Wiley Miller. Used by permis- conversation. —Melissa Ludtke sion of UniversalUclick. All rights reserved.

4 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 WHAT’S NEXT FOR NEWS? | Brain Power

Feeling the Heat: The Brain Holds Clues for Journalism ‘This rise in emotional intensity poses a real problem for serious journalists … . The sciences of the mind offer a lot of help if we are willing to learn from them.’

BY JACK FULLER

ere is the deepest and, to many serious journalists, most disturbing truth about the future of news: The Haudience will control it. They will get the kind of news they choose to get. Not the kind they say they want, but the kind they actually choose. To the extent that news needs to pro- duce profits, the demand ultimately will shape the supply. But even if unlimited nonprofit funding for serious journalism were suddenly to appear, demand would still control. That is because, no matter what its business model might be, journalism will fail to deliver to the broad public the civic education our society requires unless it can persuade large numbers of people to pay attention to it. So the choice is not between giving people what they want or what they need. The challenge is to induce people to want what they need. How to do that with everything in constant motion? New technologies, new services, new competitors seem to arise every day. All this activity can mask a more important trend—the audience itself is changing rapidly. As a consequence, the disciplined, professional presentation of news perfected over the 20th century no longer commands the widespread respect it once did. The influence of undisciplined news voices grows. Journalists know all about respond- ing to the next new thing. We leap like dalmatians at the sound of the fire bell. But to understand what is happening to the news audience today we need to get beyond the clang of the alarm. We have to get past the immediacy of each hot new idea and begin with something

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 5 What’s Next for News?

deeper and more durable. We need to Give normal humans a tricky news seekers turn to the intensity understand what the transformation anagram or a long division problem of Fox News or MSNBC and away of our information environment has involving two numbers out to six from CNN. (It also explains why the done at the most fundamental level to decimal points, and they will begin once rather restrained National Geo- the way people take in news. to show emotional arousal—think of graphic channel has so many shows it as stress. Give them a strict time about predator species that prey on Emotional Heat limit, and their level of arousal will humans—species that include Homo rise. Throw new information at them sapiens themselves.) My struggle with this question led me (some of it useful, some irrelevant, to the science of how the brain pro- some just wrong) while they are Where Journalism Fits cesses information, especially the way working on the problem, and their emotion directs attention. Of course, emotional temperature will go up This rise in emotional intensity poses it did not take the rise of modern even more. Then distract them (say a real problem for serious journalists, neuroscience to prove that emotion by calling their names or having their as I describe in my book “What Is holds an audience. Sophocles knew smartphones signal that somebody Happening to News: The Information that when he wrote his drama of incest is trying to reach them), and their Explosion and the Crisis in Journal- and violence, “Oedipus Rex.” So do the arousal level will soar. ism.”1 We have been trained for many editors of supermarket tabloids. Count If that sounds familiar, it is. All too good reasons to shy away from it in the on fear and sex to attract the eye. familiar. Information overload, time presentation of news. But we see our Evolution provides the reason: pressure, and distraction characterize audience drawn to it. And we do not Our ancestors became our ancestors our era. The very nature of the infor- even have a way of discussing which by being able to spot danger and mation environment in which we all uses of emotion are misleading or the opportunity to mate. So it was live creates emotional arousal. We are manipulative and which actually can inevitable that as competition for available every moment to everyone help people understand their world. attention exploded with the revolu- we know, and an enormous number of The sciences of the mind offer a lot tionary information technologies of people we do not know. We continu- of help if we are willing to learn from the late 20th and early 21st centuries, ously receive messages: messages of them. They explain, for example, why message senders raised the emotional a particular sort—the kind that are the immediate crowds out the impor- volume. Serious journalists tended to directed specifically to us. They come tant. Why bad news attracts attention decry this as infotainment or worse. from people who know us personally more than good news does. They can Perhaps they never themselves quite or from people or institutions that show us how emotion interacts with lived up to the professional ideal of have learned something about what the human brain’s inherent mental utter disinterest and detachment, but interests us. shortcuts to lead us systematically they did learn to draw back from raw In effect, these ubiquitous messages to erroneous conclusions. They can emotional appeals. call out our names. Consequently we point us to the ways in which search The audience did not. This baffled live in a continuous state of interrup- algorithms interact with emotions many of us. How could people be tion and distraction. Time pressure and these mental shortcuts to mislead taken in by screaming commenta- is enormous. Even after leaving the people about the relative importance tors (on everything from health care Tribune Company to write books, I of various pieces of information. They to basketball), by celebrity gossip, discovered that people expected me to can even help us understand the way by reports characterized at best by respond to e-mails within a couple of our ability and impulse to read other truthiness rather than the rigors of hours, if not a couple of minutes, and people’s minds draws us to a story and verification? were offended if I did not. light up other secrets of how and why Here is where the implications of the So not only has the explosion narrative works. rapidly developing science of the mind of competition among suppliers of It should be clear by now that the help. It turns out that certain kinds of information—news, advertising and challenge for journalists from here cognitive challenges (challenges to our entertainment—caused producers to forward is not only the steadfast thinking) produce emotional arousal. increase the emotional temperature, adherence to the values of accuracy And an emotionally aroused brain is the recipients of information have and independence and the social drawn to things that are emotionally become more attracted to emotional responsibility to provide a civic educa- charged. heat. This helps explain why heavy tion but also the development of new

1 Chapter Six, “The Two Searchlights,” in Jack Fuller’s book describes neuroscience research about emotion and attention and how it is relevant to the way journalists present their stories. Read it online at http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/ Chicago/268989.html.

6 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 Brain Power ways of thinking and talking about To conclude where I began, the Jack Fuller, who won a Pulitzer how to advance the social mission of audience will determine the future Prize for Editorial Writing, was journalism in a radically and rapidly of news. Serious journalists must editor and publisher of the Chicago evolving environment. The answer understand to the very essence the Tribune and president of Tribune is not to figure out how to transport minds that make up this audience Publishing Company. His book, 20th century news presentation into in order to know how to persuade “What Is Happening to News: The 21st century delivery mechanisms but people to assimilate the significant and Information Explosion and the Crisis rather to create a new rhetoric of news demand the accurate. Anything less in Journalism,” is published by the that can get through to the changed is the neglect of our most important University of Chicago Press. and changing news audience. social responsibility. 

Our ‘Deep Reading’ Brain: Its Digital Evolution Poses Questions ‘The reading circuit’s very plasticity is also its Achilles’ heel. It can be fully fashioned over time and fully implemented when we read, or it can be short- circuited …’

BY MARYANNE WOLF

ill we lose the “deep reading” culture is found in the ancient Greeks’ brain in a digital culture? transition from an oral culture to a No one knows—yet. literacy-based culture. Socrates, who WThe preceding paragraph provides was arguably Greece’s most eloquent a legitimate synopsis of this essay. It apologist for an oral culture, protested also exemplifies the kind of reduced against the acquisition of literacy. And reading that concerns me greatly, both he did so on the basis of questions for expert adult readers and even more that are prescient today—and, in that so for young novice readers, those who prescience, surprising. are learning how to read in a way that Socrates contended that the seeming helps them to comprehend and expand permanence of the printed word would upon the information given. delude the young into thinking they The challenges surrounding how had accessed the crux of knowledge, we learn to think about what we rather than simply decoded it. For him, read raise profound questions. They only the intellectually effortful process have implications for us intellectu- of probing, analyzing and internalizing ally, socially and ethically. Whether knowledge would enable the young to an immersion in digitally dominated develop a lifelong, personal approach forms of reading will change the to knowing and thinking, which could capacity to think deeply, reflectively lead them to their ultimate goals—wis- and in an intellectually autonomous dom and virtue. Only the examined manner when we read is a question word—and the examined life—was well worth raising. But it isn’t one I worth pursuing. Literacy, Socrates can answer now, given how early we believed, would short-circuit both. are in the transition to digital content. and literature that can help to bet- Using a 21st century paraphrase, In my work on the evolution of the ter prepare us to examine this set the operative word is “short-circuited.” reading brain during the past decade, of issues. The historical moment I use it to segue into a different, I have found important insights from that best approximates the present yet concrete way of conceptualizing the history of literacy, neuroscience transition from a literate to a digital Socrates’s elegantly described worries.

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 7 What’s Next for News?

Modern imaging technology allows mind has reached, as it were …” to novelty—contribute to a mindset us to scan the brains of expert and The act of going beyond the text to toward reading that seeks to reduce novice readers and observe how human analyze, infer and think new thoughts information to its lowest conceptual brains learn to read. Briefly, here is is the product of years of formation. It denominator. Sound bites, text bites, what we find: Whenever we learn takes time, both in milliseconds and and mind bites are a reflection of a something new, the brain forms a years, and effort to learn to read with culture that has forgotten or become new circuit that connects some of the deep, expanding comprehension and too distracted by and too drawn to brain’s original structures. In the case to execute all these processes as an the next piece of new information to of learning to read, the brain builds adult expert reader. When it comes to allow itself time to think. connections between and among the building this reading circuit in a brain We need to find the ability to pause visual, language and conceptual areas that has no preprogrammed setup for it, and pull back from what seems to be that are part of our genetic heritage, there is no genetic guarantee that any developing into an incessant need to but that were never woven together individual novice reader will ever form fill every millisecond with new infor- in this way before. the expert reading brain circuitry that mation. As I was writing this piece, a most of us form. The reading circuit’s New York Times reporter contacted me Brain Pathways: Created By very plasticity is also its Achilles’ heel. to find out whether I thought Internet Reading It can be fully fashioned over time and reading might aid speed reading. fully implemented when we read, or “Yes,” I replied, “but speed and its Gradually we are beginning to under- it can be short-circuited—either early counterpart—assumed efficiency—are stand the stunning complexity that is on in its formation period or later, not always desirable for deep thought.” involved in the expert reader’s brain after its formation, in the execution We need to understand the value of circuit. For example, when reading of only part of its potentially available what we may be losing when we skim even a single word, the first millisec- cognitive resources. text so rapidly that we skip the precious onds of the reading circuit are largely Because we literally and physiologi- milliseconds of deep reading processes. devoted to decoding the word’s visual cally can read in multiple ways, how For it is within these moments—and information and connecting it to all we read—and what we absorb from these processes in our brains—that that we know about the word from our reading—will be influenced by we might reach our own important its sounds to meanings to syntactic both the content of our reading and insights and breakthroughs. They functions. The virtual automaticity the medium we use. might not happen if we’ve skipped on of this first set of stages allows us in Few need to be reminded of the to the next text bite. Tough questions. the next milliseconds to go beyond transformative advantages of the Rigorous research. These are what are the decoded text. It is within the next digital culture’s democratization of needed now of us as we ponder the precious milliseconds that we enter a information in our society. That is kind of readers we are becoming and cognitive space where we can connect not the issue I address here. Rather, how the next generation of readers the decoded information to all that we in my research, I seek to understand will be formed. know and feel. In this latter part of the full implications for the reader Our failure to do this may leave the process of reading, we are given who is immersed in a reading medium us confronted with a situation that the ability to think new thoughts of that provides little incentive to use technology visionary Edward Tenner our own: the generative core of the the full panoply of cognitive resources described in 2006: “It would be a reading process. available. shame if brilliant technology were to Perhaps no one better captured We know a great deal about the end up threatening the kind of intellect what the reader begins to think in present iteration of the reading brain that produced it.”  those last milliseconds of the reading and all of the resources it has learned circuit than the French novelist Mar- to bring to the act of reading. However, Maryanne Wolf directs the Center for cel Proust. In 1906, he characterized we still know very little about the Reading and Language Research and the heart of reading as that moment digital reading brain. My major worry is the John DiBiaggio Professor of when “that which is the end of [the is that, confronted with a digital glut Citizenship and Public Service and author’s] wisdom appears to us as but of immediate information that requires professor of child development within the beginning of ours.” A bit more than and receives less and less intellectual the Eliot-Pearson Department of a century later, in 2010, book editor effort, many new (and many older) Child Development at Tufts Univer- Peter Dimock said that “[this] kind readers will have neither the time nor sity. She is the author of “Proust and of reading, then, is a time of internal the motivation to think through the the Squid: The Story and Science of solitary consciousness in which the possible layers of meaning in what the Reading Brain,” published by reading consciousness is brought up they read. The omnipresence of mul- HarperCollins. A version of this essay to the level of the knowledge of the tiple distractions for attention—and will be translated for the Frankfurter author—the farthest point another the brain’s own natural attraction Allgemeine Zeitung.

8 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 Brain Power

Novelty and Testing: When the Brain Learns and Why It Forgets

Russell Poldrack is a professor of of dopamine in particular psychology and neurobiology and parts of the brain. But a director of the Imaging Research growing body of research Center at the University of Texas at shows that dopamine is Austin. In his research he uses imag- more like the “gimme more” ing to understand the brain systems neurotransmitter. that underlie the human ability to Kent Berridge and col- learn new skills, make good decisions, leagues at the University and exert self-control. What Poldrack of Michigan have done and his colleagues discovered in their interesting studies in which investigations provides information they videotape rats and then useful to journalists as they look for measure how often the rats ways to engage the minds of readers, exhibit signs of pleasure— viewers and listeners through digital what we call “affective reac- media. This past October he began tions.”1 Blocking dopamine blogging for The Huffington Post about in the brain turns out not his research. The words that follow are to affect how often the adapted with the author’s permission rats exhibit these pleasure from two of his blog posts, one about The lighter regions in the brain’s right hemisphere responses but instead it the brain and multitasking, the other were more active for a group of individuals when they reduces the rats’ motivation, about what people recognize about their stopped themselves from making a movement. Image turning them into slackers. own learning. by Eliza Congdon. (Another neurotransmitter system in the brain, the s I set out to write about multi- opioid system, seems to tasking and information over- is drawn to the ad, often without us be the one that actually produces the load, let me admit that I am even realizing it. pleasurable sensations, though it has Aan information junkie. It’s difficult Novelty is probably one of the most very close relations with the dopamine for me to make it through an hour- powerful signals to determine what system.) long meeting without peeking at least we pay attention to in the world. This Dopamine also is very much involved once at my iPhone to check my e-mail makes a lot of sense from an evolution- in learning and memory, which occur in and on more than one occasion I’ve ary standpoint since we don’t want the brain through changes in the way come close to hurling myself down the to spend all of our time and energy that neurons connect to one another. stairs as I try to read e-mails while noticing the many things around us that We know that the brain can change descending. don’t change from day to day. Research- drastically with experience. However, Why do I do things that place me ers have found that novelty causes a the brain needs some way to control in such clear social and physical peril? number of brain systems to become these changes; after all, we wouldn’t Part of the answer lies in the brain’s activated; foremost among these is the want our entire visual system to be response to novelty. After all, it is dopamine system. This system, which rewired to see upside down after doing built to ignore the old and focus on lives deep in the brain stem, sends the a single handstand. Dopamine is one the new. Marketers clearly understand neurotransmitter dopamine to loca- of the neurotransmitters that controls this: Watch closely and you will notice tions across the brain. Many people this: When dopamine is released, it that heavily-played television ads will think of dopamine as the “feel-good” is a signal to the brain that it is now change ever so slightly after being on neurotransmitter because drugs that time to start learning what is going on. the air for a few weeks. When our create euphoria, such as cocaine and So what do things happening inside brain detects this change, our attention methamphetamine, cause an increase the brain have to do with the way I

1 Video of these rats and their reactions can be viewed at http://www-personal.umich. edu/~berridge/.

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 9 What’s Next for News?

behave with my iPhone? Well, dent about memories that are it’s hard to imagine a more completely false and yet lack powerful novelty-generating confidence about our ability to device. Every time it buzzes remember things we have actu- to signal a new e-mail or text ally learned well. In particular, message it is wiring even more we often confuse fluency (or firmly into my brain the desire ease) for ability. By its fourth to pick up the device and look time reading the paragraph, for that precious nugget of new that group found it very easy, information, which often is only and this led them to think that a reminder of another com- it would be a snap to remember mittee meeting. Although no the material later. But it wasn’t. research has yet been published There is a growing body of on this, I am confident that we research showing that things soon will see that our bond to that are hardest are what make these devices works through the us learn best. This concept is same mechanisms in the brain known as “desirable difficulties.” that govern addiction to drugs, If something is too easy then food and many other things. we probably aren’t learning very much. We have more to These highlighted regions in the prefrontal cortex were Maximizing Learning find out as we determine just more active when a person silently counted backward than how widely this idea applies. during a rest period. The largest of them is often active There is a second, related But there is enough evidence when people engage in mental activities that place heavy question of particular interest already assembled to give us demands on working memory. Image by Russell Poldrack. for journalists. How can news reason to rethink how learning of importance be effectively takes place in our daily lives. conveyed through the digital clutter only one chance to read it, then was The finding of desirable difficulties and information overload to people tested three times on how much they poses a serious challenge to journal- who are in constant novelty-seeking remembered. ists because things that make people mode? Key to figuring out how to do Then, through a questionnaire, remember best are also things that this is gaining an understanding of members of each group told the people are likely to avoid because they why and how the brain responds to researchers how well they thought are difficult. novelty—and then taking advantage they had learned the material. The As researchers learn more about of this knowledge in figuring out researchers also gave them memory how learning and memory work, there how to attract attention. However, it tests within a few minutes after study- may be additional clues about how is equally important to be sure that ing, as well as one week later so they to maximize learning. But there are once information breaks through the would have objective data to evaluate already some tricks that can be used. clutter that the person receiving it along with the students’ own subjective For example, information is often remembers it. evaluations. remembered better when presented Unfortunately, our intuitions may When questioned about how well multiple times, but only when those lead us astray: Psychological research they had learned the material, the different times are spaced apart from has shown that people are not very people who had read the paragraph one another. Thus, presenting several good predictors of their own or oth- four times indicated that they felt versions of an idea in different parts of ers’ learning. A good example of this much better about their learning of the a story could help improve retention. comes from a study done in 2006 material. They also performed better on If journalism is about learning— by Henry Roediger and a graduate the memory test right after studying. about taking in news and information student, Jeffrey Karpicke, at Wash- However, things were very different a and understanding its relevance to our ington University in St. Louis. Using week later. At that point, people who lives—then what neuroscientists and two different approaches, they taught had studied the paragraph once and brain researchers are finding out about students about the sun and sea otters then been tested three times hand- the brain and its capacity to absorb by giving them a paragraph containing ily outperformed the overconfident information surely matters.  scientific information to read about paragraph-readers on the memory each topic. One group of students test for the material. For more information about Russell had the chance to read the material This kind of research is teaching Poldrack’s research go to four times. Another group was given us that often we can be overconfi- www.poldracklab.org.

10 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 Brain Power

Thinking About Multitasking: It’s What Journalists Need to Do Heavy media multitaskers ‘are often influenced by intervening content. News articles are therefore going to require more recapitulations and reminders to help readers pick up where they left off.’

BY CLIFFORD NASS

hen people multitask with being told must become less complex media they are consuming as readers show an unwillingness to two or more streams of allocate enough attention to work Wunrelated media content. (Dealing through difficult material. with two related media streams has At a more macro level, one sees different dimensions.) It doesn’t mat- increasing concessions to heavy media ter exactly what information they are multitaskers in the clustering of stories taking in or what devices they are us- on the Web. In the early days of digital ing; just the act of using two or more news, links would augment a story media streams simultaneously means with supporting video or prior coverage that consumers are engaging in what on its topic. In the second phase, the is an increasingly frequent pursuit number of links increased, and the in our digital age. Perhaps they are relationships between the story and searching on a Web site while texting links became more tenuous (e.g., hav- on their phone. Or they are tuning in ing “international news” or “politics” to a YouTube video while exchanging in common). Today, numerous links e-mails on a laptop. Maybe CNN is like Top Stories, Editor’s Picks, and playing on their screen and they are Articles You Might Be Interested In are tracking the news while chatting on- scattered throughout each Web page line about work in one window and and the relationship between the base connecting with a friend several time story and the links tends to vanish. zones away via Skype. Or maybe all of these things are Heavy Media Multitaskers happening at once. many companies require workers to Given what we’re finding out about respond immediately to multiple media While these responses to changing media multitasking, it is much more channels, such as mobile phones, chat reading styles are important to under- ubiquitous and involves many more and e-mail). stand, journalists are now being con- streams of content than is commonly Journalists are adapting—with fronted with an even more important appreciated. Based on surveys we have varying degrees of frustration and situation brought about by this growth done at Stanford University, the average consternation—to the unwillingness in media multitasking. Now evident to university student is regularly using of the growing number of media those of us who study media multitask- four different media streams; fewer multitaskers to focus on one stream ing are fundamental changes in the than 5 percent of students report that of content, regardless of how engag- way heavy media multitaskers (HMMs) they regularly use a single stream, and ing it might be. Given the urge to process information. Research I did more than 20 percent are using six consume as much unrelated content with Eyal Ophir and Anthony Wagner or more streams at one time. Other as possible, readers demonstrate an that we published in the Proceedings research suggests that this method of unwillingness, for example, to stay of the National Academy of Sciences handling media is increasing across with long-form journalism; the longer shows that HMMs—who are already populations ranging from infants (e.g., the article, the greater the frequency a large and rapidly growing part of breast-feeding babies will watch tele- readers show of bouncing around and the population—are much worse than vision when their mothers are doing eventually drifting to other media previous generations of readers at so) to adults in the work force (e.g., streams. Similarly, how stories are three tasks that reporters have been

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 11 What’s Next for News?

able to take for granted: filtering the given letter exactly three letters before. HMMs switch from reading an article relevant from the irrelevant, managing While LMMs did reasonably well at to consuming other media and then short-term memory, and switching this task, HMMs did progressively switch back—a very frequent occur- from one task to another. worse with this task as a given letter rence—they are often influenced by Because these changes affect the appeared more frequently and as the intervening content. News articles way people can consume media rather number of letters grew. are therefore going to require more than how they wish to see media, the If one thinks of the brain as a set of recapitulations and reminders to help requisite changes will strike at the very filing cabinets, HMMs—the readers of readers pick up where they left off. core of how news can be written. What today and especially tomorrow—have It will also help to ensure that the follow are implications for journalism messier cabinets and have a harder layout, font and other visual features based on what we’ve learned about the time finding what they need. This of the article are radically different habits of HMMs. from the rest of the page, thereby reminding readers Filtering Information: The of the distinction between HMM’s inability to filter the story and all of the other irrelevant information, even Journalists are adapting—with varying streams that they continually when it is labeled as irrel- degrees of frustration and consternation— encounter. Perhaps most evant, is shocking. In one ironic is that the juxtaposi- experiment people were to the unwillingness of the growing tion of unrelated content, asked to only pay attention to driven by a desire to satisfy red rectangles and to ignore number of media multitaskers to focus on HMMs, is going to make blue rectangles. While light one stream of content, regardless of how it harder for HMMs to media multitaskers (LMMs) understand the stories that were unaffected by the blue engaging it might be. ... the longer the they do read. rectangles, no matter how many there were, the HMMs article, the greater the frequency readers Journalists have long been were consistently distracted show of bouncing around and eventually responsive to changes in soci- by the blues: The more blue, ety, culture, and consumer the less attention they paid drifting to other media streams. demographics and prefer- to the red rectangles. ences. The extraordinary With this inability to growth of media multitask- filter in mind, news stories ing means that there is now and editorials must be an unprecedented source of highly focused. Filtering provides a inability of HMMs to manage short- variance—the brains of news consum- sense of proportion that HMMs lack term memory means that stories will ers—that is demanding change. This so secondary messages will tend to be more effective if they take people presents journalists with a critical dilute the primary message. Also, step by step through an argument or challenge: How will the public be best readers will not distinguish between time sequence because readers will get informed given the emerging cogni- experts and nonexperts, even when confused by interlocking content. On tive deficiencies created by chronic the distinction is made clear in the the other hand, the classic inverted multitasking? Few questions are as story. For this reason, it is important to pyramid will be very difficult for HMMs necessary as this one for journalists to avoid using sources that are obviously to follow because the interrelated address. Given the pace at which media unqualified to create balance. Finally, content requires memory management multitasking continues to increase, even engrossing stories are going to and integration. there is urgency in finding answers.  be competing with advertisements, e-mails, phone calls, Twitter and a Switching Tasks: The final deficiency Clifford Nass is the Thomas M. host of other media streams since is ironic: HMMs are actually worse at Storke Professor at Stanford HMMs will be chronically seduced by switching from one task to another. University in the Department of the other: With HMMs, nothing grabs This was demonstrated when partici- Communication. He is author of the and sustains truly focused attention. pants were asked to perform a task forthcoming “The Man Who Lied to that focused on either a letter or a His Laptop: What Machines Teach Short-term Memory: Another experi- number and then were presented with Us About Human Relationships,” to ment examined the ability to manage a letter/number pair. The HMMs were be published in September as one of short-term memory. Participants were dramatically slowed down when the two inaugural books in Penguin’s shown a sequence of letters and were task randomly switched from letter popular science imprint, Current. continually asked whether they saw a to number or vice versa. Thus, as

12 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 Brain Power

Watching the Human Brain Process Information ‘We measure the amount of brain activity while somebody’s doing something. You can’t generate more activity beyond a certain point. There’s an upper limit.’

Marcel Just is the director of the It’s the first time we’ve been able to ing simulator in how well you maintain Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging at answer the question that philosophers your lane, whether or not you hit the Carnegie Mellon University, where he have been asking: Is your concept of side of the road. It’s possible to drive and his team use functional Magnetic something the same as my concept of while listening to someone talk. We Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scans to it? For these concrete nouns it is. And all do it and sometimes using a cell examine brain activation as people if you train the computer to recognize phone. However, there’s absolutely no perform various high-level tasks such those concepts in one language, it can question that it takes away from the as spatial thinking, problem solving, then identify what the bilingual person quality of the driving. multitasking, and real-time, dynamic is thinking about when he or she You ask about distractions. Par- decision making. In a conversation encounters those concepts in another ticularly with respect to automaticity, with Nieman Reports editor Melissa language. So the brain representations which we study, that’s a very inter- Ludtke, Just describes what imaging are not only common across people, esting question. There are drivers has revealed—and what it one day but they’re common across languages who say, “Oh, well, when the driving might reveal—about how the human for translation equivalents. gets tough, I’ll start ignoring my cell brain processes information. Just phone partner or my passenger or begins by talking about how the brain Ludtke: I’m wondering how you see my talk radio and I’ll just focus on “codes” concepts. Edited excerpts follow: the notion of multitasking in terms the driving.” We ran a study in which of brain function and how the brain we told experienced drivers that they Melissa Ludtke: When you talk about copes with distraction. are going to hear someone speak but trying to unravel or study the code of to just ignore them and do the main the mind, what do you mean by “code”? Just: In many of our studies we are spatial task. But we found that they interested in finding out the upper couldn’t ignore the speaking because Marcel Just: Most people have seen limits of our thinking capability. the processing of spoken language the illustrations in magazines and We often put the brain on a mental is so automatic that you can’t turn newspapers of hot spots in the brain treadmill and just see how high we it off. You can’t will yourself not to when a person is thinking. Those can put it. With multitasking we ask understand a speaker’s next sentence. accurately depict where the activity people to do two relatively high-level It just gets in. is and tells which brain areas are in tasks simultaneously. We’ve aimed at In watching the brain’s activity, we play. For the first time we’ve been able a real-world issue: using a cell phone can see this. When the next sentence to identify what concept a person is while driving and we have measured starts, even though our subjects are thinking about from their brain activity. the brain activity with people who poised to ignore it, the activation We use machine-learning algorithms are using a driving simulator while starts up in the language areas and to put together what is being coded also listening to someone talk at the the activation in the other areas of the in various places in the brain so that same time. brain—for the other task—goes down. we can determine what concept the We find there’s an upper limit to There is no blocking out someone talk- person is thinking about. In effect, how much information a person can ing to you. It goes in and it consumes we can read their mind. process per unit time. If you’re working brain resources. The second finding is that the pat- on two tasks simultaneously, you can tern of brain activity for one of these do that, but there will be less activity Ludtke: I’ve been reading about how relatively concrete concepts is common allocated to each task. For example, people aren’t processing things as ef- across people. If we train the computer when we compare how much brain fectively as they think they are when program to recognize the patterns for resource allocation there is to just they’re multitasking. 60 words (concepts such as apple, driving while listening to someone shoe, tomato) on one group of people speak, we find that while listening to Just: There are dozens of cases where and then a new person comes in who someone speak the amount of brain we overestimate our thinking ability. has never been encountered before, resources allocated to the driving goes And it never goes in the other direc- the computer can tell what the new down by 37 percent. It’s an enormous tion. It’s always “Oh, yes, of course I person is thinking fairly well. difference, and it shows up in the driv- can do this.” However, in perceptual

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 13 What’s Next for News?

judgments and cognitive judgments ity, about upper limits of the brain’s Just: Processing print isn’t something people always—probably 98 percent of capacity and distractions. All of this the human brain was built for. The the time—overestimate their abilities. relates to the tasks confronting jour- printed word is a human artifact. It’s It’s not cheating, it’s not bragging. It’s nalists as they compete for attention very convenient and it’s worked very an honest intuition that’s wrong. in a broader media universe. well for us for 5,000 years, but it’s an invention of human beings. By contrast Ludtke: Does the brain reach a point Just: That’s right. Now each of us is Mother Nature has built into our brain where it’s simply too stressed in ways like an organization in that we have our ability to see the visual world and that make it more difficult to take in to prioritize and decide what would be interpret it. Even the spoken language and process information? the most beneficial way to spend our is much more a given biologically than thinking time in the next five or 30 reading written language. Just: In brain imaging we’re actually minutes. Because of the competition measuring electrochemical activity. and the availability of various sources, Ludtke: Does this mean that as we Like all biological functions it needs an I know that I have to be much more move out of the era of print and paper energy source. We measure the amount thoughtful about what would be the and into the digital era with more of brain activity while somebody’s best use of my time, and such choices visual media, it’s going to be a more doing something. You can’t generate come up many times an hour. So we natural environment for humans to more activity beyond a certain point. need to be more strategic, constantly take in information than when it was There’s an upper limit. You can sort deciding whether to click on this next the printed word? of see it yourself when you’re trying thing or go back to what we were to do a digit-span task. Somebody reading. It’s wonderful to have so Just: Yes, and it can be informative in asks you to repeat back five digits. It’s much information, but choosing and a visual way. Now you can circumvent not very hard. When they start going allocating our resources is a tough written language to a large extent. to eight or 12 digits, there’s no more thing. The limiting resource now isn’t A lot of printed words are there to room for improvement and you just the information; it’s our time. describe things that occur spatially. give up at eight or 10, or whatever In many cases a picture is worth a your digit span is. Ludtke: But it’s also our brain, isn’t it? thousand words. Now we can gener- ate these pictures and graphics and Ludtke: In speaking with Sherry Turkle Just: Oh, yes, that’s what I meant: our we can convey them to other people who teaches at Massachusetts Institute brain time. very easily. I think it’s inevitable that of Technology and studies identity and visual media are going to become more self as it relates to digital media, we Ludtke: There is a notion that in this important in conveying ideas and not found out that she’s not allowing the time of information overload—of just about raging fires. use of computers in her class. Students everyone trying to grab people’s at- were trying to do e-mail and Twitter tention—that one thing that the brain Ludtke: Ideas? and Facebook and also listen and is very pumped for is to take in emo- participate in class while occasion- tionally charged information. Do you Just: Ideas of physics and biology and ally looking down at their cell phone have any thoughts on this dynamic? politics and so on. Now I think there’s when it vibrated. She felt that all of a role for the printed word. I don’t this was leading to a diminution in Just: Yes. One of the biggest contri- think it’s going to go away. terms of what she was able to teach butions of brain imaging is to reveal and what they were able to take in. how intensely social and emotional Ludtke: With children gaining a facility [See interviews with Turkle beginning the human brain is. To me it was a with digital media that many in their on page 20.] very big surprise. Ask people to read parents’ generation don’t have, would some innocuous little narrative and you expect that years from now brain Just: Yes, I think the research sup- the brain activity shows that they’re imaging is going to show the brain ports what Turkle is saying. When computing things like the character’s functioning in different ways because I was a student, the problem was intention and motivation. I think there of this orientation? people reading the newspaper at the is a constant tendency to be processing back of the room. Competition for a social and emotional information. It’s Just: Yes, I think that’s very plausible. student’s attention is an old problem, there and it’s ubiquitous. Nobody has done that yet. But let me but now the media are so portable and give you an analogy done without interesting and flexible that it’s even Ludtke: As journalism moved onto imaging. In the 1970’s there was a more tempting. television, news began to be conveyed psychologist who studied people who in visual ways and this often led to were illiterate in Portugal. He found Ludtke: We’ve been talking about what is referred to as a “if it bleeds, a group of people who had never measuring and locating brain activ- it leads” style of reporting. learned how to use written language.

14 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 Brain Power

He compared them to a control group Just: No. You can get more proficient like you are going to be looking at? who could read. He found that they with it, but we’re never going to change processed things differently just as a the biological limits. However, if you Just: Yes. There are a number of stud- function of having learned to read. practice a task, you can do it better ies starting. It’s hard to get a really I think that’s a counterpart to your and faster. well-controlled study of this stuff, but question. it’s very plausible we’ll find changes in Nobody’s done the brain research Ludtke: Larry Rosen, a psycholo- people’s brains. Sixty years ago nobody yet because it’s hard to get a control gist who is the author of “Rewired: knew how to do computer program- group to really study this. But I think Understanding the iGeneration and ming and now there are hundreds of that learning about the organization the Way They Learn,” has done some thousands of people who can program. of information in a particular way is studies at the University of California, They had to have learned to think in extremely likely to affect the organi- Dominguez Hills, in which he’s found a slightly different way. zation of the brain processing. Some that mini-generational divides are People ask what’s special about the things are going to stay the same, such determined, in part, by the amount human brain. It’s that we can invent as the coding of concrete concepts that of multitasking that young people new things and learn to think about we talked about earlier. But the notion say they are able to do; with each them, like computer programs and of hyperlinks, of temporary diversions new mini-generation the number of digital media devices and printed to get more information is, I think, a simultaneous tasks increases. [See language. That’s part of the genius slightly different way of thinking that’s Rosen’s article on page 24.] of the human brain: new injections likely to have an impact on the brain. and this intellectual bootstrapping. We’re not going to change the brain, Just: The possibility exists. Everybody We’re obviously on this accelerated of course, just as reading doesn’t really sees young people with iPod earphones path upward. I can’t guess exactly change the fundamentals of the brain. walking around. Does that decrease where it’s going to take us, but almost But you can repurpose some areas to their capability to do other things? certainly it’s going to take us upward do some things that nobody’s done Some of my staff—very talented smart into a different place. before. people—sometimes have an iPod bud in their ear while doing scientific work Ludtke: That’s what we’re exploring. I Ludtke: Do you suspect that we’re at a computer. I don’t know whether appreciate you bringing us along on going to be able to push that upper this degrades their work. your journey.  limit that we talked about in terms of the multitasking? Ludtke: These are questions that people

A Big Question: ‘How Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think?’ Edge posed this question; discover how a wide range of thinkers responded.

BY JOHN BROCKMAN

As each new year approaches, John historian who is the author of several Brockman has been asking an Edge Brockman, founder of Edge, an online books including “Darwin Among the Annual Question for the past 13 years. publication, consults with three of the Machines.” Together they create the In this essay, he explains what makes a original members of Edge—Stewart Edge Annual Question—which Brock- question a good one to ask and shares Brand, founder and editor of Whole man then sends out to the Edge list some responses to this year’s question: Earth Catalog; Kevin Kelly, who helped to invite responses. He receives these “How is the Internet changing the way to launch Wired in 1993 and wrote commentaries by e-mail, which are you think?” “What Technology Wants,” a book then edited. Edge is a read-only site. Responses can be read in their to be published in October (Viking There is no direct posting nor is Edge entirety at www.edge.org/q2010/ Penguin); and George Dyson, a science open for comments. q10_index.html.

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 15 What’s Next for News?

t’s not easy coming up with a question on his terms, but did gest one important change—that question. As the artist James Lee not answer it for everyone. In it be about “us,” not “me.” The Byars used to say: “I can answer fact, I would love to hear the “me” question is too easy—if Ithe question, but am I bright enough Edge list tell me their version: Is people really thought that some to ask it?” Edge is a conversation. We the Internet improving them or bit of technology was making are looking for questions that inspire improving their work, and how their minds or their lives worse, answers we can’t possibly predict. Sur- is it changing how they think? I they could always go back to the prise me with an answer I never could am less interested in the general typewriter, or the Britannica, have guessed. My goal is to provoke “us” and more interested in the or the US Postal Service. The people into thinking thoughts that specific “you”—how it is affecting tough question is “us’”if every they normally might not have. each one personally. Nearly every individual makes a choice that The art of a good question is to find discussion I have with someone makes him or her better off, a balance between abstraction and these days will arrive at this could there be knock-on effects the personal, to ask a question that question sooner or later. Why that make the culture as a whole has many answers, or at least one for not tackle it head on? worse off (what the economists which you don’t know the answer. It’s call “externalities”)? a question distant enough to encourage And so we did. abstractions and not so specific that Yet, we still had work to do in Ultimately it’s my call so I decided it’s about breakfast. A good question framing our question. When people to go with the “you” question in the encourages answers that are grounded respond to “we” questions, their words hope that it would attract a wider in experience but bigger than that tend to resemble expert papers, public range of individualistic responses. experience alone. pronouncements, or talks delivered In my editorial marching orders to Before we arrived at the 2010 ques- from a stage. “You” leads us to share contributors, I asked them to think tion, we went through several months of specifics of our lived experience. The about the Internet—a much bigger considering other questions. Eventually challenge then is to not let responses subject than the Web, recalling that in I came up with the idea of asking how slip into life’s more banal details. 1996 computer scientist and visionary the Internet is affecting the scientific For us, discussion revolved around W. Daniel Hillis presciently observed work, lives, minds and reality of the whether we’d ask “Is the Internet the difference: contributors. Kevin Kelly responded: changing the way we think?” or probe this topic with a “you” focused ques- Many people sense this, but don’t John, you pioneered the idea of tion. Steven Pinker, Harvard research want to think about it because the asking smart folks what question psychologist, author of “The Language change is too profound. Today, they are asking themselves. Well Instinct” and “The Blank Slate,” and on the Internet the main event I’ve noticed in the past few years one of several distinguished scientists is the Web. A lot of people think there is one question everyone I consult, advised heading in the that the Web is the Internet, on your list is asking themselves direction of “us.” and they’re missing something. these days and that is, is the The Internet is a brand-new Internet making me smarter or I very much like the idea of the fertile ground where things can stupid? Nick Carr tackled the Edge Question, but would sug- grow, and the Web is the first thing that grew there. But the stuff growing there is in a very Origins of Edge primitive form. The Web is the old media incorporated into The Edge project was inspired by the doors, and have them ask each the new medium. It both adds 1971 failed art experiment entitled other the questions they were asking something to the Internet and “The World Question Center” by themselves. The expected result, in takes something away. the late James Lee Byars, John theory, was to be a synthesis of all Brockman’s friend and sometime thought. But it didn’t work out that Early Responders collaborator. Byars believed that way. Byars identified his 100 most to arrive at an axiology of societal brilliant minds and called each of Framing the question and setting knowledge it was pure folly to go them. The result: 70 people hung a high bar for responses is critical. to Widener Library at Harvard and up on him. Before launching the question to the read six million volumes. Instead, A decade later, Brockman picked entire Edge list, I invited a dozen or he planned to gather the 100 most up on the idea and founded The so people who I believed would have brilliant minds in the world in a Reality Club, which, in 1997, went something interesting to say; their room, lock them behind closed online, rebranded as Edge.  responses would seed the site and encourage the wider group to think

16 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 Brain Power in surprising ways. Here are some of The Conversation • Hans Ulrich Obrist: “Edge A to Z these early responses: (Pars Pro Toto)” The 2010 question elicited, in all, 172 • Jonas Mekas: “I Am Not Exactly a • Playwright Richard Foreman asks essays that comprised a 132,000-word Thinking Person—I Am a Poet” about the replacement of complex manuscript published online by Edge • Matthew Ritchie: “The Interface I inner density with a new kind of in January. Want Is the Real World.” self evolving under the pressure Kelly speaks about a new type of of information overload and the mind, amplified by the Internet, evolv- My Favorites technology of the instantly available. ing, and able to start a new phase of Is it a new self? Are we becoming evolution outside of the body. In “Net I enjoyed the juxtaposition of responses Pancake People—spread wide and Gain,” evolutionary biologist Richard by psychologist Steven Pinker, “Not At thin as we connect with that vast Dawkins looks 40 years into the future All,” and Chinese artist and cultural network of information accessed by when “retrieval from the communal activist Ai Weiwei, “I Only Think on the mere touch of a button? exosomatic memory will become dra- the Internet.” The response I most • Technology analyst Nicholas Carr, matically faster, and we shall rely less admired is George Dyson’s “Kayaks who wrote The Atlantic cover story, on the memory in our skulls.” Nassim vs. Canoes.” It is a gem: “Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” Taleb, author of “The Black Swan,” asks whether the use of the Web writes about “The Degradation of In the North Pacific Ocean, there made it impossible for us to read Predictability—and Knowledge” as he were two approaches to boat- long pieces of writing. [See Carr’s asks us to “consider the explosive situ- building. The Aleuts (and their article on page 37.] ation: More information (particularly kayak-building relatives) lived on • Social software guru Clay Shirky thanks to the Internet) causes more barren, treeless islands and built says the answer is “ ‘too soon to tell.’ confidence and illusions of knowledge their vessels by piecing together This isn’t because we can’t see some while degrading predictability.” skeletal frameworks from frag- of the obvious effects already, but Nick Bilton, lead writer of The ments of beach-combed wood. because the deep changes will be New York Times’s Bits blog, notes that The Tlingit (and their dugout manifested only when new cultural “[the] Internet is not changing how we canoe-building relatives) built norms shape what the technology think. Instead, we are changing how their vessels by selecting entire makes possible. ... The Internet’s the Internet thinks.” Actor Alan Alda trees out of the rainforest and primary effect on how we think will worries about “[speed] plus mobs. A removing wood until there was only reveal itself when it affects the scary combination.” He wonders, “Is nothing left but a canoe. cultural milieu of thought, not just there an algorithm perking somewhere The Aleut and the Tlingit the behavior of individual users.” in someone’s head right now that can achieved similar results—maxi- • Web 2.0 pioneer Tim O’Reilly act as a check against this growing mum boat/minimum mate- ponders if ideas themselves are the hastiness and mobbiness?” New York rial—by opposite means. The ultimate social software. Do they Times columnist Virginia Heffernan flood of information unleashed evolve via the conversations we writes that “we must keep on reading by the Internet has produced a have with each other, the artifacts and not mistake new texts for new similar cultural split. We used to we create, and the stories we tell worlds, or new forms for new brains.” be kayak builders, collecting all to explain them? Numerous artists responded in available fragments of informa- • Stewart Brand, founder of Whole enlightening ways, as their evocative tion to assemble the framework Earth Catalog, cannot function with- headlines suggest: that kept us afloat. Now, we have out the major players in his social to learn to become dugout-canoe extended mind—his guild. “How I • Marina Abromavic: “My Perception builders, discarding unnecessary think is shaped to a large degree by of Time” information to reveal the shape how they think,” he writes. “Thanks • Stefano Boeri: “Internet Is Wind” of knowledge hidden within. to my guild’s Internet-mediated • Tony Conrad: “A Question With(out) I was a hardened kayak conversation, my neuronal thinking an Answer” builder, trained to collect every is enhanced immeasurably by our • James Croak: “Art Making Going available stick. I resent having to digital thinking.” Rural” learn the new skills. But those • Hillis goes a step further by asking • Olafur Eliasson: “The Internet as who don’t will be left paddling if the Internet will, in the long run, Reality Producer” logs, not canoes. arrive at a much richer infrastructure • Eric Fischl and April Gornik: in which ideas can potentially evolve “Replacing Experience With What do you think?  outside of human minds. In other Facsimile” words, can we change the way the • Terence Koh: “A Completely New Internet thinks? Form of Sense”

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 17 WHAT’S NEXT FOR NEWS? | Digital Youth Lessons for the Future From the First Post-Pokémon Generation ‘Creating interest-driven content and programming that is easily shared, interactive and participatory is key to unlocking the power of networked media.’

BY MIZUKO ITO

year and a half ago, my research spend with digital media is always a to to their negative views of teen’s team released the findings from distraction or waste of time. engagement with social media. a three-year study of how young More often than not, however, This generational gap in how people Apeople use new media in social and teachers asked me about strategies to regard social media means that kids recreational settings. In summarizing disengage kids from social media so and adults are often in conflict about findings from the Digital Youth Project, they can focus on their studies. And what participation in public life means. we wanted to focus press attention journalists seemed most interested Not surprisingly, cultural and edu- on the learning opportunities we had in how online networks escalate peer cational organizations also seem out found being supported by interactive pressure and bullying. Whether it is of step with how young people learn and online media. When I spoke teachers trying to manage texting in and access information. It is critical with journalists about our research, the classroom, parents attempting to to acknowledge the radically differ- I emphasized the need for adults to set limits on screen time, or journalists ent media environment kids inhabit support the positive potential of infor- painting pictures of a generation of today while also appreciating both mal and social learning online rather networked kids who lack any attention the positive and negative aspects of than assume that the time that kids span, adults seem to want to hold on these changes. Now young people can be connected 24/7 to peers, information and entertain- ment, and their attention is captured through visual media, participation and interaction. All of these differences challenge journalists as they redesign their models of communicating news and information. In today’s media environment, daily life is far more porous in accepting a diverse range of informa- tion and social interactions, and this circumstance can complicate and enhance the task of reaching and engag- ing youths. In fact, this isn’t just about youths, though they are emblematic of these changes. All of us are living through a profound shift in how we engage with culture, knowledge, information, Pokémon has become much more than a video game. It taught a generation of kids that they are more news, events, society and our than consumers: They are participants, experts and creators of media. Photo by Shea Walsh/AP Im- social lives. ages for Pokémon. To create a digital public

18 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 Digital Youth sphere that both engages and informs itself. Instead, it mobilizes youth to experts, and the more advanced of requires that we find ways of bridg- do something with it. these will be posting walk-throughs, ing the gap in our understanding of What is different about contempo- reviews and cheats on Web sites that the networked world. Yet if we can rary social media such as Pokémon a much broader range of kids will be capitalize on the potential of social is that personalization and remix is accessing. It’s about peers assessing media, we’ll discover unprecedented a precondition of participation. At and providing feedback rather than opportunity in highly personalized its core, it is about engagement and relying on institutional gatekeepers. and participatory public engagement. communication. And this is what social The excitement comes from taking Our study, the Digital Youth Proj- media means for this generation—not on the roles of participants, experts ect, was part of a larger effort by the just media that are about social com- and knowledge creators, not simply John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur munication but also media that invite knowledge consumers. Foundation’s digital media and learning social exchange. Marketers talk about • Networked games support special- initiative to understand how young this as viral or contagious media. For ization, the development of personal- people’s lives are changing as a result kids, it means media that have social ized relationships to the content, and of digital media. Our research involved currency. They are consumers, but subject matter expertise. Instead of hundreds of youths across the United more importantly they are participants, being asked to master a standardized States and relied on the efforts of 28 experts and creators. body of knowledge that is the same researchers and collaborators. While There is much we can learn about for all their peers, measured against we did not examine their media kids’ learning and engagement with prescribed benchmarks, these more practices with the journalism and Pokémon. What follows are a few of informal digital environments allow news media industry in mind, our key the lessons that relate directly to the kids to choose their own areas of findings can be of significant value tasks of journalism: interest and engagement. One kid to journalistic organizations that are can develop a reputation as a water figuring out how to bring news and • Skills and literacy are a byproduct Pokémon trainer and expert; another information to the next generation. of social engagement. Kids are not can master the universe of cheat Ours is in many ways a hopeful playing Pokémon with the explicit codes. story. Our research leads us to believe goal of learning skills or gaining • The overall knowledge ecology is that organizations and institutions that knowledge. We’re starting to see highly distributed. The circulation serve youth can still have their best some research coming out about the of information and knowledge and days ahead of them if they engage kinds of complex language skills and the learning is distributed across with youths’ peer cultures and social visual literacy that kids pick up with different kids, different sites, and communication. Creating interest- complex gaming environments like different media platforms. driven content and programming Pokémon or Yu-Gi-oh. But again it that is easily shared, interactive and is a byproduct, not a focus of the What Lies Ahead? participatory is key to unlocking the engagement. power of networked media. • The focus is on demand, not supply. As kids grow older, they bring experi- In their new book, “The Power of ences from media like Pokémon to Learning From Pokémon Pull,” John Hagel, John Seely Brown, their participation in the teen social and Lang Davison write about a scene. Just as with childhood play, Before we explore what’s taking shape cultural shift from supply-push to teenage peer sociability takes place today, let’s look back to the late demand-pull. Instead of working in networked and digital environ- 1990’s when Pokémon swept through to build stable stocks of informa- ments. Negotiations over status and childhood culture. Those who are tion in kids’ heads—in supplying a popularity that once happened in graduating from college now are the standardized body of knowledge— school lunchrooms and hallways now first post-Pokémon generation. These demand-pull is about giving kids migrate to MySpace, Facebook and are kids who grew up with ubiquitous skills and dispositions to be able text messaging. For the post-Pokémon social gaming and convergent media to access and draw from a highly generation, these online community as a central part of their peer culture. dynamic and unstable information spaces are seamless with the offline Pokémon incorporated video games, environment that is too massive for settings of their daily lives. trading cards, a television series, mov- them to internalize. Although peer spaces involving ies and a wide range of merchandise. • Sources of expertise come from teen friendship are quite different It also broke new ground by placing peers, not institutionalized authori- from those that center on interests gaming and social action at the center ties. Kids occasionally consult rule like Pokémon, peer culture operates of the transmedia equation. Its content books, but they will far more often in similar ways in both. And what invites collection, strategizing and look to their peers for knowledge. happens in these social media spaces trading activity, and as such it is a Certain kids in a given peer culture differs from what takes place in spaces form of media that is not an end in will gain reputations as Pokémon presented to them by most adults.

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 19 What’s Next for News?

With mainstream media, as with other days of social media and our experi- technology offers, tremendous oppor- content and activities adults offer, mentation with harnessing digital tunity exists to expand our reach to a teens find themselves acting primar- media in the service of communication, new generation.  ily as consumers of information. In engagement and knowledge acquisi- their media environments they are tion. And many of us still carry the Mizuko Ito is a cultural anthropolo- producers and distributors of content, weight of assumptions, practices and gist who specializes in digital media knowledge, taste and culture; they institutions that no longer fit well with and youth culture. She is research make decisions about how to craft their the emerging digital environment. director for the Digital Media and profiles, what messages to write, and Historically we also have separated Learning Research Hub, a MacAr- the kind of music, video and artwork our kids’ peer cultures from their learn- thur Foundation-funded effort at the they want to post, link to, and share. ing and engagement; this has created University of California Humanities These choices about what media to antagonism between education and Research Institute that is analyzing display and circulate are made in a entertainment media and demarcated the impact of the Internet and digital public (nonprivate) space and have boundaries separating adult-mediated media’s evolving relationship to consequences for their reputation in institutions from youth-produced ones. education/learning, politics/civics, the social circles that matter to them These are major encumbrances as we and youth. More information about the most. move forward. Yet for those willing to initiatives at this research hub can Where are things headed? It’s good experiment and seize the opportunities be found at DMLcentral.net. to remember that these are still early that today’s always-on, fully networked

Digital Demands: The Challenges of Constant Connectivity ‘We’re becoming quite intolerant of letting each other think complicated things.’

Sherry Turkle is Abby Rockefeller interview with Frontline’s TV/Web to skip and to cut corners and to not Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies report “Digital Nation,” she speaks have to do some of these very hard of Science and Technology at the Mas- about young people’s relationships things. One of the things I’ve found sachusetts Institute of Technology and with digital technology and how this with continual connectivity is there’s the founder and director of the MIT affects their lives and learning. The an anxiety of disconnection; that these Initiative on Technology and Self. Since entire interview is available at http:// teens have a kind of panic. They say 1995, Turkle has studied adolescents to.pbs.org/cnrYYm. things like, “I lost my iPhone; it felt and adults in the culture of connectiv- like somebody died, as though I’d lost ity. In her forthcoming book, “Alone Sherry Turkle: What I’m seeing is a my mind.” The technology is already Together: Sociable Robots, Digitized generation that says consistently, “I part of them. Friends, and the Reinvention of Inti- would rather text than make a tele- And with the constant possibility of macy and Solitude,” to be published in phone call.” Why? It’s less risky. I can connectivity, one of the things that I January by Basic Books, she explores just get the information out there. I see is a very subtle movement from “I how humans have come to expect more don’t have to get all involved; it’s more have a feeling. I want to make a call” in terms of relationships from machines efficient. I would rather text than see to “I want to have a feeling. I need to and less from each other. Among her somebody face to face. make a call”—in other words, people key questions are these: What are the There’s this sense that you can have almost feeling as if they can’t feel their limits of “relationship” with a machine? the illusion of companionship without feeling unless they’re connected. I’m What is intimacy without privacy? the demands of friendship. The real hearing this all over now so it stops What is democracy without privacy? demands of friendship, of intimacy, being pathological if it becomes a How do the always-on/always-on-you are complicated. They’re hard. They generational style. demands of digital life interfere with involve a lot of negotiation. They’re people’s need for solitude, the kind that all the things that are difficult about Frontline: Some would say most of refreshes and restores? adolescence. And adolescence is the the [university] lectures, most of In these edited excerpts from Turkle’s time when people are using technology the classes, most of the books are

20 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 Digital Youth

Generational Divide: Digital Technology’s Paradoxical Message

In an interview Sherry Turkle did edented amounts of information we’re confronted with another face, with Aleks Krotoski for a BBC project, and profiling. with a voice, with the inflection of a “The Virtual Revolution,” she spoke It’s hard to teach the relationship voice; these kids don’t want to see a about how young people think about between privacy and democracy; and face, they don’t want to hear a voice. privacy and how their experiences it’s also hard to teach the relationship They want to text. In a way we’re no with digital technology shape their between intimacy and privacy. What longer nourished but consumed by connections and exchanges with is intimacy without privacy? I think what we’ve created. It’s not all good. others. The entire interview can this is a really important question I see people in retreat as much as be viewed at http://bit.ly/aMFePy. for this generation. they are in advance now that they Edited excerpts follow: have all this information. Aleks Krotoski: It’s almost as if it’s a Sherry Turkle: This generation has feedback loop: I give you a bit more Krotoski: Do you feel that we are a sense that information wants to information; you then give me more experiencing information overload be free and information about them information, which then creates this or that we can parse it? wants to be free. People put their lives on the screen, they Turkle: Totally experiencing put intimate details of their information overload. It’s lives out there with very little become a cliché. In a word I thought that there might be They’ll text, but they won’t see people defining a successful people using that information talk. Philosophers tell us that self as one that can keep up in ways that are not benign. with its e-mail. There’s kind I interviewed a 16-year-old, we become human when we’re of a velocity and a volume and he talked about how he that keeps people on a kind knows that people can read confronted with another face, with of hyperdrive of connectivity. his e-mail. Somehow he senses a voice, with the inflection of a In the end, they find a way to that his texts are being saved withdraw. in some server in the sky. voice; these kids don’t want to see If the velocity and volume When he wants to have a is such that I send you a tweet private conversation he goes a face, they don’t want to hear a and I send you a text, then to pay phones. He feels the voice. They want to text. In a way you have to answer me back. pay phones are the only safe Nobody answers a text by say- place for him to talk. we’re no longer nourished but ing I have to think about that My grandmother, who came for two weeks. The communica- from a European background, consumed by what we’ve created. tion demands a response. But taught me how to be a citizen that means that we start to ask at mailboxes in New York City. each other questions that are She brought me down to the easy to answer. mailbox and she said unlike We live in a kind of paradoxi- in Europe where bad governments incredible flood of information. As a cal time. We’re giving young people a would read your mail and open your recipient of all of this information, very paradoxical message: The world mail, in America it’s a federal offense how do you think this is affecting me? is more and more complex; on the to read somebody else’s mail. That other hand, we’re only going to ask kind of privacy is what gives you Turkle: You start to want to hide. you a question that you can answer in rights as a citizen. At first, it’s all good. You get what two seconds. We leave ourselves less In a way, I learned to be an seems like a virtual cycle of more and less time for reflection because American at these mailboxes as a and more and more; but as we see our communications media push us kid. I don’t know where to take my what this generation looks like as it to quick responses. Quite frankly, daughter to teach her that. When we grows up with it, we find they are the questions before our planet right take the Mass Pike we use E-ZPass now a generation in retreat. They’ll now are not questions that should and surveillance cameras track my text, but they won’t talk. Philosophers be answered or thought about in the car. We’re both giving up unprec- tell us that we become human when time space of texting. 

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 21 What’s Next for News?

MIT professor Sherry Turkle finds the prevalence of PowerPoint in grade school classrooms “distressing,” yet PowerPoint is ubiquitous. It has gained adherents in the federal Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who use it to brief military commanders.

unnecessarily long and boring, and are pleasures of reading that demand ogy wants us to read short, simple the stuff that’s great you could fit attention to things that are long and stories, we bequeath to our children in a couple of hands, and that’s the woven and complicated. And this is a world of short, simple stories. What stuff they should really commit to something that human beings have technology makes easy is not always and memorize and study. The rest of cherished and that have brought what nurtures the human spirit. it is better short and quick and to the tremendous riches. And to just say, I’ve been an MIT professor for 30 point. Look at haiku. It’s much harder “Well, we’re of a generation that now years; I’ve seen the losses. There’s no to do something quickly than it is to likes it short and sweet and haiku. one who’s been teaching for 25 years do something for hours. And who’s to Why? Just because the technology and doesn’t think that our students say that it’s better to take your time makes it easy for us to have things aren’t different now than they were and not be distracted? that are short and sweet and haiku.” then. They need to be stimulated In other words, it’s an argument about in ways that they didn’t need to be Turkle: The ability to trace compli- sensibility and aesthetics that’s driven stimulated before. No, that’s not cated themes through a literary work, by what technology wants. good. You want them to think about through a poem, through a play—these I don’t really care what technology hard things. You want them to think pleasures will be lost to us because they wants. It’s up to people to develop about complicated things. When you become pleasures through acquired technologies, see what affordances have the ability to easily do showy, skills. You need to learn how to listen the technology has. Very often these fabulous things, you want to believe to a poem, read a [Fyodor] Dostoevsky affordances tap into our vulnerabilities. they’re valuable because that would be novel, read a Jane Austen novel. These I would feel bereft if, because technol- great. I think that we always have to

22 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 Digital Youth ask ourselves, when technology makes in that says when you multitask, be able to be still for a while and pay something easy, when its affordances everything gets done a little worse; attention to something other than your allow us to do certain things, is there’s a degradation of all functions. immediate needs. So if we’re living in this valuable? What are the human Did we need to really go through 10 a moment when you can be in seven purposes being served? And in the years of drinking the Kool-Aid on the different places at once, and you can classroom, what are the educational educational wonders of multitasking have seven different conversations at purposes being served? and forgetting about everything we once on a back channel here, on a One of the most distressing things knew about what it takes to really phone here, on a laptop, how do we to me in looking at K-12 is the use of accomplish something hard? save stillness? How threatened is it? PowerPoint in the schools. I believe At MIT, I teach the most brilliant How do we regain it? that PowerPoint is one of the most students in the world. But they have Erik Erikson is a psychologist who frequently used pieces of software in done themselves a disservice by drink- wrote a great deal about adolescence classrooms. Students are taught how to ing the Kool-Aid and believing that and identity, and he talks about the make an argument—to make it in bul- a multitasking learning environment need for stillness in order to fully lets, to add great photos, to draw from will serve their best purposes because develop and to discover your identity the popular culture, and show snippets they need to be taught how to make a and become who you need to become of movies and snippets of things that sustained, complicated argument on a and think what you need to think. And [he or she] can grab from the Web, hard, cultural, historical, psychological I think stillness is one of the great and funny cartoons and to kind of point. Many of them were trained that things in jeopardy. make a mélange, a pastiche of cropped a good presentation is a PowerPoint [Henry David] Thoreau, in writing cultural images and animations and presentation—you know, bam-bam- about Walden Pond, lists the three to make a beautiful PowerPoint. And bam—it’s very hard for them to have things that he feels the experience is that’s their presentation. teaching him to develop PowerPoints are about fully as the man he wants simple, communicable to become. He wants to ideas illustrated by power- live deliberately; he wants ful images, and there’s a to live in his life; and he place for that. But that wants to live with no sense isn’t the same as critical of resignation. But on all thinking. Great books are of those dimensions, I feel not fancied-up Power- that we’re taking away Point presentations. Great from ourselves the things books take you through an that Thoreau thought were argument, show how the so essential to discovering argument is weak, meet an identity. objections, and show a We’re not deliberate; different point of view. By we’re bombarded. We the time you’re through Sherry Turkle spoke on Frontline’s “Digital Nation” about how adoles- have no stillness; we have with all that, you’re way cents and adults interact with technology. Photo courtesy of Frontline. resignation. beyond the simplicities of Kids say: “Well, it has PowerPoint. to be this way; we have no Computers are seductive; comput- a kind of quietness, a stillness in their other way to live. We’re not living fully ers are appealing. There’s no harm in thinking where one thing can actually in our lives. We’re living a little in our using the seductive and appealing to lead to another and build and build and lives and a little bit in our Facebook draw people in, to get them in their build and build. There are just some lives.” You know, you put up a different seats, and to begin a conversation. The things that are not amenable to being life, you put up a different person. So question is, what happens after that? thought about in conjunction with 15 it’s not to be romantic about Thoreau, other things. And there are some kinds but I think he did write, as Erikson Frontline: What about multitasking? of arguments you cannot make unless wrote, about the need for stillness; to you’re willing to take something from be deliberate; to live in your life and Turkle: Because technology makes it beginning to end. to never feel that you’re just resigned easy, we’ve all wanted to think it is We’re becoming quite intolerant of to how things need to be. good for us, a new kind of thinking, an letting each other think complicated When we’re texting, on the phone, expansion of our ability to reason and things. I don’t think this serves our doing e-mail, getting information, the cycle through complicated things—do human needs because the problems experience is of being filled up. That more and be more efficient. Unfor- we’re facing are quite complicated. To feels good. And we assume that it is tunately, the new research is coming hear someone else out, you need to nourishing in the sense of taking us to

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 23 What’s Next for News?

a place we want to go. And I think that beginning of learning how to use this are forgetting the intellectual and we are going to start to learn that in our technology in the ways that are the emotional value of solitude. You’re not enthusiasms and in our fascinations, most nourishing and sustaining. We’re lonely in solitude. You’re only lonely we can also be flattened and depleted going to slowly find our balance, but if you forget how to use solitude to by what perhaps was once nourishing I think it’s going to take time. So I replenish yourself and to learn. And us but which can’t be a steady diet. If think the first discipline is to think of you don’t want a generation that experi- all I do is my e-mail, my calendar, and us as being in the early days so that ences solitude as loneliness. And that my searches, I feel great; I feel like a we’re not so quick to yes, no, on, off, is something to be concerned about, master of the universe. And then it’s the good, good, and to just kind of take because if kids feel that they need to end of the day, I’ve been busy all day, it slowly and not feel that we need to be connected in order to be themselves, and I haven’t thought about anything throw out the virtues of deliberateness, that’s quite unhealthy. They’ll always hard, and I have been consumed by living in life, stillness, solitude. feel lonely, because the connections the technologies that were there and There is a wonderful Freudian that they’re forming are not going to that had the power to nourish me. formulation, which is that loneliness give them what they seek.  The point is we’re really at the very is failed solitude. In many ways we

Understanding the iGeneration—Before the Next Mini-Generation Arrives ‘As the pace of technological change accelerates, mini-generations are defined by their distinctive patterns of media use, levels of multitasking, and preferred methods of communication.’

BY LARRY ROSEN

hree decades have come and gone use technology, but about what hap- since I started to explore the pens when people do, including the impact that technology has on information overload they experience, Tus. Back then we didn’t have desktop Internet addiction, the presence and computers; the idea that one day soon fear of online sexual predators, and we’d hold a computer in the palm of cyberbullying. our hand seemed like something out At home I glimpsed these rapid of “Star Trek.” As I look back on these technological changes through the eyes years—and on the various directions of my children. When my older son, my research about the psychology of now 34, was a teen and my younger technology has taken me—I realize son, now 22, a preteen, they played how strongly connected my focus in video games constantly, blasting aliens research is to changes I’ve experienced and splattering blood. Not surprisingly, in my daily life. I was drawn to studying the impact When students refused to use of games. Later they joined the herd keypunch machines, I studied com- in finding their way to MySpace, puterphobia. When microwave ovens, Facebook, IMing, texting, iPhones, fax machines, and desktop computers and nearly everything with an “i” in arrived, I switched to studying techno- it (iPod, Wii). There were times when phobia. And when technology became to get my teenage daughter’s attention, ubiquitous, I moved on to examining I had to text her to come out of her technostress. This happened at a room to join us for dinner. time when the conversation wasn’t Even though I’m technologically so much about the stress of having to sophisticated, my kids left me in the

24 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 Digital Youth dust—though they did so in different 50 million profiles were created within social networks (e.g., Club Penguin, ways and to varying degrees. And this two and a half years: in its early years Barbie Girls) and the dramatic changes difference became a fascination of mine MySpace added 100,000 (mostly in media (e.g., 3-D kids’ movies) lead as I set out to untangle why and how young) members a day. YouTube hit 50 us to believe that their ways of commu- the younger ones related to and handled million unique viewers in one year; in nicating and approach to getting and this technology much differently than April 2008, 73 million people tuned in sharing information will be different my older ones did—even though only to YouTube videos, with teens watching from their teen siblings. 15 years separates them. an average of about 70 per month. How this generation adapts to And when the iPad went on sale in technology—and the impact it has Waves of Technology April, more than 300,000 were sold on family dynamics, on the classroom on the first day, even before the 3G experience, and on what entertainment On the day local news reported that model arrived in the stores. looks like and how it is consumed—is a man was seen walking around my Texting settled into the typical teen’s what I am focusing on in my current campus with a gun, how I connected neighborhood even faster. Data from research. My last book, “Me, MySpace, with members of my family signaled the Nielsen Company shows that as of and I: Parenting the Net Generation,” a turning point for me in recognizing late 2009 teens on average sent and was written with parents in mind. My what I’d come to understand through received 3,186 text messages a month new book, “Rewired: Understanding my research as mini-generational dif- compared with receiving and making the iGeneration and the Way They ferences. Told to remain in my shut- 196 phone calls. That works out to 10 Learn” is aimed at a different audience. tered office, I e-mailed my two older text messages per waking nonschool It portrays teen lifestyles in the sea kids and texted my younger ones. (Of hour, although we know kids text of technology and challenges parents course, I phoned my elderly parents.) during school hours and some sleep and educators—and anyone, such as For each family member, my mes- with their cell phones so they don’t journalists, who might be looking for sage was the same, “I’m O.K. Don’t miss text messages. It is interesting constructive ways to interact with this worry.” Only how I relayed it was to note that their Net Generation generation—to take this knowledge different, and that got me thinking siblings—only a few years older than about the intersection of technology about how rapidly changes in how we they are—text half as much. At the and learning and use it to find the communicate are taking place. In “The start of 2007 the monthly average for most effective ways to teach and Third Wave,” written in 1980, Alvin teens was 435 text messages and 255 communicate. Toffler outlined his view about how phone calls. waves of technology have defined our Meet the iGeneration world. Toffler identified three major Mini-Generations waves: the 3,000-year agricultural era, In studies of thousands of children, the 300-year industrial era, and the As the pace of technological change teens and young adults we’ve com- (projected) 30-year computer era that accelerates, mini-generations are pleted at California State University, was on the upswing. Each wave rose defined by their distinctive patterns of Dominguez Hills, my colleagues and and fell as new technologies arose. media use, levels of multitasking, and I have found that massive amounts of Extrapolating from the pace of preferred methods of communication. media are being consumed daily. The Toffler’s waves (dividing by 10), the Among these mini-generations, dif- iGeneration is already setting itself fourth wave would be predicted to ferences are also being found in their apart in its consumption patterns. last for three years, the fifth for about values as well as levels of social and Here are a few of the generational four months, and so on. But judging political activism. Since Generation differences: from consumer product penetration Xers (born between 1965 and 1979), rates, we were not seeing technological we have seen a rapid emergence of • Increased media consumption: In change taking place in months; rather, two mini-generations, and maybe even anonymous online surveys, we the data showed cycles of three- to five- a third. There is the young adult Net asked about daily hours online and year waves. A product is considered to Geners (born between 1980 and 1989) a number of activities, including have penetrated society when it reaches followed by teen iGeners (born from music listening, video game playing, 50 million people. Technologies such 1990 to 1999), and the first generation talking on the telephone, IMing as radio, television, and phones took born in the 21st century, yet unnamed and chatting, texting, sending and more than a decade to reach this level and still too young to fully define. receiving e-mail, and watching tele- of penetration. There are some things we are start- vision. While we computed a total As we move closer to our time, we ing to find out about this yet-to-be- score, we know that many of these find technology barreling its way into labeled generation. Nielsen’s texting activities are done simultaneously. our society. With the Internet, instant data show an average of 1,164 monthly Net Geners and older teens spend messaging and iPods, it took only four texts for children and preteens. And the more than 20 hours per day using years. Blogs took three. With MySpace, popularity of preteen and child-based media and technology followed by

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 25 What’s Next for News?

younger teens who spend slightly for the entire project executed well more than 15 hours per day. and on time. They thrive on positive • Multitasking: Older teens report reinforcement for their completed doing the most multitasking; work, but tend to downplay praise according to them, they perform for subproducts along the way. nearly seven simultaneous tasks. From all of my research, as long as In “Rewired,” I argue that they are adults let teens work on their time not really doing them at the same schedule, using high-tech tools they time, but they are simply better task prefer, teachers and employers will switchers. This constant multitask- most often find that iGeners and ing among teens compares with six Net Geners will come up with an and a half simultaneous activities excellent final product. for younger teens and six for Net Geners. Baby boomers like me report Lessons for Journalists being able to do about four and a half things at the same time. What do such findings mean to jour- • E-communication: Baby boomers nalists? In short, the answer is a lot. prefer face-to-face or telephone In reporting and distributing news communication along with e-mail. and information—and in their interac- Gen Xers embrace cell phones, Questions about kids and multitasking, tions—journalists need to understand e-mail and instant messaging. It is explored in a 2006 Time cover story, are how younger generations use technol- with the Net Generation that dif- still being asked today. ogy, what they expect to do with it, and ferent communication approaches what they expect to receive through emerge, including social networks, it. If journalists want their words and IMing, Skyping and texting. But ized.” iGeners have their own iPhone images to be engaging to Net Geners it’s the iGeneration that is rapidly apps, their own song mixes, and and iGeners, they need to figure out redefining digital communication. have forced developers to mine how teens and young adults operate in To them, a phone is not a phone. their products for personalized their high-tech world. And they need It is a computer (or likely soon to applications. to keep up with the distinctive digital be a tablet) that they use to tweet, • Writing: Some argue that LOL, habits of mini-generations. Facebook and, of course, text, text, JK, and OMG are symptoms of an Information is power, but first it text. For them, peer relationships illiterate generation of teen texters. needs to reach an audience. Whether are all about connecting by any Research is showing that isn’t true. the vehicle is Facebook or its next itera- electronic means. To them, WWW This generation writes more than tion—perhaps now in the making as an stands for whatever, whenever and any other and whether it is text- app—we know that as digital platforms wherever. based writing or formal writing, it change, so does the psychology of • Socializing: The two recent mini- is still writing. And writing begets readers. And this includes how they generations are more technologically writing. Interestingly, they also read relate to and deal with information. social than any that came before more, particularly if you expand the Each mini-generation is showing itself them. For them, connecting is what concept of reading to include online to be different—in big and discern- digital technology was invented to content rather than just books in ible ways, and what makes them so do. They built MySpace and Face- print. different surely matters to those who book; nearly every one of them has • Motivation: iGen teens are highly are trying to reach them.  a page on one or both. Upward of motivated, as evidenced by the two hours each day are spent con- content that they post daily online. Larry Rosen is a professor of necting online with their community They are not, as some people have psychology and past chairman of of friends, whether they are RL (real asserted, lazy. In contrast, other gen- that department at California State life) or SL (screen life) friends. (In erations—particularly baby boomers University, Dominguez Hills. He is 2009, “unfriend” was the word of and Gen Xers—are as interested in a research psychologist, computer the year added to the New Oxford process as they are in product. Young educator, and the author of four American Dictionary.) adults and teenagers hate meeting books. His most recent is “Rewired: • Creativity: They make their own to discuss how they are proceeding; Understanding the iGeneration and YouTube videos, post photos, mash if forced to meet in person, they’ll the Way They Learn,” published in up music, create multimedia pre- usually pull out their Blackberries March by Palgrave Macmillan. sentations, and develop personalized and iPhones so they can multitask. content. In their eyes, the “i” in They do not like interim deadlines iGeneration stands for “individual- and prefer to be held accountable

26 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 Digital Youth

Revealing the Digital News Experience—For Young And Old In surveys and analysis, the Pew Research Center illuminates the ever-changing course of Americans’ digital habits.

BY AMY MITCHELL

he Internet and cell phones are Most people are com- changing people’s relationship fortable using a number to news—when, how and where of platforms for their Tthey consume it. The emerging digital news. On a typical devices also dramatically alter how day, according to our journalists gather the news and what surveys, nearly half of happens to their reporting after it Americans are drawn appears. to news stories on four Just how much all of this is chang- to six platforms, includ- ing—and what it means to Americans’ ing online, TV and news habits—is revealed in a joint print. Most also turn to survey released in March by the Pew multiple sources within Research Center’s Project for Excel- those platforms. Only 21 lence in Journalism and the center’s percent tell us that they Internet & American Life Project. Here tend to rely primarily on are some of its findings: one destination; when asked if they have a • On a typical day, 61 percent of favorite online news Americans get news online. This source, a surprisingly means that the Internet is now just small segment of online behind television as a news source news users (35 percent) and ahead of newspapers. A major survey released in March looked at Americans’ say they did. These users • Thirty-seven percent of adults now changing news habits. Courtesy of Pew Research Center’s are the most active access the Internet on their cell Project for Excellence in Journalism and the center’s Inter- in consuming news phones and PDAs. net & American Life Project. online—individuals • Digital news consumers tend to be who explore the great- younger than the general popula- Two surveys of teens and adults est variety of topics online and use tion—68 percent are under 50 and released early this year by the Pew the greatest number of online sources. 29 percent are under 30. But the Internet Project found that nearly Still, we found that online news movement toward online news is three-quarters of 12- to 17-year-olds grazers do not stray far. Fifty-seven evident in all age groups. who are online and an almost equal percent rely mostly on two to five number of young adults (ages 18 to 29) Web sites. Only 12 percent use more Technology is fueling these devel- use social network sites. In contrast, than six. They also turn to the Web opments as it reshapes in profound 40 percent of those who are over for a wide variety of news topics. In ways the news ecosystem. Social media the age of 30 used social network- our survey we questioned participants tools and mobile connectivity provide ing sites in the fall of 2009. (These about 12 topics. Forty percent said they citizens with a deeper and more direct findings emerge as part of a yearlong explored at least nine of them, with relationship with the news. Consumers Pew initiative to develop a portrait of weather and national events being the search and filter, then react to and “generation next.”) most popular. share news they find interesting or For now, legacy-based Web sites vital with followers and friends. This Grazing With News get most of the online news audience. is especially true among the young, The 35 percent with a favorite news whose social networks often become In this digital media environment, site most often named Web sites personal “editors” who determine their Americans have become news grazers of major national television news front page information. but not aimless wanderers. organizations such as CNN and Fox

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 27 What’s Next for News?

The young are more interested than older Internet users in commenting on and sharing news stories, according to the survey results at left. Many online news consumers favor the sites of the major television news networks, as is shown at right. Charts courtesy of Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Jour- nalism and the center’s Internet & American Life Project.

News. In a separate analysis that the The implications of such emerg- • In the topics mobile phone users Project on Excellence in Journalism ing habits for both the content and seek out, weather again takes the conducted this year using Nielsen’s financial strategies of those who lead, but news and information about NetView database of online audience report news and convey information current events comes in second. measurements, we found that Web sites are extraordinary. And mobile devices tied to legacy news organizations like are adding yet another significant Keeping an Eye on Readers’ newspapers or cable stations attract platform for audiences and bringing Habits 67 percent of the news traffic. new information sources into the mix. Yet there is evidence that this Our survey illuminated this trend with When it comes to figuring out who dominance could change. The next a variety of responses: the new news consumers will be favorite kind of news site among those and where they will land, the Web who have a favorite is a news aggrega- • Twenty-six percent of Americans say is showing itself to be a place where tor such as Yahoo! News, Topix and they get some form of news today visitors don’t linger at any one place GoogleNews. And when asked what via a cell phone. That amounts to for very long. The in-depth examina- sources people use on a typical day 33 percent of cell phone owners. tion of Nielsen’s data shows that the (not just their favorite site), portals (About 80 percent of American average visitor to the top 199 news top the list with more than half of adults have cell phones.) Web sites stopped there for only those surveyed visiting daily. Among • There is every reason to think this three minutes and four seconds per 18- to 29-year-olds, 68 percent typi- number will rise significantly as more session. This represents a fraction of cally access news aggregators for their and more people get smartphones, the time that readers, on average, have news, and there are signs that they such as the iPhone and those with spent with a print newspaper; in the often go no further, deciding that all Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Northwestern University Readership they need is the headline, byline and Windows Mobile operating systems Institute’s 2008 study that examined first sentence of text. on them. newspaper and online reading habits

28 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 Digital Youth in 100 U.S. communities, people who to this knowledge base by observing disseminating information the public read newspapers said that they spent and measuring their audience’s habits. seeks about their communities, our an average of 27 minutes doing so on Another key component, though, which country, and our world.  weekdays and 57 minutes on Sunday. cuts across all platforms, is the content We will continue asking questions itself. Technology and consumer habits Amy Mitchell is deputy director of about people’s digital media experi- require adaptation and evolution, but the Pew Research Center’s Project for ence—and reporting what we learn— journalists’ fundamental role remains Excellence in Journalism. just as news organizations will add the same—reporting, assembling and

Journalism: English for the 21st Century ‘The two main drives in teenagers’ lives are for independence and acceptance; our approach to journalism supports these drives through favoring freedom of expression and showcasing student work on a variety of public platforms.’

BY ESTHER WOJCICKI

n an age when many people, espe- and Adobe software and the program them. That means we respect their cially journalists, are worried about grew. Between 1998 and 2005 as the opinions and showcase their work in the future of the profession and of numbers in my Advanced Journalism a variety of platforms. Idemocracy, questions I’m asked on program exploded, I created four I can hear people saying that free- a regular basis include, “Why teach more programs and we hired four dom alone would not account for such journalism since there are no jobs out more teachers to handle the increased large numbers of students. We must there? Don’t you feel guilty misleading demand. Today we publish a two- be doing something else. It must be your students?” section broadsheet every three weeks, teacher dependent. Don’t be fooled Good questions, but in fact jour- and an 80-page feature magazine and by the simplicity of the answer; it is nalism is not dying, at least not in an 80-page sports magazine every six freedom. Sometimes it’s good to just Palo Alto, where I teach journalism weeks. (The publications are online at remind ourselves that there were at the public high school. The media http://voice.paly.net.) people who risked their lives and gave program at Palo Alto High School is Our Web journalism program up their homes to come here seeking the fastest growing program in the publishes daily, just as our television the freedom to pursue the American school with more than 500 students program broadcasts every day, and dream, which includes freedom of out of a student body of 1,900 electing our video program teaches kids how speech and freedom of religion. to take journalism on one platform or to produce videos. In January the Palo another. In fact, more students than Alto Board of Education approved Freedom of Expression ever want to participate. And the way a 24,000-square-foot two-story $11 I see it, journalism is alive and well million media center to house the That drive for independence and free- throughout the United States; it is program. dom is alive and well in our teenagers just changing platforms from paper So why are all these kids electing to today; if we enable it in our schools, to digital, and the majority of writers take journalism? What are we doing at students will respond. Yet far too are no longer professionals but citizen Palo Alto High School to get students often schools squelch students’ drive journalists. excited about learning to write when for independence and do what they Twenty-five years ago journalism in nationwide few students sign up for can to control them. We teach to the Palo Alto was very different. When I writing classes? test while failing to pass on to them first came to the school, 19 students Here is the main reason: At Palo skills relevant to the times and world were in the program and our school Alto High School, we respect the First they live in. Most schools do not allow paper was put together on a typewriter Amendment and give students the their students access to an uncensored and pasted up on a pasteboard with hot full rights accorded them in the U.S. Web; this is a trait we usually ascribe wax. Through the years, as technology Constitution. That means they can to China and rarely acknowledge about changed, I added Apple computers write about issues of importance to ourselves. Schools even subscribe to

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 29 What’s Next for News?

netTrekker and Gaggle, services that states, anything the principal deems the budget. It brings the community sanitize the Web. Cell phones are inappropriate is removed and entire into the school and the school into confiscated, and Facebook and other stories can be censored. Given these the community. Being involved in social platforms get blocked. Comput- circumstances, is it a surprise that the advertising program teaches kids ers are used as word processors. many students are not interested in important skills about business. Certainly this isn’t the case in every taking journalism? The easiest way to pass on the skills school or classroom. There are admin- The Student Press Law Center writes and purpose of journalism is to have istrators and teachers who understand about the Hazelwood decision and an online program, which is, after the power of the Web as a teaching its impact on the present generation: all, the future. Our digital journalism tool and use the Internet as a source program is free—at least in the tools of information and the “cloud” to store The Hazelwood decision is now and supplies we need to run it. It documents. There are those who don’t two decades old. An entire costs the school nothing; in fact, our try to censor the Web for students, are generation has lived its entire Web site makes money using Google Ad Sense and it provides a dynamic platform for showcasing student work. Digital journalism is the future so kids are learn- ing how to publish on the Web using Blogger or WordPress. If they want to publish books, they can use print on demand services like Lulu, Blurb or Qoop. Today’s journalism cur- riculum can revolutionize English education by mak- ing the writing curriculum Students at Palo Alto High School publish a magazine called Verde that tackles issues such as whether relevant and exciting. In California should legalize marijuana; The Viking, a magazine about high school sports that was founded the process, it can also in 2007; and The Campanile, a newspaper with roots that date to 1931. train an entire genera- tion of citizens—many of whom will be doing what familiar with Google Apps for Educa- academic life—and is now journalists do today—to be responsible tion, and encourage kids to use Flip moving into the professional contributing members of the digital cameras to make videos. They are the ranks—under Hazelwood’s influ- society. I see what we do in our exception, however, and not the rule. ence. Far too many of our future journalism program as being a good The two main drives in teenagers’ journalists, citizens and leaders way to teach all students important lives are for independence and accep- unquestioningly accept that thinking and writing skills along with tance; our approach to journalism school administrators—govern- journalism 2.0 skills, which includes supports these drives through favoring ment officials—should have the knowing how to use Creative Com- freedom of expression and showcasing authority to dictate what they mons (CC) licenses to share, remix student work on a variety of public read, write and talk about. What and spread creative works. platforms. Yet in 43 of the 50 states this means for the future of press Creative Commons is a nonprofit students do not have legal protection freedom in America remains organization that offers licenses allow- to guarantee freedom of expression in unknown … ing creators to specify which rights they schools. The Hazelwood v. Kulhmeier reserve and which rights they waive for Supreme Court decision in 1988 gave Journalism as Education the benefit of other creators. Students administrators and teachers the right in Palo Alto use a license each time to “prior review” of student work, and How can schools afford these programs they upload a story to the Web site; that often leads to kids not being able when budgets are falling? All the print this means they license each story to write about issues of importance to publications at Palo Alto High School individually or not at all, and they them. The states with laws that protect are self-supporting through advertising are the ones who make that decision. student free speech are California, from the community. The kids learn Critical thinking skills are essential Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, what it means to sell advertising, create for work in the 21st century, and Massachusetts and Oregon. In other ads, service an ad contract, and balance journalism is all about picking out

30 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 Digital Youth what is important and figuring out in my ninth-grade English classes this such as Finland, Japan and Canada, how to write a lede. It’s also a way to past school year. The kids loved it. in which students score the highest on learn civic engagement skills; practic- They said it was much more exciting the Program for International Student ing journalism gets students involved to write opinion pieces about issues Assessment. in local, state and national issues. they cared about than the typical America is a nation that thrives on (Assignment: read two online papers five-paragraph response-to-literature independence and on the entrepreneur- daily and two magazines per week.) essay. They liked the curriculum so ial spirit. Yet our schools’ curricula do It’s about teaching writing skills and much that the majority of them are just the opposite by driving teachers to motivating kids to write news, features, signing up for journalism next fall. teach to the test and kids to be effective reviews, opinion. It’s about learning The students’ response delighted multiple choice test takers. Let’s offer grammar skills since writing can be an me so much that I decided to write our kids at least one opportunity in effective way to motivate kids to use a grant proposal for a 12-week media school each day in which they truly grammar well. (With their byline there, curriculum that can be used either as act with an independence of mind and they are motivated to make sure there a 12-week unit or individual modules with freedom to speak to the issues are no errors.) It’s a way to teach Web to be spread over the year for ninth- in their lives. That course should be skills—how to search, blog, practice through 12th-grade English or social journalism.  Web ethics, and share. Journalism studies. It’s aimed at teachers who are also teaches kids how to collaborate interested in getting their students Esther Wojcicki directs the jour- both online and offline and how to excited about writing and engaged as nalism program at Palo Alto High work effectively with their peers both members of a digital generation. In May School and is chairwoman of the as leaders and as participants. These I was awarded a Knight Foundation nonprofit Creative Commons. She is are skills employers are seeking in grant to support the development of a recipient of a John S. and James L. prospective employees. this journalism curriculum, an example Knight Foundation grant in support All students need these skills, not of project-based learning that will be of her work developing a project- just journalism students. I am so freely available under a CC license. based journalism curriculum for passionate about this notion that I This approach to classroom instruc- English or social studies classes. piloted teaching journalism-Web skills tion is commonly used in countries

E-Textbooks to iPads: Do Teenagers Use Them? ‘... I didn’t anticipate the heated debates we would have about the impact of these emerging digital platforms or the intensity of our discussions about the future of e-textbooks, journalism, and reading in general.’

BY ESTHER WOJCICKI

n February I happened across Josh journalism, and reading in general. rial concluded with these words: “If Quittner’s story “The Future of Students hold strong and passionate the school wishes to cultivate the use Reading” in Fortune magazine and opinions about e-textbooks. While a of e-books, it should at the very least Ithought students in my high school majority dislikes e-textbooks, about offer students the option to continue journalism and English classes would 20 percent believe that they are the using the old, hardcover books.” enjoy it since they are concerned about future—and should be. I thought things had calmed down the future of journalism. I sensed that Perhaps I should have predicted such in the intervening six months as the his article would be controversial—giv- a reaction given that early in the school students had become accustomed to en his perspective that reading tablets year many of these students had writ- using e-textbooks. Soon we discovered are likely to revive print journalism’s ten a fiery editorial about e-textbooks that was not the case. Several students content—but I didn’t anticipate the in their social studies classes. In part said that the only reason they would heated debates we would have about it read, “… online textbooks hinder want an e-textbook was if it has “added the impact of these emerging digital study habits and force the use of value, like videos or interactivity.” “We platforms or the intensity of our discus- computers. … and are detrimental to learn better from real textbooks,” most sions about the future of e-textbooks, learning and inconvenient.” The edito- of them said. E-textbooks might work

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 31 What’s Next for News?

better for math and science, some said, • Magazines: Timeliness was not an Killer? Pretty Close,” parts of which because it appears those e-textbooks issue. “Who would want to snuggle I read to my students. Kids who had are likely to be interactive. up with a laptop on the beach or in tried it at the store complained about At one point, we did a straw poll bed to read a 2,000-word article?” the keyboard, about the fact that the with the option of a free Kindle with they asked rhetorically. The answer keys are so big someone (like their all their books loaded on it or their among them was no one. They all parents) could see what they are typ- old textbooks. The result: 100 percent liked the feel of paper and being ing, that it did not have Adobe Flash, voted for their heavy, old textbooks. able to flip through the magazine. and that they could not watch their This overwhelming show of support They felt that magazines are a leisure favorite program on Hulu. for print on paper shocked me. activity and they like reading them These kids do not see it as a replace- Students were adamant that it was in hard copy. ment for their laptop or netbook but “much easier to learn” from a textbook. • Novels: Opinion was split on novels. as a separate digital species that was (Several students did say that they Some kids thought they wouldn’t as yet unclassified. Their main com- don’t like carrying heavy books.) With mind using a Kindle; others said plaints are its size (too big) and that hardcover books, they told me, they can no. They said if they needed to it isn’t a phone. They see the iPad as highlight sections and flip a good device for games through and scan pages and something they would more easily; reviewing the want to give to their highlighted pages helps My students overwhelmingly preferred the grandparents who “need them remember facts. to have big type and like to Portability also was an Internet. They want the story fast and short look at pictures.” They also important factor: With but they preferred to lounge about and read think it would be a good a textbook they could device for their younger study in random places the newspaper on the weekends. ... they read siblings since the screen like at after-school games is so big and they could or practices or they could a greater variety of articles in newspapers; access picture books. take it with them to a online, they read just what they target. As I listened, I won- friend’s house, and no one dered why they are so would ever want to steal reluctant to progress. Do it, unlike a Kindle. They they really find it easier said that digital devices in to learn from a textbook general were hard on the eyes, hard to mark up the book for school they and more pleasant to read a novel read outdoors, required dealing with would rather have a book. they can hold in their hands? Only a battery, and are fragile. time will tell. Our discussions began before the I asked my son-in-law, Gregor Meet the Skeptics: Teenagers iPad was released, and few students Schauer, an Internet analyst, for his could afford to buy one once they thoughts on what I am hearing. “They I grew concerned that the students went on sale. Some had gone to the are just wrong. … just plain wrong. were classifying all reading material Apple store to try it out and liked it They don’t know because they can’t into the same category so I decided to but still did not feel compelled to buy even conceptualize what is coming,” break our discussion into four parts— one. Their general consensus was “It he said. In the long term he might be textbooks, news, magazines, novels. looks cool, but I don’t know what I right, but so far the teens in my classes This helped to clarify the issues and would use it for. It is too big to put in don’t even want to conceptualize. They calmed the conversation. Here’s their my pocket and I already have an iPod.” are happy with their iPod, especially view of the other categories: Even Steve Jobs has indicated that with its latest features. he isn’t sure what consumers are going Clearly the iPad arouses conflicting • News: My students overwhelmingly to use the iPad for, according to Lev opinions, as New York Times technol- preferred the Internet. They want Grossman in Time magazine. Those few ogy columnist David Pogue observed the story fast and short but they students interested in buying one said when he wrote that “[in] 10 years of preferred to lounge about and read things like they “want to be the first one reviewing tech products … I’ve never the newspaper on the weekends. to have it” or “it looks cool for games.” seen a product as polarizing as Apple’s They like to relax with the paper just But none want to read magazines or iPad.” Pogue classified people into two as their parents do so they wanted novels on it or get their textbooks groups: the haters, who tend to be both options. Kids claimed they on it. They don’t see it as a “game techies, and the fans, who tend to be read a greater variety of articles in changer,” as Walt Mossberg wrote in regular people. We can now add one newspapers; online, they read just his gushing column in The Wall Street more group: the skeptics, otherwise what they target. Journal, “Apple iPad Review: Laptop known as teenagers. 

32 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 Digital Youth

The Future of News: What Ninth-Grade Students Think

Esther Wojcicki’s ninth-grade stu- The Internet Age will probably change know it? Many people think that our dents at Palo Alto High School, most news stories and publications the current development in technology of whom are 14 years old, wrote most. News stories do not need to be will kill reading, because one item essays about “The Future of Read- read thoroughly to be enjoyed, and after another is being digitized. Rang- ing,” a Fortune magazine article by the easy accessibility of the Internet ing from newspapers to textbooks, Josh Quittner that they read and makes it ideal for breaking news. written text has been transferred discussed in class. Excerpts from Although some printed newspapers to be accessible on computers and four of these essays follow, and probably will still exist, they will be soon almost everything will become the complete texts are available at (and arguably have been) replaced available online. People today all www.niemanreports.org. by digital media. So now the real wonder how the future of reading question is whether newspapers and will come to exist and whether books The future of news will be online. news media companies will be able will survive our era of technology. Newspapers will slowly begin to to adapt to the Internet more fully. The destiny of literature will change put more resources into online The New York Times, desperate to and configure over time, mainly media and spend less time designing save its sinking business, has decided affecting newspapers, textbooks and their latest layouts for their paper to implement more pay-for-view magazines. News will thrive further newspapers. Most people read the articles on its Web site, and The on the Internet, online textbooks will news to get a better sense of what Wall Street Journal requires online eventually cause personal computers is happening around them. They payment. Still, it is too soon to see to become a necessity for all students, don’t read it for in-depth analysis whether people will want to pay and magazines will survive mainly in of topics. Therefore, a quick scan of for their news. Although it seems print, despite the growing technology. a short article is normally all that unlikely, Josh Quittner in Fortune —Diana Connolly people desire. One of the reasons magazine makes an interesting point: news will slowly move to the Web is People will pay for media if they One area that is growing rapidly is because there are many news sources believe that the price is reasonable, online and digital news. Though there around the globe, each with their simply because it is more convenient. is still some debate about other media own viewpoints and subject prefer- Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, forms, news online is becoming the ences. Reading news online allows echoes this idea: “Anytime I want norm for many people these days. readers to read from multiple news I can go on the Web to read the The Web is perfect for people who sources and get multiple viewpoints same content for free, but it’s not want to know the basics of a story. without having to buy five different really about that. It’s about the There even seems to be a different, newspapers. Another reason is the package and delivery.” Basically, if shorter writing style developing spe- fact that the news changes almost newspapers make a stronger effort cifically for online news, as “people every day. People will not want to to entice readers to want to pay for typically spend two minutes or less buy a newspaper every day to find a service, readers will pay. However, on a site.” However, this isn’t to say out about (normally) boring news, a certain amount of adaptation will that printed journalism will become such as if a dictionary wants to add be necessary in order for news media entirely dead—it all depends on the an extra word to their tomes or if corporations to remain relevant. type of article you’re looking for. Here Comcast and ESPN are in an argu- —Ana Carano is the classic depth versus breadth ment over profits, when they can just issue, where Web sites provide lots get news online for free. It is much Adapt. This is the power behind of articles quickly while printed more convenient to be able to read the human brain. Humans have works let you actually learn about news online. Finally, advertising is natural instincts to adapt to their the story. In the near future it seems much more effective online, where surroundings. Their temptation as if online journalism will become the advertisements are scrolling to always receive more and more increasingly popular for its accessibil- down next to the text. There they causes humans to create new and ity and speed, while print will become are visible yet unintrusive. In news- useful ways to benefit themselves. more of a leisure activity, unless you papers, the ads are normally grouped Literature has survived many cen- are looking for a lengthy article. together in an advertisement section. turies, from as long ago as the time —Emily Rosenthal  Most people simply skip over this. of the Egyptians, but will the new —Aaron Chum technology change literature as we

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 33 What’s Next for News?

News Literacy Project: Students Figure Out What News and Information to Trust ‘Without a demand for quality journalism (on any platform) from the next generation, what future will it have?’

BY ALAN C. MILLER

“People who are citizens in an infor- and Chicago, reaching nearly 1,500 PRthan 20 engaging activities dealing mation age have got to learn to think students. More than 75 journalists with topics as diverse as viral e-mails, like journalists.” spoke to students and worked with Google and other search engines, —Kathy Kiely, USA Today reporter them on projects. Wikipedia and the news. Some can be and News Literacy Project fellow We provide original curriculum done by teachers, some by journalists, materials that we adapt to the subject and some by either. Teachers choose he News Literacy Project was being taught. Whatever the underlying the ones that best fit their classes. conceived when I discovered that subject matter, our curriculum focuses Some teachers have done the unit I could speak to my daughter’s on four pillars: during just a few weeks; others have Tsixth-grade classmates about my job embedded it in their coursework without embarrassing her. • Why does news matter? throughout the year. They deliver it In 2006, I spoke to 175 students • Why is the First Amendment pro- in three phases: initial activities and at Thomas W. Pyle Middle School in tection of free speech so vital to the introduction of our “word wall” Bethesda, Maryland about what I did American democracy? of basic journalism and news literacy as an investigative reporter for the Los • How can students know what to terms and concepts, presentations by Angeles Times and why journalism believe? two to four journalists to each class, mattered. Julia’s hug told me that I • What challenges and opportunities and a culminating hands-on student had succeeded with her; the thank- do the Internet and digital media project. you notes that followed told me that create? We train the journalists to con- I had connected with her classmates. centrate on our four pillars, to use Concerned with both the implosion I hired Bob Jervis, the former head anecdotes and activities to engage the of the news business and the challenges of social studies for the public schools students, and to include extensive time posed to Julia’s generation by the explo- in Anne Arundel County, Maryland to for Q. and A. and discussion. Our local sion of news and information sources, work with me to develop the curriculum coordinators work with the journal- I began to think about the prospect materials. They are built around more ists to plan their presentations and of journalists, both active and to connect them in advance retired, teaching students in with the teachers. classrooms across the country Our goal is to give young how to sort fact from fic- people the critical thinking tion in a digital world. Two skills to be better students years after talking with those today and better-informed sixth-graders, I exchanged my citizens tomorrow. We also 29-year newspaper career for want them to appreciate qual- a new journalistic mission. ity journalism and to use it That germ of an idea as the standard against which has evolved into a national to measure all information. program that recently com- One of our pilot projects pleted its first full year in the was at Walt Whitman High classroom. In the 2009-10 School in Bethesda, Mary- school year, the News Literacy land, where we started with Project worked with 21 Eng- Advanced Placement (AP) lish, history and government U.S. government classes in teachers in seven middle Alicia C. Shepard, ombudsman for NPR, was a guest lecturer the spring of 2009. This past schools and high schools for a News Literacy Project class in Bethesda, Maryland. Photo school year we added English in New York City, Bethesda by Alan C. Miller. classes and reached about

34 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 Digital Youth

Critical Thinking About Journalism: A High School Student’s View

By Lucy Chen In the spring of 2009, as or hear, especially those I I was daydreaming about find online, where anyone warm weather and the can post information about smacking of flip-flops on anything. The guidelines the boardwalk, I was jolted presented in the unit helped back into reality by the me determine whether a start of a new unit in my source was accurate and Advanced Placement U.S. reliable—and knowing this government class—the News made me better at selecting Literacy Project. My teacher information in an ever- promised that it would be widening sea of sources. interesting and entertaining. For my final project, I doubted him. I created a fun quiz that I was wrong; it was fun asked several questions and fascinating. We learned based on critical thinking a lot about topics such as the skills I had learned. The importance of accurate news questions I used are ones reporting, the implications I felt would help to judge of the First Amendment’s a person’s ability to select protection of free speech credible sources and reliable for journalists and ordinary information, especially on citizens, guidelines for find- popular Web sites that my ing trustworthy information, peers visit frequently. One and the challenges of living key aspect of my project is in a digital world. It was using common sense and almost easy to pay attention Lucy Chen created a quiz to test critical thinking skills not taking every fact online because the lessons directly learned in the News Literacy Project. for granted. If something related to my life, my deci- sounds too good to be true sions, and my observations of the speakers described the responsibility or if it sounds fake—it probably is. world around me. they have to report the facts accu- Based on the answers chosen, the quiz Journalists came to speak with rately and objectively, a task that is taker would be described as either us, and they reinforced our learning much more difficult than I thought a “silly” or “savvy” news consumer. by relating what we were study- it was. Sometimes people won’t In addition to expanding my inter- ing to their own careers. Instead talk to reporters. At other times, est in journalism, the News Literacy of reading a worksheet, we heard figuring out exactly what happened Project taught me lessons that are from Mark Halperin, a book author turns out to be quite complicated. proving to be useful in my English and political analyst for Time, who But a journalist’s job is to find the class, my interactions with people, gave us examples of how the First information they need, decipher it, and my daily newsgathering. And I Amendment has protected his work. and convey a story coherently. knew they would be helpful in my Pierre Thomas from ABC News Occasionally, I had watched the first job. In fact, they already are. responded to our questions about evening news with my parents and This spring I joined the staff of our the daily responsibilities and tasks read the newspaper, but I never fully high school paper.  of journalists. Thomas Frank of USA realized the impact that news had Today showed us how he uses primary on my daily life. And studying news Lucy Chen will be a junior at Walt source documents in reporting. literacy taught me how to gather and Whitman High School in Bethesda, Interacting with these journalists assess my own stream of information, Maryland. She works on the school changed how I view the process of whether it comes from a newspaper, paper, The Black & White. Videos gathering information. Now I appre- a TV show, or the Internet. about her project and those of other ciate a lot more the hard work that Throughout this process, I grew students are online at YouTube. goes into digging for news. These more skeptical about the facts I read

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 35 What’s Next for News?

625 students in the ninth, 10th and • Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York “You absolutely have to check out 12th grades. Times describing how she spent the all information and make sure it’s “This is nirvana for me,” English entire previous day nailing down a accurate,” Shepard said. She then teacher Marilee Roche said. “I’d give single name: that of the third gate- shared the journalistic maxim “If your up ‘Hamlet’ for this.” crasher at the infamous state dinner mother says she loves you, check it I’ve spent a lot of time in classes that President Barack Obama hosted out.” (We’ve created our own “Check at Whitman. It’s been exhilarating to for the prime minister of India at It Out” button with our logo that we see journalists connect with students the White House in November. ask teachers to present to students and spark lively discussions about such • Peter Eisler of USA Today discuss- when they complete our unit.) issues as identifying bias, assessing ing accountability: “Never trust At times, our brand of authentic fairness, and verifying information, anybody who doesn’t admit they learning literally brings journalistic whether for a research paper or an make a mistake. Never trust anyone history into the classroom. Former Los investigative report. in life who doesn’t admit they make Angeles Times foreign correspondent I’ve also learned a great deal about a mistake.” Tyler Marshall recalled the emotional the students’ own consumption hab- • James V. Grimaldi of The Wash- scene when he covered the fall of the its, biases and views. They get a lot ington Post asking students what Berlin Wall in 1989. He then picked of information from social media or they knew about a shooting that up and displayed two pieces of the friends. Few read newspapers (either had occurred near the school the wall that he had carried home. The online or in print, even if their parents previous evening, then pressing students gasped. subscribe to one). Many don’t follow them on how they had learned this At the end of our unit, we ask the news at all and most aren’t aware information, whether they believed teachers to assign a hands-on project of the watchdog role of the press in it and why. to demonstrate real understanding. a democracy. Before exposure to the Options include creating a newspaper, project, few had any idea of the kind In one memorable presentation, holding a mock press conference, or of reporting and vetting it generally Brian Rokus, a CNN producer, showed preparing an oral history. takes to get a story into print or on the students video excerpts from a The students at Whitman created a the air. report he did with Christiane Aman- video, song, online game, board game, I’ve also observed widespread pour about the New York Philhar- and other projects that reflected what distrust of the mainstream media. monic’s trip to North Korea in 2008. they learned about news literacy—and Students often feel that all journalism The students got a glimpse of a presented it to the class. They showed is driven by bias—political, commercial country without First Amendment that they absorbed the project’s les- or personal. The students themselves protections of free speech. They saw sons and can find creative ways to frequently fail to distinguish between the minders who shadowed the tightly collaborate and share them with their news and opinion in a media culture restricted American journalists. Rokus classmates. where those lines are increasingly also passed around a copy of The As Colin Mealey and Adam Sche- blurred. Pyongyang Times with its full-page fkind, two of the students, sang in My experience has underscored the paeans to the nation’s “Dear Leader.” their final project, “Wikipedia Rap”: importance of the project’s mission. He then handed out an Associated Former colleagues and others have Press report of a speech that President It’s really important to know launched worthy efforts to find new Obama had made to Congress and what to believe. ways to fund and deliver journalism in asked the students to cross out every- You gotta know where and why the digital age. But that is not enough. thing they would censor if they were and what to read. Without a demand for quality journal- the editor of The Pyongyang Times Search your information and ism (on any platform) from the next and Obama was the “Dear Leader.” check it twice. generation, what future will it have? Sometimes the lessons begin even ’Cause getting it wrong will come So, what does a news literacy lesson before the journalist arrives. Prior at a price.  look like? Here are some snapshots: to her visit, NPR ombudsman Alicia C. Shepard asked the teacher to ask Alan C. Miller is a Pulitzer Prize- • Gwen Ifill of “The PBS NewsHour” the students to find out everything winning former investigative reporter and “Washington Week” explaining they could about her. When Shepard with the Los Angeles Times. He is the how she handles bias: “I hope you asked the students what they had founder and executive director of the never know what I think. I’m there discovered, one named the street on News Literacy Project. to provide you the information which she lived, another said she so you can decide. I have to keep taught at American University and a open the possibility that the other third said she had attended her high guy has a point. … I have to be an school reunion. All three statements honest broker.” were wrong.

36 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 WHAT’S NEXT FOR NEWS? | New News

News in the Age of Now ‘On the Web, skimming is no longer a means to an end but an end in itself. That poses a huge problem for those who report and publish the news.’

BY NICHOLAS CARR

“Thought will spread across the world with the rapidity of light, hose opening words would seem to de- instantly conceived, instantly written, instantly understood. It will scribe, with the zeal typical of the modern blanket the earth from one pole to the other—sudden, instantaneous, techno-utopian, the arrival of our new on- burning with the fervor of the soul from which it burst forth.” Tline media environment with its feeds, streams, texts and tweets. What is the Web if not sudden, instantaneous and burning with fervor? But French poet and politician Alphonse de Lamar- tine wrote these words in 1831 to describe the emergence of the daily newspaper. Journalism, he proclaimed, would soon become “the whole of human thought.” Books, incapable of compet- ing with the immediacy of morning and evening papers, were doomed: “Thought will not have time to ripen, to accumulate into the form of a book—the book will arrive too late. The only book possible from today is a newspaper.” Lamartine’s prediction of the imminent demise of books didn’t pan out. Newspapers did not take their place. But he was a prophet nonetheless. The story of media, particularly the news media, has for the last two centuries been a story of the pursuit of ever greater immediacy. From broadsheet to telegram, radio broadcast to TV bulletin, blog to Twitter, we’ve relentlessly ratcheted up the velocity of information flow. To Shakespeare, ripeness was all. Today, ripe- ness doesn’t seem to count for much. Nowness is all. The daily newspaper, the agent of immediacy in Lamartine’s day, is now immediacy’s latest victim. It’s the newspaper that arrives too late. An enormous amount of ink, both real and virtual, has gone into diagnosing the shift of news from page to screen and the travails the shift inflicts on publishers and journalists. Yet when we take a longer view, the greatest threat to serious journalism may not be the Web. Instead, it may be found in changes already under way in the ways people read and even think—changes spurred by the Web’s rapid-fire mode of distributing information. It used to be thought that our brains didn’t change much once we reached adulthood. Our neural pathways established during childhood,

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 37 What’s Next for News?

common wisdom held, remained toward the new even when we know appreciate variations in the quality of fixed throughout our mature years. that “the new is more often trivial journalism, a person has to be attentive, We know now that’s not the case. In than essential.” to be able to read and think deeply. To recent decades, neuroscientists such Unlike the printed page, the Web the skimmer, all stories look the same as Michael Merzenich and Eric Kan- never encourages us to slow down. and are worth the same. The news del have shown that the adult brain And the more we practice this hur- becomes a fungible commodity, and is, as Merzenich puts it, “massively ried, distracted mode of information the lowest-cost provider wins the day. plastic.” The synaptic connections gathering, the more deeply it becomes The news organization committed to between our neurons are constantly ingrained in our mental habits—in quality becomes a niche player, fated reweaving themselves in response to the very ways our neurons connect. to watch its niche continue to shrink. environmental and cultural shifts, At the same time, we begin to lose The fervor of nowness displaces the including the adoption of new infor- our ability to sustain our attention, thoughtfulness of ripeness. mation technologies. When we come to think or read about one thing for There’s little chance that technology to rely on a new medium for finding, more than a few moments. A Stanford will reverse course. With the growing storing, and sharing information, University study published last year popularity of instant social media Merzenich explains, we end up with showed that people who engage in services like Facebook and Twitter, “different brains.” the Web is rapidly moving away from “the page” as the governing Reading: Print to Web metaphor for the presentation of information. In its place we have For 500 years the medium of “the stream,” a fast-moving, ever- print has been training us to pay shifting flow of bite-sized updates attention. The genius of a page of and messages. Everything we’ve printed text is that nothing else is seen in the development of the Net going on. The page shields us from and, indeed, in the development the distractions that bombard us of mass media indicates that the and break our concentration. The velocity of information will only printed word allows us to “lose increase in the future. ourselves,” as we’ve come to say, in If serious journalism is going to a book, a magazine essay, or a long survive as something more than a newspaper article. Print journalism, product for a small and shrinking at least in its more serious forms, elite, news organizations will need has shaped itself to the attentive to do more than simply adapt to the reader. The layout of a paper makes Net. They’re going to have to be a it easy to skim headlines, but it counterweight to the Net. They’re also assumes that the skimming going to have to find creative ways is a means to an end, a way to to encourage and reward readers discover stories that merit deeper for slowing down and engaging in reading and study. A newspaper deep, undistracted modes of reading allows us to scan and browse; it and thinking. They’re going to have also encourages us to slow down. Nicholas Carr’s cover story provoked extensive to teach people to pay attention The Web promulgates a very debate in 2008. again. That’s easier said than done, different mode of reading and of course—and I confess that I have thinking. Far from shielding us no silver bullet—but the alternative from distractions, it inundates us with a lot of media multitasking not only is continued decline, both economic them. When we turn on our comput- sacrifice their capacity for concen- and intellectual.  ers and log on to the Net, we are tration but also become less able to immediately flung into what the writer distinguish important information Nicholas Carr writes extensively Cory Doctorow calls an “ecosystem of from unimportant information. They about the social, cultural and interruption technologies.” The welter become “suckers for irrelevancy,” as economic implications of technology. of online information, messages, and one of the researchers, Clifford Nass, His latest book, “The Shallows: other stimuli plays, in particular, to put it. [See Nass’s article on page 11.] What the Internet Is Doing to Our our native bias to “vastly overvalue Everything starts to blur together. Brains,” was published in June by what happens to us right now,” as On the Web, skimming is no longer W.W. Norton. He is also the author Christopher Chabris, a psychology a means to an end but an end in itself. of “Does IT Matter?” and “The Big professor at Union College, wrote That poses a huge problem for those Switch: Rewiring the World, from in The Wall Street Journal. We rush who report and publish the news. To Edison to Google.”

38 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 New News

There’s More to Being a Journalist Than Hitting the ‘Publish’ Button For better or worse, the Internet is ‘biased to the amateur and to the immediate.’

BY DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF

irst they came for the musicians, just toward brevity but immediacy—a with whom they are now competing and I did not speak out—because constant flow, as if it is just humanity for attention. Dozens of times now I am not a musician. Then they expressing itself. I have fielded these same questions Fcame for the filmmakers, and I did And this notion of writing and after my lectures—What makes some not speak out—because I am not a thoughts just pouring out of us is newspaper columnist’s writing any filmmaker. Then they came for the also the premise for the new amateur more important than their blog? With journalists, and there was no one left journalism. It is nonprofessional in cameras and keyboards in phones these to speak out for us. both intent and content—as close to days, why do we even need reporters? In a media universe that for so what its writers believe is an unfil- Won’t someone see and report? many decades, even centuries, seemed tered, pure gestalt of observation and stacked against the amateur, the self-expression. As if the time taken What Makes a Journalist? Internet has made a revolutionary to actually reflect or consider is itself impact. Previously, the only law of a drawback—or at the very least a What these honest questions don’t physics that seemed to apply to the disadvantage to whoever wants to be take into account is that a profes- top-down, corporate-driven media credited with starting a Twitter thread sional journalist isn’t just someone space was that of gravity. King George (as if anyone keeps track). Of course who has access to the newswires, or II, William Randolph Hearst, or even writing—whether considered or not—is at least it shouldn’t be. A professional Rupert Murdoch would decide what the most definitely never a direct feed from newsperson is someone who is not public should believe and then print the heart or soul but rather the use only trained to pursue a story and that version of reality. And inventions of an abstract symbol system, highly deconstruct propaganda, but someone from the printing press to radio, which processed by the brain and no more who has been paid to spend the time once seemed to be returning media gestalt than solving a math equation. and energy required to do so effectively. to the people’s hands, were quickly The real difference between the Net Corporations and governments alike monopolized by the powers that be. and traditional writing is the barrier spend hundreds of millions of dollars Renaissance kings burned unauthor- to entry. Before computers, journalists each year on their public relations and ized printing shops, and the Federal had to use typewriters—with no cut/ communications strategies. They hire Communications Commission tilted copy/paste functionality. Typewritten professionals to tell or, more often, the radio spectrum to corporate con- articles and manuscripts couldn’t be obfuscate their stories. Without a crew trol. Our mainstream media seemed corrected—they had to be rewritten of equally qualified—if not equally permanently biased toward those in from scratch. Almost no one enjoyed funded—professionals to analyze and power as well as toward whatever ver- this process, which actively discour- challenge these agencies’ fictions, we sion of history they wished to record aged all but the truly dedicated from are defenseless against them. for posterity. attempting to write professionally. And thus, we end up in the same But at least at first glance the Inter- Now not only is writing much easier, place we were before—only worse, net seems to be different. It is a biased but distribution is automatic. Writing because now we believe we own and medium, to be sure, but biased to the something in an online environment control the media that has actually amateur and to the immediate—as if means being distributed from the owned and controlled us all along. to change some essential balance of moment one hits “publish.” It’s not a First off, our misguided media power. Indeed, the Web so overwhelm- matter of how many people actually revolutionaries are mistaking access ingly tilts toward the immediate as read the piece; it’s a matter of how to the tools for competency with the to render notions of historicity and many could. skills. Just because a kid now enjoys permanence obsolete. Even Google Which gets to the heart of the the typing skill and distribution net- is rapidly converting to live search—a misconception leading to the demise work once exclusive to a professional little list of not the most significant, of professional journalism: People journalist doesn’t mean he knows how but the most recent results for any believe their blog posts and tweets to research, report or write. It’s as query term. Likewise, our blog posts may as well be interchangeable with if a teenager who has played Guitar and tweets are increasingly biased not those of the professional journalists Hero got his hands on a real Strato-

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 39 What’s Next for News?

caster—and thinks he’s ready for an Google-owned YouTube, along with the natural evolution of culture. Rather, arena show. certain rights. it’s the same old spectacle working its Worse than the enthusiastic ama- Value is still being extracted from magic through a now-decentralized teurization of writing and journalism is the work—it’s just being taken from a media space. The results—ignorance, that the very same kinds of companies different place in the production cycle anger, and anti-elitism—are the same. are making the same money off this and not passed down to the writers The pen may be a mightier tool writing—simply by different means. or journalists themselves. Those of than the sword, but not when we’re Value is still being extracted from us who do write for a living are told using it to lobotomize ourselves.  everyone who writes for free—whether the free labor will garner us exposure it’s me writing this piece or a blogger necessary to get paid for something Douglas Rushkoff is the author of writing his. It’s simply not being passed else we do—like talks or television. 10 books on new media and popular down anymore. Google still profits off Of course the people hiring us to do culture, a technology columnist the ads accompanying every search those appearances believe they should for The Daily Beast, media studies for this article. Likewise, every “free” get us for free as well since they’re teacher, and documentarian. Earlier video by an amateur requires that publicizing our writing. this year as a correspondent for the amateur to buy a camera, a video- Worst of all, those of us still in a Frontline TV/Web project “Digital capable laptop, editing software, and a position to say something about any of Nation,” he explored what it means broadband connection through which this are labeled elitists or Luddites—as to be human in a digital world. to upload the completed piece onto if we are the ones attempting to repress

Categorizing What Works—So We Can Apply Those Lessons to Future Endeavors As journalism heads into digital territory, an exploration of online news sites reveals 100 that offer promising pathways.

BY MICHELE MCLELLAN

“[The] death of a huge tree is not the lack of inclusiveness, the banality of a Nothing will work, but every- death of a forest … The ecosystem will lot of what we produced, our significant thing might. Now is the time continue and if any gaps exist, people loss of credibility and relevance. We for experiments, lots and lots will move in to fill them.” failed to engage our communities, and of experiments, each of which as long as the ad dollars flowed we will seem as minor at launch as ric Newton, who is now vice didn’t feel much pressure to do so. Craigslist did, as Wikipedia did, president for the journalism The Web changes what we do—and as octavo volumes did. program at the John S. and our relationships. We can now interact EJames L. Knight Foundation, said locally and globally in ways we never There is no telling which sprouts these words more than a decade ago could in old growth newsrooms. will flourish and which will die. But when the sale of the Examiner foretold Given these possibilities, I am turning it’s probably far too pessimistic to its demise. What he said is apt today more of my attention from tall tree say flatly that none of today’s sprouts as we watch tall trees of old growth newsrooms, where I spent nearly 30 will ever replace any of our trees. I’ve journalism wither and even die. years, to the emerging news orga- been spending quite a bit of time with As this happens, it is crucial that we nizations I fondly call the “sprouts.” the sprouts. I advise and coach com- mark what is at risk and find ways to These sprouts are part of our chaotic, munity news startups for the Knight support them, such as labor-intensive dynamic news ecosystem today. Many Foundation’s Community Information watchdog journalism and long-form won’t survive, but some will. Most Challenge. At Knight Digital Media narrative, each of which binds us won’t be very impressive, at least at Center, I develop training programs across differences. first, as Clay Shirky observed in the for news leaders—broadly defined to But it is equally important for us, as 2009 commentary he published on include fledgling entrepreneurs and journalists, to mark the shortcomings the Web, “Newspapers and Thinking small nonprofits along with newsroom of late 20th century journalism: our the Unthinkable’’: and corporate executives.

40 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 New News

As a recent fellow at the Reyn- • New Traditionals: These sites are and fostering civic engagement with olds Journalism Institute (RJI) at dominated by original content practices such as voting, calls to the University of Missouri School produced by professional journal- action, and partnerships with local of Journalism, I developed a list of ists. While the newsroom staff may organizations and activists. promising online news sites. To do be smaller than in a traditional • Microlocal: Sometimes called this, my research partner, Adam newspaper newsroom, these sites “hyperlocal,” these sites provide Maksl, a journalism doctoral student, tend to have more journalists on highly granular news of a neighbor- and I reviewed more than 1,000 sites staff than community or microlocal hood or town. They may have a tiny to come up with our list of just over sites. Many are embracing digital staff—one or two people plus interns 100 promising sites that seem to be connectivity with their users, but or citizen contributors—usually sup- getting traction in developing content traditional journalism is their bread ported by highly local advertising. and revenue streams. Our criteria for and butter. Most of these sites, such Examples are The Rapidian, Capitol inclusion focused on the production as the Texas Tribune and Voice of Hill Seattle Blog, and My Ballard. of original news in ways that attempt San Diego, started with grant fund- • Niche: These sites, such as Seattle/ to be fair and transparent. And these ing and are searching for a viable LocalHealthGuide and Fresno Web sites had to demonstrate effort in revenue model, perhaps one that Famous, focus tightly on topics finding a sustainable revenue model. mixes memberships, grants, dona- such as restaurants and enter- Taking this digital journey helped tions, sponsorships, syndication and tainment, health and medical us to better understand the emerging advertising.1 news, environmental or political landscape as well as what it will take • Community: These sites, such as coverage, consumer and shopping to support the new news organiza- Oakland Local, often rely on pro- information. Revenue may come tions. And it organized our thinking fessional journalists but they tend from advertising, subscriptions or to the point where we came up with to be bootstrappers who also focus syndicating content. categories for the various approaches on community building—actively we found. Here are those listings—with seeking user feedback and content, Though our primary focus falls descriptions we developed: writing in a conversational tone, on these four categories, they do not

1 Additional examples of New Traditionals can be found in the Spring 2009 issue of Nieman Reports at www.niemanreports.org.

The Oakland (Calif.) Local and My Ballard, which covers a neighborhood of Seattle, are among the promising online local news entities identified in McLellan’s and Maksl’s study of 1,000 sites.

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 41 What’s Next for News?

represent the entire universe of local mission. As far as taking an activist • Online community publishers cite news online. Additional categories role, that’s not what we’re doing. comments and social network inte- include mini sites, which tend to be We are looking to spur discussion gration as the most effective ways idiosyncratic in the selection of stories as compared to promoting our side to engage users. they cover and not highly aggressive in of a particular issue. • Journalists are working with com- finding revenue; local news systems, • We’re not advocates so we tend to munity members to create news which are highly local, low-cost sites focus on the information side more sites. No more bloggers vs. old that are created with a regional or than what people are doing with the media. It’s all about partnerships national template, often by a corpora- information. We do care what people and networks. tion (AOL’s Patch, for example); and are doing with the information, but • Most are struggling with sustain- aggregators who curate and link to our site is not designed to revolve ability and developing revenue other sources. around it. We provide a forum for sources that include advertising, our readers either to post stories or memberships, syndication, grants After the List: Next Steps make comments on other stories. It and donations. Charging for access is kind of like a town square. is rarely seen as an option. At RJI, we’re completing a telephone survey of the 100 online publishers on Out of our research, we are finding We expect to post detailed sur- our list. The 60 online publishers who some common ground. Four areas vey results in late June. Find us at have responded to date say producing worth mentioning are: www.rjionline.org.  original news and engaging community are their top priorities. • Nearly half of the sites rely on paid Michele McLellan, a 2002 Nieman Here is how a couple of online staff, with students and interns Fellow, was a 2009-2010 fellow at publishers describe their mission: as a secondary source of content. the Reynolds Journalism Institute at Volunteers or user uploads are the Missouri School of Journalism. • We promote discussion and conver- widely viewed as unreliable sources She writes the Leadership 3.0 blog sation of these topics as part of our of content. for the Knight Digital Media Center.

Establishing a Digital Value for Watchdog Reporting ‘Our impulse as digital journalists is to innovate—and this means finding stories that aren’t being covered by other news media in Baltimore and doing what we can to illuminate them in ways that propel people to act.’

BY STEPHEN JANIS

y cell phone rang at roughly “That’s him,” he said. “He works police tracked him down and charged 11 p.m. for the department; that’s Dennis him with a number of offenses, includ- “Turn on the television,” McLaughlin, man.” ing impersonating a police officer, false Msaid a man I’ll call Michael, an employee On the screen flashed a mug shot imprisonment, and assault. of the Baltimore City Department of of a heavyset bald man, his rounded On the Richter scale of newsworthi- Public Works (DPW). “That’s Dennis! face punctuated by a droplet-sized ness, impersonating a police officer is They arrested Dennis!” goatee. Indeed, a Dennis McLaughlin mildly catastrophic. But if McLaughlin I didn’t know who Dennis was, but had been arrested for impersonating were a city employee, the story was sev- Michael doesn’t make late-night calls a police officer. Using a phony badge eral degrees more enticing, especially to pass along trivial information. For and a dashboard-mounted beacon, he to my City Hall-centric audience. As I several years he had alerted me to acts had pulled over two young women in checked through the numerous news of malfeasance inside the city agency Baltimore County, placed one under stories about his arrest (and other responsible for everything from filling arrest, and then began fondling her. misdeeds), I found not a single mention potholes to managing the Baltimore The victim managed to escape. Through of his city job. My curiosity piqued, region’s water supply. a partial reading of his license plate, I decided to dig a little deeper into

42 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 New News

McLaughlin’s background, prompted related to criminal convictions and 2009. The stories were tracked as in part by my source, who said that the employment of sex offenders in they moved through various news McLaughlin had taken an eight-month jobs that bring them into contact with outlets and into the public arena. leave of absence recently for a hernia the public. The idea was, according to PEJ, “to operation, an absence rumored not to This was not the first time that see how the ecosystem moved, how be related to a medical issue at all. our Web site, dedicated to watchdog information traveled from one sector Using a list of city employees I’d journalism, broke a fairly major story. to another, who initiated the news obtained while working on a story Our small staff regularly breaks stories, and who was first to transmit and documenting some significant city including a recent series on the city frame the narratives that the rest of spending on employee overtime, I pension board’s taking luxury junkets. the media followed.” found a Dennis McLaughlin listed on the city’s 2008 payroll. According to these records, McLaughlin had earned a salary of roughly $26,000, including $4,508 in overtime. It was not the full annual salary for his position, but more than one would earn with extended leave. A quick check of his criminal record revealed something even more intrigu- ing: McLaughlin had been sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2007, meaning it was possible that he was in jail at the time that city payroll records indicated he was earning a salary of $21,000 a year, plus $4,500 in overtime.

How Could This Be Possible?

With a bit of digging, helped by my Investigative Voice plays a watchdog role in its coverage of Baltimore city government, such source and David Scott, the director as the story it broke about a municipal worker who was on the city payroll while in prison. of public works, I determined that McLaughlin was not only on the city payroll while in jail, but collected sick The Digital Difference Here are some of PEJ’s conclusions: pay while serving an eight-month sen- tence for sexually abusing a minor. It Other than our partners at WBFF, the • Among the six major news threads also turned out that McLaughlin had Baltimore Fox affiliate, no other news studied—which included stories help: someone had submitted fake leave organization in Baltimore covered about city budgets, crime, public slips, signed by a doctor stating that the McLaughlin case or the pension buses, and the sale of a local he was receiving medical attention. board’s antics. I mention this absence theater—83 percent of stories These discoveries and quite a bit of a media chorus because about the conveyed no new information. Of more—for example, DPW supervisors same time we were publishing the the 17 percent that contained new had threatened to fire an employee McLaughlin story, the Pew Research information, nearly all came from who discovered that McLaughlin was Center’s Project for Excellence in traditional media either in print or on the state’s Sex Offender Registry— Journalism (PEJ) published a study online. were published in a series of stories on Baltimore media, which concluded • General interest newspapers includ- on Investigative Voice, the Web site that Investigative Voice (lumped in with ing The (Baltimore) Sun produced where I work as a senior reporter and other “new media” news outlets) was all 48 percent of those stories and other content director. Baltimore’s inspector but irrelevant to the city’s news flow.1 print publications, namely business general opened a departmentwide The PEJ study focused on six and law newspapers, produced probe, and the city solicitor ordered a high-profile stories from one week another 13 percent. citywide review of personnel policies of Baltimore’s news coverage in July • Online outlets or broadcast news

1 “How News Happens: A Study of the News Ecosystem of One American City,” a look at Baltimore media by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, can be found at www.journalism.org/analysis_report/how_news_happens.

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 43 What’s Next for News?

provided very little original reporting ‘Social Model’ of Investigative page views translates into $300 for a or new information. Journalism single ad per day—hardly enough to • In two cases new media broke run a newsroom that would be capable news. In one, the police Twitter What we call our “social model” of of attracting a million readers, even feed broke a story, an example of investigative journalism is showing with multiple ads placed throughout what is traditionally a newsmaker signs that it’s working for us—and the site. breaking news directly to the public readers. And what we’ve learned in This is why Investigative Voice rather than through the press. In trying this approach can shed light has constructed a different approach the other, a local blog picked up on the future of newsgathering and revolving around a well-defined and a story that the mainstream press its distribution in the digital domain. articulated expectation about the sto- nearly missed entirely. It involved At Johns Hopkins University, I ries we cover and aggressive graphics a plan by the state to put listening taught a course on the disassembling to display them. We parse, organize devices on buses to deter crime. of the music business that was precipi- and emphasize with the idea that the A newspaper reporter noticed the tated by the birth of the file sharing. worthiness of our efforts will be mea- blog post, then reported on the This collapse is similar in ways to the sured by the influence and relevance story, which led the state to drop economic unraveling of journalism of our reporting. Thus, if we return to the plan. today. We studied a concept called the idea of object relation, our digital “object relation” that refers to the approach is constructed on concision Because of the governmental watch- set of cultural relationships, in this and appearance. dog reporting we do at Investigative case, stemming from the distribution Voice, I was distressed by the implied of music. Put simply, the technol- The Impact of Reporting assumption in the study that the ogy—the compact disc—served as a purpose of a Web site like ours is to gateway of sorts, forming an implicit After Investigative Voice’s reporting replicate what our print brethren is cultural contract that organized the on the McLaughlin story highlighted doing. artist, listener and promoter around deficiencies in the city’s handling of Yet folks at Investigative Voice and a process of disseminating new music municipal employees on sick leave who other Web sites like ours are rethink- to a receptive audience. are facing criminal charges, the Inspec- ing how to keep a watchful eye on In the newsgathering business, tor General’s (IG) office launched a city government agencies, personnel, the object relation is, of course, the probe. The IG’s 17-page report on policies and practices in a ways that newspaper. To a certain extent, the the investigation was handed over will have impact. The old assumption newspaper created a loose barrier to prosecutors for possible criminal is not our starting point. to entry, a quasi-monopoly on the charges. The report revealed that Had the PEJ researchers asked, I conveyance of print news. The paper McLaughlin fraudulently received would have explained that our goal also established itself as an aggrega- $12,700 in sick pay while in jail. In isn’t to duplicate or follow stories tor of information and a portal for response, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings- that are already widely reported. My community events—qualities that Blake closed a loophole in the city reporting partners—Regina Holmes, the World Wide Web challenged. But employee manual when she signed a colleague from the now-defunct the newspaper and its limited space an executive order requiring all city Baltimore Examiner, and former Sun also imposed a de facto discipline, a employees to inform their supervisors reporter Alan Z. Forman—do not work parsing of choices and a distinction of when they are arrested. Failure to do seven days a week for minuscule pay purpose that heightened the relevancy so may result in termination. to proffer a watered-down version of of print reporting. Our consistent focus on this scan- a legacy paper or TV news. The mantra of the Web is about dal, coupled with bold, eye-catching Our impulse as digital journalists is capturing eyeballs by embellishing two-word headlines (white words set to innovate—and this means finding sites with bells and whistles to draw against a black background), provoca- stories that aren’t being covered by in multitudes of visitors. This strategy tive subheads, and information-laden other news media in Baltimore and is premised on the idea that a huge captions reinforced our emphasis on doing what we can to illuminate them audience brings in advertising dollars, watchdog reporting and lent authority in ways that propel people to act. While which is a relic of old media thinking. to the investigation as it unfolded on we take full advantage of our digital In practice, this approach translates our Web site. In some ways, our digital platform, we adamantly uphold the into ad revenues that turn out to be approach harkens back to the heyday basic tenets of investigative journalism. utterly worthless in relation to the cost of newspapers in the early 1900’s What set us apart, however, are our of creating the content that would lure when boys hawking papers shouted homepage’s outsized graphics and our an adequate audience. For example, out headlines designed to catch the investigative mission; in both, we aim Advertising.com offers 30 cents per attention of passers-by. for a different model of social influence 1,000 impressions. Do the math and Economically, this translates into within the community. even a daily audience of one million an ability to market our influence

44 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 New News with readers and advertisers in a here that our compensation is lean.) we’ve earned their trust to the extent qualitative rather than a quantitative It is building this social infrastruc- that our survival is something they way; impact and influence triumph ture—and creating distinctly new care about—and care about enough over eyeballs and clicks. By break- relationships with readers—that is key to see that it happens.  ing watchdog news and delivering to acclimating people to new ways of investigative reporting, our relevance consuming news. Similarly, the carv- Stephen Janis is a senior reporter to those who live in Baltimore has ing out of a distinctive digital space and content director of Investigative become the value we sell to advertis- and mission will be what creates the Voice (www.investigativevoice.com), ers. As our relevance increases, so too path to viability for those of us in the a Web site dedicated to investigative does our ability to engage advertisers business of reporting the news. Our reporting about government in the and attract readers in ways that will stories have to be relevant to readers city of Baltimore. He will be teaching make our fiscal survival possible. (Of so that what we produce gets embed- journalism at Towson University course, as I mentioned, our staff is ded into their daily lives one link at a this fall. small, our hours long, and let me add time. Then it’s up to them to decide if

A Message for Journalists: It’s Time to Flex Old Muscles in New Ways ‘We’ll learn by trying new ways of doing what we’ve done with news, by putting ourselves visibly in the social media mix, and by using the emerging tools of daily communication in all aspects of our work.’

BY KEN DOCTOR

n the early 1990’s, I became manag- “them” includes a lowercase version ing editor of Saint Paul, Minnesota’s of “us,” too. Gatekeeping is now a Pioneer Press, a proud Knight collective pursuit; we’ve become our IRidder newspaper locked in mortal own and each other’s editors. I picked daily combat with Minneapolis’s Star this idea to be the lead trend in my Tribune, just across the river. I recall book “Newsonomics: Twelve New well the day when I had to make my Trends That Will Shape the News You first tough calls—the news we were Get,” published earlier this year by St. going to place prominently on Page Martin’s Press. I called the chapter One and the news we weren’t. I felt “In the Age of Darwinian Content, an odd mix of exhilaration and fear. You Are Your Own Editor,” and since I was the final arbiter of what I named it I’ve never regretted giving would greet several hundred thousand it top billing. people who picked up the paper each Consider recent supporting morning. What if I chose wrong? So evidence: I focused on choosing right, and with that confidence grew the assumed • The Pew Research Center’s Project power and nonchalant arrogance of for Excellence in Journalism and the the gatekeeper. That’s what top editors center’s Internet & American Life were, and still are, though their power Project reported that 75 percent is diminishing each day by weakening of online news consumers in the print circulation and an odd feeling United States get news forwarded of being on the losing side in history’s and digital publishing, the role of the through e-mail and posts on social march into digital journalism. gatekeeper has markedly morphed. sites. Fifty-two percent share links In this hybrid era of straddling print It’s shifted from “us” to “them,” but to news stories via social media.

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 45 What’s Next for News?

• Research I conducted in July 2009 turning the Facebook phenomenon new ways of doing what we’ve done with Outsell, a research firm focused to their advantage. Using Facebook’s with news, by putting ourselves vis- on the publishing industry, showed extensions, these sites’ readers can see ibly in the social media mix, and that of those Americans who use what stories their networks of friends by using the emerging tools of daily social sites, some 49 percent said like—and thereby recommend. It’s a communication in all aspects of our they used Facebook for news. Twenty new serendipity—and one that lever- work. It’s not enough to watch from percent used Twitter. ages the digital world as it works, not the sidelines or even to try to mimic • Those little bit.ly URLs, shortened as some journalists wish it would. what kids do. for Twitter, are now driving more We’re experiencing a loose democ- than two billion visits a month. ratization of gatekeeping—reinvented News in Social Media • My own anecdotal research talking on the fly and in the ungainly ways to news companies shows that social typical of the digital revolution—and The social dynamics of news will sites are the fastest-growing source therefore we should expect such undoubtedly lead us into uncharted of traffic to news sites, “referrers,” in innovations to have legs. In December waters. And there will be business Web lingo. The Wall Street Journal 2009, Nielsen Company reported that implications yet unimagined, some says it’s getting about 7 percent the average American spent six hours that look less rosy for our profession of its traffic from social sites. The and nine minutes on social sites, up than others. So we are faced with how phenomenon, like digital media, is 143 percent in just a year. we can best prepare for inevitable global: Mexico City’s El Universal adjustments as we think about how tells me social sites drive more than It’s About Me activities related to news reporting 15 percent of traffic. and storytelling can benefit and how Is this about Facebook? No, I think we can strategize wisely about ways Social Trumps News it’s about something near and dear to to deliver the news. all of us: me. Some might recall that From the perspective of business, it’s Twitter for news? Facebook for news? back in the ’90s news sites actively likely we will soon see the news indus- Just as we were getting used to say- promoted “make us your homepage” try percolate with ideas about social ing “Google News”—remember how buttons in the (misguided, it seems) media optimization, just as search odd that sounded five years ago?—we belief that online news sites would engine optimization grew greatly as find ourselves in the midst of a new be a center of digital readers’ lives, as a business proposition during the last revolution. Now we have to figure the daily newspaper had long been. decade. Issues to think about: How do out—and act on—the socialization of Instead, as things turned out, digital we write headlines with the dynamics news. With social media, the seren- places like Facebook organize our lives of social media in mind? What’s the dipity that came with turning pages around, well, us. best way to encourage retweets? How and suddenly discovering a gem of a Stated simply: I am the new do we utilize the “liking” strategies story that an editor put there happens homepage. Stuff gets to our pages that showed up recently on Facebook? in new ways. We’re re-creating such in all kinds of ways, including the In some news organizations, editors moments ourselves, each of us—indi- semi-serendipitous sharing. All of are leading the way as they encourage— vidually and collectively—as we tout this, while interesting, might be just in some cases, even mandate—that stories and posts to each other. A prologue. News aggregation is young reporters and writers promote their friend e-mails us a story; we might on Twitter or Facebook, and even on stories (and themselves) routinely read it, time permitting. We get the the old folks, Google and Yahoo!. Very through social media. And this makes same story from three people, and first-generation, very primitive, and sense; experimentation and testing is chances are good that we’ll carve out done by amateurs for amateurs, largely. now happening so it’s important for time to take a look. So a looming question is who will journalists to carry their principles It’s a different notion of serendipity, emerge to lead the younger generations into this social media environment, and for some people, it doesn’t equate, in bringing content together? Creating even as they keep a watchful eye out but it is what it is in this digital space. hybrid products? Weaving news onto for useful practices. And here’s the difference: With social social platforms? Socializing on a news The challenge for editors goes media the chances are good that like- platform? Other yet-to-be envisioned beyond their participation and exhort- minded friends—not to be confused iterations? ing their charges to do the same. with the strangers who were news Journalists ought to be among those Return, for a moment, to consider editors—recommend a story because who embrace these challenges—make the editor’s customary role as gate- they believe you’ll be drawn to either them part of what they think about keeper—and think about the most its topic or argument. and do every day, and have their valued attribute of the job. It went by We now see the early experiments experimentation go beyond their own various names and phrases—judgment, to harness this new power. CNN, The participation as individuals in this news sense, news judgment—but at its Washington Post, and ABC News are social sphere. We’ll learn by trying core, the job was about these things

46 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 New News

(and more): What makes a good story? collaborate—with local bloggers and comes along. When and how to push a reporter to hyperlocal Web sites. Others go in It comes down to this: Use old take a story deeper? When to publish search of health or travel or financial muscles, but flex them in new ways. it? When to wait? Where to place it? news to fill holes in—or supplement— Tweet, yes, and post on Facebook walls, Today, things work differently. The their coverage. These largely exist as but perhaps with different messages attitude—as well as the mechanics—for modules of other people’s content tailored to each social venue. Keep attracting readers has to change. It’s floating in a sea of the news site’s those old world skills in mind—and no longer “take my judgment on the own content. yes, hold onto your news judgment, day’s news or good luck finding another The natural and next step would while adapting to the digital demands local daily.” And even though readers be smart aggregation. This means of readers.  are no longer captive to what an editor figuring out how to guide visitors to decides, people still want some help the best content—so here’s another Ken Doctor is the author of “News- when it comes to deciding how and place where judgment comes in. It onomics: Twelve New Trends That where to look for the news they value. can be organized—with social media Will Shape the News You Get,” Go ahead and call it gatekeeping, but sensibilities in mind—by locality or published by St. Martin’s Press, and think of it with a different slant when topic, by its social currency or its a news industry analyst for Outsell, it comes to flexing those well-honed perceived value as news. Offer packages a global research and advisory firm. news judgment muscles. These days of content, some produced by your On his Web site, Newsonomics.com, editors have a much bigger bank of news organization, some by others. he tracks the transformation of the news and features on which to draw. Help visitors find them, then make news media, focusing on changing It’s not just what staff reporters and it easy, as many sites already do, to business models and the journalism wire copy offers; it’s the entire Web share what they find on Facebook or created. of content. Some editors connect—and whatever popular social media site

Twitter: Can It Be a Reliable Source of News? ‘I came to understand that there is a science to this quest for creating the right network. It’s an empirical process, one that requires lots of time and thought and effort.’

BY JANIC TREMBLAY

In February, five journalists from News will find you wherever you What kinds of information emerge French-speaking public radio stations are.” That’s what a lot of people through social networks? What do isolated themselves in a farmhouse in think now that the Internet is people talk about after traditional news southern France to conduct an experi- “in its third revolution—as the always media sources have been removed? ment. For five days they would stay on, always available Web. Thanks to Which news do they tweet? Or retweet? informed by using only their social Facebook, Twitter and the smartphone, And do social networks help us find networks. Their ground rules forbid we expect that we will be informed valuable information? them to follow the feeds and tweets in real time on just about any topic. We humbly set out with these ques- of any news media; to be informed, We depend on family members, close tions—and others—in mind, hoping they had to rely solely on the tweets friends, and those who are part of we’d find a way to measure, though or Facebook offerings of individuals our digital networks to act as report- not in any scientific way, the value or organizations such as nonprofits, ers, alerting us when something they our social networks held for us as government agencies, or educational feel is important has happened or is journalists. We set some rules, locked institutions. One of the secluded jour- happening. Within our chosen digital the door of our home in Saint-Cyprien, nalists was reporter Janic Tremblay, community, we are always connected, and turned our full attention to the who works at Radio-Canada. In this always informed. At least, that’s how Web. From there, many lessons—most article, he describes the experience and the story goes. discovered through Twitter—flowed the lessons he brought back to his work. But is this how it actually happens? my way:

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 47 What’s Next for News?

• Twitter can be like radar: On our from my experience and that of my whose tweets we welcome into our first night in France, I went online colleagues. digital feed. And digital communi- and came across tweets from a man • Twitter can steer off course: It was ties tend to congregate around who had been arrested during a the third night of our stay in Saint- interests or issues. This isn’t so very demonstration in Moscow earlier Cyprien. Apparently a very loud different from how audiences flock that day. He had been jailed for noise had been heard in the city to various news media (Fox News many hours and was tweeting about of Lille in northern France. Lots or CNN, for example) based on what was happening. I did not know of tweets talked about this noise. It the topics or perspective they are him. Clearly we lived in different was obvious that people were trying fairly certain they’ll find there. It universes, but it turned out that to figure out what had happened as can feel reassuring to follow like- a member of his social network is this topic became the talk of the minded people. Who doesn’t like also part of mine. When my social French Twitter-sphere that night. to have their opinions confirmed? networking friend retweeted his Many hypotheses were tweeted; it Yet choosing such a specific path to posts, he showed up in my Twitter was an explosion, a fire, or maybe news can also be limiting since it feed, and there we were—connected, a nuclear problem. In the next day’s can be hard to count on friends to with me in a French farmhouse newspaper (which I could not read broaden our horizons. Like a couple and he in jail in Moscow. And so at the time), a reporter unraveled the who thinks alike, neither brings I tweeted him directly, then later mystery with a story of what actu- much new to their conversation or contacted him by phone. He spoke ally happened. The loud sound was thinking. French very well, an important from an airplane that had crossed detail for a French-speaking radio the sound barrier over the city. On Tweeting Lessons reporter. He told me about his arrest Twitter, I had not seen anyone come and the condition of his detention, up with this explanation. So while As I think back on these five days—and and so I had a good story. With the we knew what was being talked what I learned, I focus on the social traditional tools of journalists, the about via the tweets, we had no networks I brought with me into our odds of me finding this man would idea what was happening. house. This experience taught me that have been close to zero. However, • What I like about you is me: Like all they were not diversified enough. News I believe situations like this one social media networks, the Twitter reached me, but in my mix of tweets happen rarely, as best I can tell experience is determined by those I could find little in-depth analysis or many international news reports. Nor did I find much discussion about news taking place among members of my network. And only very rarely did I hear much about economic news. I came to understand that there is a science to this quest for creating the right network. It’s an empirical process, one that requires lots of time and thought and effort. And the search for the best sources of news never ends. I also concluded from this experience that finding symphonic notes amid all the noise of these networks is not easy. Moreover, on Twitter, people tend to tweet what they have picked up from the traditional news media; what they add is an introduction to what they’ve found, letting their friends or followers know that they found it interesting or new, moving or fascinating. Right now how this exchange of information happens is very tied in with the tools of social media that we have available Janic Tremblay, left, and four other journalists from French-speaking public radio stations to us, and this is something else we spent five days in a cabin in southern France. Their goal was to keep informed using only experienced firsthand during our week social networks. The project was called “Huis Clos Sur Le Net,” which roughly translates to in France. “Behind Closed Doors on the Net.” Photo by Nicolas Mathias. One lesson I took from this

48 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 New News experience is that what interests the public—as I saw interest expressed by what they share and highlight through these social media networks—is not the same as the public interest, at least as journalists conceive of it. Of course, these two ideas might grow closer in time as Twitter becomes more popular.

Getting Personal

While in the farmhouse, I managed to gather almost all of the important news during the more than 60 hours that I spent on Twitter. (After we emerged, I checked to see what stories I might have missed.) Retweets turned out to be essential for my newsgathering since I was not allowed to follow any media organizations. But being constrained, as I was, helped me realize how often messages that journalists send out are retweeted. On the other hand, Journalists broadcast from the cabin where they spent five days without direct access to the stories sent out by newspapers news media. Janic Tremblay is at left. Photo by Nicolas Mathias. and broadcast entities didn’t get retweeted too much. What this told me is that there is a strong tug of But there are other key consider- who can provide reliable journalistic personal engagement within the digital ations about why more journalists content, which then forms the back- community, evidenced as members of tweeting is better than fewer. When bone of Twitter’s links. This is not to the community retweet stories that only a few journalists tweet—and say that any others who can bring are brought to the Twitter feed by an do so constantly—they occupy a lot additional knowledge and information author or journalist himself. of the space. This means that their into the mix shouldn’t do so. They At CBC/Radio-Canada where I perspective on the news could become should, but having this foundation work, very few journalists use Twit- the dominant (or possibly the only) built by the practitioners of journalism’s ter. Even so our news organization interpretation of an event and, if this standards and ethics is vital. has a Twitter account with more than happens, the lack of diversity of the Still, it now is not possible for 30,000 followers. However, during the information becomes an important journalists to ignore or neglect Twitter. five days of the experiment, I did not issue. Too much is happening there. Every find any news from Radio-Canada. The individual journalist—along with every reason: no retweets. A popular French- Social Media and Journalism news organization—should put strate- Canadian newspaper, La Presse, also gies in place to determine the best has a Twitter account with just about While social media networks can be ways to do our work in tandem with the same number of followers, and I did a personalized resource for news, it the culture and habits of social media not get any retweets from La Presse’s is virtually impossible to work eight networks. Also, figuring out how best feed, either. But many journalists at hours a day, take care of the kids, to thrive in the Twitter environment La Presse tweet personally, so many regularly ride the train to work and without compromising our work as of their stories made their way to me back, read books and articles, follow journalists (and not as advocates) is through retweets. what hundreds of people are tweeting part of what the job entails today. The lesson is simple: journalists at the same time, and click on the links Tweets are easily sent and they leave should tweet about their stories. By they suggest and end up absorbing traces for a long time—just as all doing so, they might get a higher anything fully. Even with a deliber- words and pictures do in this digital penetration rate of clicking on links ate focus on doing so, as we had for territory. When personal opinion reigns and sharing among followers; they those five days in the absence of any supreme—with a side taken and a will also likely gather new followers distractions, this was hard. perception settling in—then serving through this retweeting, and ultimately This is one reason why I so firmly the public interest as a journalist just getting the news out will inform more believe that traditional news media got harder to do.  people, which is our goal. outlets are still essential—as the people

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 49 What’s Next for News?

YouTube’s Ecosystem for News ‘Our users innovate at an extraordinary pace and in ways that amaze us, make our world more transparent, and change the way we consume information and are informed.’

BY STEVE GROVE

glance at YouTube might give the cable news programs, C-SPAN, YouTube ecosystem most effectively impression that it’s a jungle in public archives, or other sources, when they leverage the work of these there. After all, with 24 hours and upload these clips to the site. curators to find what’s important. Top Aof video uploaded to YouTube every Sometimes the insights revealed videos—discovered and promoted by minute, the constantly flowing stream in these clips inspire more people YouTube’s grass-roots community—are of content can feel overwhelming, than the original content did. Often rebroadcast on TV and other platforms, even chaotic. With raw footage, video this happens because the original especially when news organizations mashups, parodies, cultural memes, producer was busy packaging the don’t have their own footage of an and viral hits—staying on top of it all entire show instead of looking for event. Or they might find the com- and determining what’s relevant can moments of significance to which mentary on YouTube a useful way of seem like mission impossible. a broader online audience will looking at an issue. Now take a closer look, dig beneath respond. The most memorable example the chaos, and an evolving order is • Mashup artists, video bloggers, occurred last June when foreign media revealed—one that is driving content admakers and musicians: These were kicked out of Iran in the wake through the broader ecosystem, which people influence the public discus- of the presidential election. Iranians is changing the ways we communicate sion on any number of topics with then provided the visuals and words and get information. At YouTube, we their video commentaries. to tell the world about the clashes are busy developing tools to help news • Curators: They are trend spotters between police and protesters. But organizations and consumers navigate who don’t upload videos at all, but each day there are numerous YouTube this ecosystem. Before peering into the instead discover interesting content videos broadcast on television and tool box, let’s get acquainted with the and embed, tweet, e-mail and share cable stations—on topics ranging from key players that make the YouTube it on Facebook. the serious to the silly. In fact, TV news ecosystem unique. Here is the • Viewers (a.k.a. all of us): We watch viewers who see a YouTube clip will cast of contributors: the videos, rank them, and share sometimes circle back to our Web site them, thereby driving up view counts to watch the entire segment and search • Citizen reporters: Our most frequent and giving the videos exposure on for related content—thus refueling contributor is someone who captures the most-viewed pages of YouTube. YouTube’s ecosystem. an event on video and uploads The incentive for broadcasters and it to YouTube. (I don’t use the Media organizations enter this YouTube to create this ecosystem is words “citizen journalist” simple: Those who upload because I don’t think any their video to YouTube want person who happens to broader exposure on TV and take video of something the broadcasters want to is necessarily practicing expand the scope of their journalism, a skill that reporting and to stay on requires some training.) top of the cultural zeitgeist Citizen reporters are that is YouTube. But there ensuring that many more are business reasons, too. events around the world Leveraging citizen report- are being captured on ing, in particular, is efficient; video now, and through when it works well, news YouTube, they reach a organizations don’t need global audience. to send a satellite truck to • Clip-cutters: These are the scene of every possible people who find the most YouTube Direct enables news organizations to ask for, look at, and news event. In all likelihood, salient moments from rebroadcast news footage from YouTube on their own site. someone was already there

50 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 New News and took video on their mobile phone. For politicians, activists and non- profits, posting a video is the 21st century press release that affords them free media opportunities. News Web sites can link to it and TV stations can use it. Of course these videos— designed to promote the message of those who produce them—will not serve the public interest in the same way that a news report would. Media organizations, in turn, post their content on YouTube in an attempt to gain new viewers, revenue and exposure. Like any other partner on YouTube, news organizations can use our content identification and management tools—Content ID—to find and claim user videos (like the mashups uploaded by clip-cutters). Then they can choose what they want to happen next—they can block the video, leave it up and monitor it, or even make money from it. Increas- ingly, news organizations are seeing Steve Grove moderated an interview with President Barack Obama that was streamed live the value in leveraging this organic from the White House earlier this year. YouTube users submitted questions by text and user activity; the majority of media video and cast votes to determine which ones Obama was asked. companies using Content ID choose to make money from user clips, rather than take them down. their own citizen assignment desks. citizentube.com, to find out more.) • Google Moderator: The voting If there’s one thing we know about YouTube’s Tool Chest platform we used to collect citizens’ news on YouTube, it’s that things hap- questions for YouTube’s interview pen quickly. Our users innovate at an There are some challenges to the You- with President Barack Obama earlier extraordinary pace and in ways that Tube news ecosystem for consumers this year is now available to any amaze us, make our world more trans- and for news organizations, particularly YouTube user. With a few clicks at parent, and change the way we consume when it comes to news footage shot www.google.com/moderator, news information and are informed. As by citizen reporters. If it is taking too organizations can create a dynamic, news organizations continue to evolve long for the grass-roots community to democratic discussion on any topic. and develop new business models, surface content, there are ways to find YouTube will undoubtedly be a part of content faster, to verify its authenticity, Every day we explore more ways their strategy. With so much content or to request a particular video that to enhance the news ecosystem on to explore, creative minds are now might not already be on the site. YouTube. This summer we’re running a seeking ways for us to find what we Two of the most recent platforms YouTube News Lab with the University think we’re looking for. It may feel we’ve built are: of California at Berkeley’s Graduate like a jungle out there, but we find School of Journalism to find out even better ways to explore it every day.  • YouTube Direct: Launched last fall, more. Working with three students YouTube Direct is an open source and several local news partners, we Steve Grove is the head of news and platform that enables news orga- are experimenting with a newsfeed of politics at YouTube. He developed nizations to request, review and citizen-reported videos to help news the CNN/YouTube debates and the rebroadcast news footage collected organizations locate relevant content. YouTube Direct citizen reporting on YouTube, right from their own And we’re working on a hyperlocal news platform. He tweets @grove and site. The Washington Post, ITN, partnership in San Francisco with CBS blogs at www.citizentube.com. ABC News, Gannett, the Tribune affiliate KPIX-TV to cover as much Company, The Huffington Post, and of the city’s news as possible through others have used the platform at citizen-reported videos. (Stay tuned www.youtube.com/direct to create to our news and political blog, www.

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 51 What’s Next for News?

Video Games: What They Can Teach Us About Audience Engagement ‘… we learn differently from content-driven media than we do from media driven by choice and problem solving.’

BY JAMES PAUL GEE

n our interconnected world, what entertainment-driven media—do not a player has to think about how the does it take to understand issues encourage wide-ranging reflections on laws of physics—for example the law like climate change or the global all sides of an issue. of conservation of momentum—can Ieconomic meltdown or events such With games, we learn best from a be used to manipulate the environ- as conflict in the Middle East? Tradi- well-designed guided experience. This ment. In Tactical Iraqi, a game that is tionally we have used news reporting means inhabiting virtual worlds that marketed for military and diplomatic and documentaries as well as novels. guide players to make choices, solve training, the player must be a soldier Another name for such providers is problems, and reflect on the results. in Iraq and learn to speak Iraqi Arabic content-driven media, which strings Players have to reflect because their in realistic settings without culturally together facts or fictions to report on insulting anyone. events or tell us stories. We learn from games quite differ- Video games are not content-driven ently than we do from news and books. media though they do have content. And we also learn from games quite They are driven by choices and differently than we learn in school problem solving. Content is there to where failure is a big deal. Not so in motivate player choices about how to games; just start over from the last solve problems. Our understanding or save. A low cost for failure ensures illumination comes through solving that players will take risks, explore problems or trying to solve them or and try new things. by realizing there are multiple ways Games are based on performance to solve them. Perhaps the problem before competence: learn by doing, is how to wage war in contemporary then read. School often is based on global conflicts (Full Spectrum War- competence before performance: learn rior), sneak past enemies (Metal Gear by reading, then maybe you get to Solid), manage a city (SimCity) or do. Players are able to understand a civilization (Civilization), or clean manuals and strategy guides because house and keep a family happy when they have experience with the game. you are a four-inch robot (Chibi-Robo). In Civilization, players manage a society’s In school, too often, students have not resources to ensure its survival. lived in the worlds described by the Learning Changes books they are reading (i.e., they have choices affect whether they win or lose. not “played” the game of biology, but Our expectation is similar with these Game designers create digital only read about it). different kinds of media; we expect to environments and game levels that Games let players practice skills learn new things, whether the source shape, facilitate and, yes, teach problem as part of larger goals they want to is news, novels, textbooks, movies or solving. For example, after playing accomplish; in school, kids are often games. But we learn differently from Chibi-Robo I know how to clean a skilled and drilled apart from any content-driven media than we do from house when you are only four inches meaningful context. Games make media driven by choice and problem tall and I know how the world looks players master skills through practice solving. In content-driven media we to a four-inch robot and what dilem- and then challenge that mastery with learn by being told and reflecting on mas he faces. In a real-time strategy a “boss battle,” forcing the player to what we are told. Of course it is not game like Rise of Nations, players learn something new and take mastery always easy to ensure that reflection have to make a decision like, “Should to the next stage. School can be too happens and some content produc- my civilization invest in technology challenging if kids are never allowed ers—especially in our polarized and now or wait 500 years?”. In Portal, to practice enough to attain mastery.

52 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 New News

Alternatively, schools too often fail to challenge the routine mastery of kids who get good grades. Finally, games encourage players to think about how they are designed—in order to beat them—and even to design games themselves through “modding,” in which they use tools that often come with games to make new levels or entirely new games. Schools rarely let kids design or redesign the curriculum.

Be Told or Be Involved

An example of this learning dichotomy can be found in a book and a game about what it is like to be poor. Barbara Ehrenreich, in her book “Nickel and When players engage in the Metal Gear series their goal is to solve problems, escape en- Dimed,” tells what it is like to be poor emies, and survive. by describing how hard a time she had, as a middle-class well-educated person, trying to get and keep low- problems (such as poverty—or it could or broadcast a report. level service jobs. She shows us how be global warming) depends a lot on Journalism is part of a content- she tried to solve problems, and as how the problem is set up and what driven media world. Both a news readers we are meant to learn through the rules are. Call them constraints, if story and a novel are meant to inform her experiences. you like. Along the way, they discover us and perhaps move us emotion- On the other hand, players in The that poverty is a system and that there ally. Maybe the novel offers a deeper Sims, which is the best-selling PC are different ways to view or simulate understanding than a more ephemeral game of all time, can challenge each (or discuss) that system. news story but in both cases content other to see if they can survive as a At a time of polarized, entertain- is being used to make us learn, think, poor single parent and get their kids ment-driven newspapers and in a know and perhaps feel. safely out of the house into young world replete with risky, dangerous and Games are about things, too, and adulthood and college. This isn’t easy complex systems, maybe it is better to have content; for example, the infa- to do in the game, which contains lots make a game as a way for people to mous Grand Theft Auto series of games of rules about what players can and engage and learn than it is to write is about crime. Sometimes games have cannot do in order to simulate the feel and difficulty of poverty. In assuming such a challenge, players learn by facing the problems themselves, as Ehrenreich did. And they can win or lose. One rule is that players cannot reverse a decision (e.g., quit a play session without saving the results), even if bad things have hap- pened or they’ve made bad choices. They have to live with the bad things. Of course, people cannot quit without “saving” what has happened ; they have to live with the consequences of what they’ve done or what has happened to them. Players are not learning from someone else’s experience; they are learning from their own. Yet these players are learning something beyond what it means to The Sims, which is the best-selling computer game, offers players open-ended scenarios be poor; they are learning that solving that mimic the challenges of real life.

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 53 What’s Next for News?

elaborate stories, sometimes they don’t. changed to placing flowers in a loved create effective games but recognizing But games are not about their content one’s car without being discovered, and that the player’s ability to absorb the in the way that a newscast or a novel the problem and its difficulty would information will likely rely more on is about its content. Games are about be the same. What matters are the what he does than what he reads.  problems to be solved by the player and problems and how a player responds. the content is there only to establish What makes a game good is not James Paul Gee is the Mary Lou what the problems are or to motivate content but the problems players Fulton Presidential Professor of players to solve them. solve and how they do so. If content Literacy Studies at Arizona State In one of the Grand Theft Auto contributes to this effort in ways University, author of “What Video games the player must sneak into that motivate, then it’s good to have. Games Have to Teach Us About a parking lot and, unseen, plant a Otherwise it is detrimental to the Learning and Literacy” and coauthor bomb in the trunk of a car and leave game or, at best, a distraction. Digital of “Women and Gaming: The Sims the scene without doing damage to media enable journalists to devise and 21st Century Learning,” both the getaway car. Our intuition about games as a platform for sharing news. published by Palgrave Macmillan. content-driven media tells us that this Doing this, however, requires not only is about a crime but the task could be knowing how to use the technology to

News-Focused Game Playing: Is It a Good Way to Engage People in an Issue? ‘Ultimately our challenge will be to determine which metrics for successful storytelling turn out to be most important in the digital environment.’

BY NORA PAUL AND KATHLEEN A. HANSEN

eporters employ sounds and images in place of text. Users engage with information and Rdata in ways that resemble how they play video games—manipulating in- teractive elements to create their own experience with the content. But what impact does such storytelling have on its audience—especially when the content is news? Journalists are experimenting with different presentations of online news even though there isn’t a lot of research to tell them whether such storytelling techniques work with news, or if they do, how and why. Some news stories are ripe candi- dates for creative multimedia storytell- ing. Two good examples are The New York Times’s graphic depiction of a crane accident and The Virginian- Pilot’s coverage of the challenges people with brain injuries face. Yet such coverage is often reserved Five ways to tell “boring but important” stories were tested in a study called “Playing the for long-term projects or compelling News.” Stories involving the use of ethanol for fuel were presented both in traditional ways news events. What happens with ongo- and as games to 197 participants in the study. While it features a graphical presentation, ing coverage of issues or with events the role playing game was the least effective of the five models tested.

54 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 New News that occur with consistency over time goal was to learn about the potential locations to visit and which characters and require that a thread of context for telling process-oriented stories in to question; at each location the player run through the storytelling? Matt accessible and absorbing ways. could click through multiple dialogue Thompson addressed aspects of this To do this, we tested five online boxes to get information from different digital challenge in “An Antidote for versions of stories about the issues perspectives. Web Overload” in the Fall 2009 issue of involved with using ethanol for The second approach used a game Nieman Reports. He observed how dif- fuel; two were presented in game board to expose each player to facts ficult it can be for readers—especially formats; the other three relied on and the perspectives of different younger ones—to tune into stories that more traditional formats. All versions stakeholders. The player was dealt are a part of ongoing news coverage contained the same information but cards, rolled the dice, and moved a of events or issues unfolding over each presented it very differently. marker to the appropriate area where time. The Associated Press affirmed Ethanol worked well as a topic an answer might be found. Once the this observation when it conducted a because of the differing perspectives player arrived there, all of the answer study to evaluate how best to engage we featured—from farmers, environ- cards were activated so the player young people in news reporting—and mentalists and legislators, to name a would see all of the information rel- devised a digital strategy to convey its few—and because it is often covered evant to that stakeholder’s perspective. news reporting in more inviting and as an ongoing, process-oriented story. Then the player was asked to select accessible ways. It was also one of those “boring but the right answer, based on what he important” stories that was perfect, had learned. Playing the News in our estimation, to test whether a We created three other formats more engaging presentation would help based on standard news Web sites. A few years ago the Knight News Chal- people find their way into the story. In one version, the information about lenge awarded us $250,000 for a two- In one game the player or the per- ethanol as fuel was shown as a con- year study designed to explore what son coming to the news story moved ventional analysis/explanatory story in would happen when news-focused around in a simulated environment news-column format. In another, we games were devised with the purpose of comprised of people who provided presented the same information but engaging an audience. We named our facts and various perspectives about organized the material by topics, (e.g., proposal “Playing the News,” and our the issue. Each player could choose Quick Facts, Ethanol: Government)

The most highly rated format, left, organized the material in the ethanol story by topic and provided a summary for each topic with links to related content. The board game model, above, proved to be one of the more effec- tive designs tested so the authors released it as an iPhone app.

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 55 What’s Next for News?

and provided a summary under each survey. We wanted to determine their sures. From participants’ comments it topic with links to related content. Our interest in the topic, their knowledge was clear that when people seek news last approach presented the informa- about it, and their engagement with they want to acquire the information tion as a simplified blurb—serving as and opinions about the story format quickly and easily. While this kind of a headline for this topic—with a set of they saw. simulation game is effective in teach- links, in reverse chronological order, ing and training, it did not appear to to the news organization’s stories What Worked? be a viable way to present information about ethanol. for a casual news audience. To test the various digital-story With the measuring tools we used to formats, we recruited 197 people who assess their responses, we arrived at Board Game: The board game tested ranged in age from their teens to their some conclusions about what worked well as far as the amount of infor- late 70s. Slightly more than half were and what didn’t work with each of mation read and whether or not the women. The participants, randomly these five formats: experience was fun. Based on the assigned to one of the five formats, feedback we received, the board/quiz spent as much time as they liked Simulation Game: This version ranked style game seemed to be an effective with the material before filling out a the lowest on virtually all of our mea- and engaging way to present an array

Playing the News Moves Into the Classroom

What we learned in our Knight News Think, too, about asking students a coherent way and create catego- Challenge grant project Playing the to brainstorm about story-focused ries that accurately and effectively News informs the way we teach games designed for a news Web site. describe the threads of news report- our journalism students. While This will tap into the experiences ing. The obvious next step is for incorporating Web story design and of these digital natives who have students to create a topic-organized structure into reporting and writing a much more tenuous connection Web page that could guide people classes is imperative, it isn’t enough to news stories told in traditional through content that has appeared to simply translate story content into ways. Many of our Playing the News over time in coverage of a topic in formats that allow for interactivity. participants were attracted to the the news. We need to enlist student journalists board-style game as a way of con- Even in our school’s basic reporting in inventing digital story forms that necting to news so this format might and writing classes, students learn take full advantage of the Web in be worth pursuing to convey certain the strengths and weaknesses of ways that provide the context that types of information. telling stories using different forms people want. There could be no one better to and with various tools. When they To do this, build in at least create and test such news games pitch a story idea, they are asked one assignment in which students than those whose peers are part of to describe the form they think will create a topic-organized page of the audience that news organizations work best to tell the story. A blog? content to guide readers through want to attract. At the University of Slideshow? A Google map? What is the complexities of an issue or Minnesota School of Journalism and likely to be the best way to guide coverage of an ongoing controversy. Mass Communication, we teach a readers into and through a story This exercise helps students develop course called Convergence Journal- and engage them with its content? valuable synthesizing skills as they ism. Our students use contemporary Perhaps traditional text will work create topic categories that will shed digital tools to learn about and best. Or a combination of forms light on the major points or themes experiment with various news story might be tried with various story that connect stories across time. forms and storytelling strategies. elements presented in different ways. This requires higher-order thinking In the content analysis exercise, As storytelling forms evolve, we that instructors shouldn’t assume students are assigned readings and want journalism students to be on students already have. The ability required to complete a content the front lines of experimentation. to take a bird’s-eye view of multiple analysis of news to demonstrate their Yet we also want them to know the stories over a period of time and understanding of the topic of the value of gathering information about find a way to make sense of them week. To complete this assignment what works as they evaluate their is crucial—and challenging. students organize news content in options. —N.P. and K.A.H.

56 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 New News of information about such a topic. The perspectives and ongoing coverage. As news organizations look for ways amount of time people spent online was For lighter topics such as “Should I to create content and develop online also the highest with this version—an get a cat or a dog?” or trivia, a news experiences that are valued, these important measure for news organiza- game might be more appropriate. results should be kept in mind. With tions looking to sell their audience to Much of the appeal of a news game younger readers, in particular, who advertisers. Because this game seemed would be in enabling multiple play- report feeling lost in their attempt attractive to the audience, we created ers to move through the game at the to follow ongoing process stories, a mobile version of it for the iPhone; same time, thus adding a competitive such topic-organized pages could be a since January more than 1,000 people element—and this is something our promising way to engage readers and have downloaded the free app. games didn’t have. build brand loyalty. As we developed these game sys- Right now the opportunities news Traditional News Story: This format tems, we started to see interesting organizations have to tell digital stories proved effective for getting people to opportunities for these projects to far exceed the knowledge that any of read about the topic in detail. People generate revenue, such as by embed- us have about how these choices affect also said they would think the audience’s experience. Yet highly of a news organization research such as ours is start- that presented information in ing to provide clues. Our hope this familiar way. ... the opportunities news organizations is that news organizations will seek out such information Topic-Organized Facts and have to tell digital stories far exceed the as they expand their use of Links: This method of ab- multimedia and information sorbing information was by knowledge that any of us have about visualization. far the favorite approach of how these choices affect the audience’s Ultimately our challenge those we tested. People found will be to determine which it an excellent way to present experience. metrics for successful story- news about serious topics; this telling turn out to be most format interested them in the important in the digital envi- topic more than the way news ronment. We already know stories are usually presented. that this can be a complicated They also found that the information ding sponsorships, coupons and other picture. For example, what our research was easier to understand compared similar elements. This is an area ripe reveals is that while one style might with a traditional news story. Those for testing in the next iteration of have the greatest impact in one area assigned to this format were also most the study. (e.g., time spent online) another has likely to say they learned something The most compelling finding was impact in another area (e.g., “I learned new about the topic. It also gener- the popularity of the topic-organized something new.”). ated the most positive responses to format. For ongoing, process-oriented Digital storytelling possibilities the statement “I would think highly news stories, readers appear to want often seem limitless as new tools of a news organization that presented to have their experience be guided, in emerge with a rapidity that can outpace stories this way.” this case, by journalists. This speaks our knowledge of their effectiveness. to the curatorial function that many Yet efforts are underway that can Blurb With Reverse-Chronologically- news organizations are starting to provide guidance, ours being one of Organized Collection of Links: This explore. The curated version helped them. And news organizations—as format generated the most negative re- them in absorbing the big picture and they experiment with these new action of the three traditional methods then they relied on the topic-organized storytelling formats, as surely they of presenting a news story. It turned facts and links to point them toward must do—might want to take a look out to be the least-engaging format additional, in-depth information. Our at what is known about which form and made the information harder participants’ experiences coincide works well for which story.  to understand. Those who received with what Thompson discovered information in this way would not when people used his experimental, Nora Paul and Kathleen A. Hansen think highly of the news organization. context-laden Web sites, The Money teach in the School of Journalism & Keep in mind that this is a common Meltdown (www.themoneymeltdown. Mass Communication at the Univer- way that news organizations digitally com) and Columbia Tomorrow (www. sity of Minnesota. Playing the News, display their archive of stories for columbiatomorrow.com). And when a their research project, was funded ongoing coverage. news organization presented informa- by the John S. and James L. Knight tion in this way—as our curated site Foundation’s News Challenge grant A game format clearly is not a good did, readers expressed a high level of program from 2007 to 2009. fit for news stories involving differing satisfaction.

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 57 WHAT’S NEXT FOR NEWS? | Hacks + Hackers

Hacks/Hackers: Bringing Journalists and Technologists Together ‘We’re all trying to figure out what works, and that’s really the key to innovation: a tolerance for failure and embrace of experimentation.’

BY BURT HERMAN

he scene is often an airy loft in a blend of hope and curiosity. I had on Meetup as a way to build a com- San Francisco’s South of Market just completed a Knight Journalism munity of journalists and technolo- area where technologists typically fellowship at Stanford University after gists. I wanted “hacker”—a term that Tgather to talk about their latest start-up a dozen years as a bureau chief and embodies the spirit of an engineer who venture, share ideas, and demonstrate correspondent for The Associated does whatever it takes to get the job new digital tools. The scent of pizza Press. At Stanford, I studied innova- done—in the group’s name. “Hack,” wafts through the room while people tion and entrepreneurship so I could as slang for journalist, worked in a Twitter away on smartphones. learn what makes Silicon Valley tick tongue-in-cheek self-deprecating way. Hacks/Hackers gatherings are dif- and apply those lessons to journalism. Hacks/Hackers was born. ferent: Journalists are now in the mix, After the fellowship, I remained in the It turns out I wasn’t the first per- not to get quotes for stories but to San Francisco Bay Area to experiment son to happen upon this name. Two discuss the future of media in hopes with my own projects and find part- journalism leaders, Aron Pilhofer and that in this time of upheaval a way ners who shared my passion for the Richard Gordon, who were working to forward can be found. intersection of media and technology. bring technology into the newsroom, Hacks/Hackers was born out of In November I started a group also had proposed an online com- munity called Hacks and Hackers. Pilhofer, editor for interactive news at The New York Times, leads the team that builds the Web site’s data-driven applications. Gordon, associate profes- sor and director of digital innovation at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, oversees a scholarship program for computer programmers to earn a master’s degree in journalism and collaborate with j-school students in the process.1 At a conference last year in Cam- bridge, Massachusetts, organized by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the MIT Center for Future Civic Media, Pilhofer and Gordon pitched the idea of creating a Hacks and Hackers Web site for this emerging community of journal- ists, programmers and journalist/ Eric Rodenbeck, founder and creative director of Stamen Design, speaks at a Hacks/Hack- programmers. ers event in San Francisco. Photo by Burt Herman. As our gatherings in San Francisco

1 Read about what Gordon’s students produced in the Fall 2009 issue of Nieman Reports at www.niemanreports.org

58 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 Hacks + Hackers got underway, journalists noted the Association; similar gatherings are company was guided by the fundamen- coincidence of our names on Twitter in the planning stages for New York tal philosophy that “the open exchange so we reached out to each other. All of and Chicago. of information has a positive impact us recognized the benefit of bringing Toward the end of May, we met on the world.” together people from these disparate in San Francisco—partnering with Still, the conversations between fields to use technology to help find KQED, the most listened to NPR hacks and hackers haven’t always been and tell stories in the public interest. station in the country—to build news harmonious. At a Hacks/Hackers panel Since then, Hacks/Hackers has applications for the iPad and tablet in February with companies that build launched a blog (http://hackshackers. devices. Part journalistic exercise, personalized news aggregation sites, com) and a question-and-answer Web part hack weekend, the journalists entrepreneurs faced a barrage of ques- site (http://help.hackshackers.com) were charged with finding a story to tions about how to fairly compensate where leading technologists and jour- tell while the engineers brought their content creators for their work. But nalists from across the world respond insights and tools to find new ways to the panelists themselves admitted to questions and share ideas. We’ve tell a story. At the end of the weekend, that they weren’t making any money. been thrilled at how much interest the they presented their work to an expert We’re all trying to figure out what Q. and A. site has generated since its panel including a venture capitalist, works, and that’s really the key to launch in mid-April. start-up CEO, and journalists. innovation: a tolerance for failure In the Bay Area, we’ve held monthly It turns out that technology people and embrace of experimentation. At events that have brought together are often news junkies. The most its core, that’s what Hacks/Hackers dozens of people from companies such skilled hackers are good at what they is all about.  as Google, Yahoo!, Twitter, the San do because they can quickly consume Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury information and learn how to do Burt Herman has reported from News, and Current Media, along with something new. Hackers, like journal- around the world as a bureau chief other technology and media start-ups ists, believe strongly in freedom of and correspondent for The Associ- and freelancers. Events are spreading information, embodied in the open ated Press. A 2008-2009 John S. to more cities. In early May a group nature of the Internet. When Twitter Knight journalism fellow at Stanford got together in Washington, D.C. in held its first conference for developers University, he tweets @burtherman. partnership with the Online News in April, CEO Evan Williams said the

Joining Digital Forces Strengthens Local Investigative Reporting ‘Our goal is to build online tools that the people can easily use to enhance their ability as watchdogs—whether they are citizens or journalists.’

BY BRANT HOUSTON

uring the past year journalists, essential beats. There are hyperlocal capable of shaping and channel- citizens and even some govern- and online citizen efforts, but they too ing those streams so they can be ment officials have focused on need more resources and tools. better understood and more easily Dthe need to replenish the diminishing Digital media’s capabilities might analyzed. amount of investigative reporting done provide ways to hold public agencies • Collaboration between journalists, nationally and at statehouses. But accountable while expanding journal- computer programmers, and infor- there hasn’t been as much concern ists’ role as community watchdogs. This mation scientists helps journalists expressed about the reduction of public potential comes from several sources: and citizens use these tools more accountability journalism in cities and effectively. suburbs, rural areas, and counties. And • Ever increasing streams of infor- when this topic is discussed, few vi- mation—including public record Mining Public Data able solutions are emerging at a time databases—are now available online when metro and local papers struggle from local public agencies. While local government agencies often to simply cover breaking news and • A drive to create digital tools deny traditional requests for informa-

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 59 What’s Next for News?

tion and documents, the levees they isolated community. They find out ing public officials’ comments, public built—and maintain—to restrict access what the pressing issues are and use documents, news articles and blogs, are broken. Much digital information digital tools to help community mem- a comparison could show whether that the public has a right to see now bers enhance their knowledge about and how well the city responded to tumbles over and flows around those the problems and strategize ways to the neighborhood’s concerns—and it restrictive practices. So our challenge solve them. could also discover the public officials’ resides in collecting and channeling Part of their approach relies on text- excuses. With this approach, residents what can be massive amounts of data mining tools that can reveal key words could see for themselves what else was so they can be understood. and clusters of words. By applying happening when city officials ignored Our goal is to build online tools these digital tools—many of which are their complaints or stalled in taking that people can easily use to enhance open source programs—to the realms action. They could easily find out what their ability as watchdogs—whether of government documents and public project or neighborhood the city’s they are citizens or journalists. To comments, we can visualize where the resources are going to. Could it be one do this, computer programmers are interests of constituents and public in which the residents are wealthier creating and journalists are using officials diverge (and, on occasion, and thus have more influence with digital tools to make visible data and converge). For example, comments local officials? documents so that people can analyze made about particular issues at public Contrasts and disparities could be and share the information they find, meetings, neighborhood gatherings, visualized on a computer screen or and the John S. and James L. Knight in blogs, and on Twitter or Facebook mobile device in numerous ways. It Foundation has been a key player in are easily searchable. Along with this might be shown as two bar charts— this area, especially through its chal- information are data and documents one a measurement of frequency and lenge programs. produced by local government officials intensity and even emotional depth At the University of Illinois at that address the same issues. These can of citizen concern and one showing Urbana-Champaign where I teach be found in agendas and minutes of the paucity of official comment and investigative journalism, I am working meetings and hearings, in press releases action. Or it could be two fever lines with a small team of programmers at and reports about regulatory actions, displayed over time—with the citizen the National Center for Supercom- and in the budgets and databases of line soaring on the graph while the puting Applications to develop an public agencies. official line stays low or dips. Maps easy-to-use mashup of analysis and could be created using data analysis visualization programs for public Linking Complaints With of budgets and information about pro- documents. Our organizing principle Action posed and completed projects to show is that journalists and citizens will use neighborhoods that are receiving little this mashup ability to do retrospective Digital techniques either exist or or no attention and the ones that are. and real-time comparisons of what the are being developed to collate and The social network of citizen activ- public is concerned about and how analyze this kind of information to ity—snapshots of who is connected the government is responding—or not find patterns, to map the information to whom—also could be visualized responding—to their concerns. geographically, to learn what social by connecting the dots between the At the same time, I’m learning networks are involved, and to visual- public officials and their political about work being done in the Com- ize this information over time. So far, connections and friends. Again, each munity Informatics Initiative at the however, neither journalists nor citi- of these analyses and contrasts could university’s Graduate School of Library zens are extensively using these tools. be visualized over time. In addition, and Information Science. (Informatics Sometimes this is because the software Web crawlers can be developed that encompasses the study of informa- isn’t easy to learn and manage. And would go after various documents and tion science, information technology, programs that more sharply contrast download them into a central cloud algorithms and social science.) Part of public concern and the government’s computing location on the Web. Then the initiative’s mission is to partner response and activity still need to be the mashup of analytical tools, guided with citizens to develop information developed. by a journalist or citizen—using key- technologies and to create access to For example, with the right mix words and clusters of words—could those technologies through community of programs in place, citizens would go to work on mining the informa- networks. complain about flooding in their tion. The result would be a host of I am discovering a lot of common neighborhood in public hearings, on visualizations. ground between journalism and a Web site, in social networks, blogs informatics, especially as I work on or letters to local media. Diligent text Collaborative Approach a Champaign-Urbana Citizen Access mining of that public comment could project to look at local poverty issues. show who and where it is coming from What is needed is a dashboard from Those involved with informatics often and whether comments and frustration which a journalist or citizen could do their work in a low-income or have increased over time. By text-min- drive their inquiries, choosing their

60 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 Hacks + Hackers routes to come up with findings and informatics gain a deep understanding directed to explanatory data through creating information and datasets on of community issues; using computer online links. And all of this can be their neighborhoods and issues. Once training centers, they push to make done at a cost that even an upstart, topics are chosen, data flows and alerts technology available in underserved hyperlocal Web site can afford.  could be set up to enable people to stay neighborhoods. current on comments and actions by With computer programmers, infor- Brant Houston holds the John S. and automatically creating updates. matics experts, and journalists working James L. Knight Foundation Chair All of this is good in theory but together, government accountability in Investigative and Enterprise what is then needed is to get the tools can be strengthened on a local level Reporting in the journalism depart- to the journalists and particularly beyond what it’s been when reporters ment in the College of Media at the to the people in the communities. have been on their own as watchdogs. University of Illinois at Urbana- That’s where journalistic collaboration Now what targeted digital searches Champaign. For the previous decade with those in informatics can take by local residents reveal can launch a he served as the executive director of the effort to another level. Through totally new realm of story ideas and Investigative Reporters and Editors. fieldwork and research, experts in once a story is told, readers can be

The Peril and Promise of the Semantic Web What is the role of the journalist as computers become more adept at pulling together data from different sources?

BY ANDREW FINLAYSON

n the movie “Terminator,” humanity using pieces of the semantic Web will quickly and effectively, particularly if started down the path to destruc- increasingly report much of the news information is constantly changing. tion when a supercomputer called in the not too distant future. You might think that Google ISkynet started to become smarter on algorithms do a fine job of finding its own. I was reminded of that pos- What Is the Semantic Web? information and organizing the Web. sibility during my research about the Yet the vision of semantic Web advo- semantic Web. It doesn’t help that the semantic Web cates is so big that it dwarfs Google Never heard of the semantic Web? is such a wide-ranging concept that in complexity and reach and starts I don’t blame you. Much of it is still even advocates can’t quite agree on to sound like a science fiction movie. in the lab, the plaything of academ- what it is; that’s not surprising, given These semantic Web visionaries would ics and computer scientists. To hear that semantics has to do with the very like humans to work with machines to some of them debate it, the semantic meaning of words and symbols. The make the data we create more easily Web will evolve, like Skynet, into an most general definition I can offer accessible and analyzed. This is the all powerful thing that can help us is that the semantic Web speaks to fundamental difference between linked understand our world or create various how we are moving from a Web of documents (what Google does) and crises when it starts to develop a form documents to a Web of linked data. linked data. Tim Berners-Lee, who of connected intelligence. One might say documents are data invented the World Wide Web, says Intrigued? I was. Particularly when and that would be correct. The chal- the semantic Web will give informa- I asked computer scientists about how lenge is that the World Wide Web was tion “… a well-defined meaning, better this concept could change journalism in designed for humans, not machines. enabling computers and people to work the next five years. The true believers The Internet is like a digital filing in cooperation.” say the semantic Web could help jour- cabinet overflowing with all sorts of The ways this machine-friendly data nalists report complex ever-changing documents, videos and pictures that can be created vary in complexity and stories and reach new audiences. The people can consume but machines just as you may not know exactly how critics doubt the semantic Web will can’t read or understand. This means your computer creates documents and be anything but a high-tech fantasy. that an avalanche of facts and figures, stores them on your hard drive, you But even some of the doubters are photographs and so on is simply may never need to enter the world that willing to speculate that computers inaccessible or cannot be organized uses words like “taxonomy” and its

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 61 What’s Next for News?

close relation “ontology” or new tech using organized data. The trouble is where they are still hoping for terms like RDF (Resource Description that while WolframAlpha is very smart a new toaster. Their Facebook Framework) and SPARQL. Let’s just answering some database-related profile says they honeymooned say that the first two speak to how queries, its limited supply of data at Disneyland where they shared we can organize and find meaning in sets means that on many common these photos. statements inside documents and the questions it is quite dumb. second set has to do with the language The semantic Web hopes to address Right now it is difficult to do this, of machines, how we can express the this by asking everyone to help stan- although Facebook is encouraging relationship between different data, dardize data descriptions so that the people to consider such concepts with and how we can request structured Web becomes a giant shared database. their recent announcements about data that has been optimized for use There are several government efforts linking data. The more data that are by machines. These concepts are being in the United States and the United made public and computer friendly, slowly incorporated into the Web and Kingdom (including one headed by the more viable this idea becomes. will, so the advocates say, give the Web Berners-Lee) that will open up govern- To return to our example, if someone the smarts it lacks. ment data for anyone to use as they see buys Mary and John their toaster, the If machines can look at all docu- fit. This effort will unlock a treasure semantic Web and use of linked data ments and pull out the who, what, trove that journalists can analyze with would allow our computer-generated when and where (and someday how and the potential to inspire thousands of story to automatically update to include why) so other machines can understand new stories. Reporters familiar with their continued need for a fondue set them in a standardized way, then all the semantic Web concept will soon and their new address in San Francisco. sorts of interesting opportunities arise use automated research tools that for how that information can be found identify patterns, local connections, The Threat to Some News and used. Names and places and ideas and even conflicts of interest without and even emotions expressed in stories having to painfully acquire and load After talking to dozens of computer become much more than just words in piles of data into spreadsheets. scientists, I am concerned that a one story; they become the way that all But if semantic Web tools become significant amount of what passes for of the information in many documents robot helpers for journalists, could news—why people pick up the paper or can be linked and layered together to the technology become so smart it watch a newscast—can be produced by create new documents and stories. will replace some reporters? Yes and machines that pull together data from Does it sound like a super sophis- no. Even advocates of the semantic a variety of sources and organize— ticated mashup, where data from Web say machines will not be able even personalize—it for the consumer. different sources such as police crime tell complex stories with nuances Certainly sports information (including reports and maps are combined to show and context or convey emotion or video of the winning home run) and exactly where arrests have occurred? insights any time soon. However, weather and financial news will often Yes, but police reports are simply the there is a range of stories that could be presented to our readers and view- very tip of the huge amount of data be told by computer programs pulling ers by semantic Web-related software generated every day that might be of data from various sources. Imagine if programs that can assimilate data interest to your readers or viewers if data from wedding licenses could be directly from the source and instantly only you could get your hands on it combined with the educational and present it to consumers, no newspaper and process it in a meaningful way. birth certificates of the happy couple editor or TV producer needed. Doubt Reports on the number of flu cases, along with weather statistics and their this possibility? If you search Google level of foreclosures, employment bridal registry or Facebook page. A for a city’s weather, it will give you statistics, and home prices, if they computer could then write a typical the answer without sending you to a followed semantic Web standards, wedding announcement: weather-related page on a news site. could accurately and objectively (and One of the original grand visions automatically) reflect the constantly Mary Smith, 23, a recent jour- for the semantic Web was that by changing health of the neighborhoods nalism graduate of Stanford standardizing information so comput- in your community. University born in Los Angeles, ers can read it, machines could start Some efforts are giving us a look and John Doe, 25, a graduate to be our personal agents, anticipating into the future with sophisticated student at the University of our needs, and seeking out informa- computers that can find data, see how California at Berkeley Graduate tion on our behalf, helping to plan the they fit with other data, and answer School of Journalism born in perfect trip to Paris based on our past queries with a previously unattainable New York City, were married preferences (a love of art or fashion, level of accuracy and relevance. You at St. Mary’s Cathedral in San for example, would be combined with might have heard of the WolframAlpha Francisco on Tuesday, April 20, the latest data on art shows and stores search engine unveiled last year. The 2010 under sunny skies. They offering sales during your vacation) goal is to generate better answers are registered at Crate & Barrel or to pull in data to solve problems

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For a Start-up, Machine-Generated Stories Are the Name of the Game

For a partner in a start-up specializing financially feasible for local newspa- reporters observe by being on the in stories written by machines, the pers to cover Little League games or scene but Hammond said that a only downside to attracting coverage a college publication to cover all of computer can make a judgment by in Bloomberg Businessweek was the its team’s softball games but Nar- studying the data. One machine- headline: “Are Sportswriters Really rative Science, given accurate game generated game story suggested that Necessary?” statistics, could provide stories. the pitcher’s excellent performance “We want to augment what is out One of Narrative Science’s first during that game indicated that he there rather than to replace what is customers is the Big Ten Network, might be coming out of a slump. already being done,” said Kristian a college sports television network. Hammond sees a lot of potential Hammond, a partner in Narrative Scorekeepers from Northwestern for Narrative Science in business Science and director of Northwest- and other participating teams e-mail reporting. Journalists report on only ern University’s Medill/McCormick data to Narrative Science and the about 350 of the 6,000 publicly held Center for Innovation in Technology, computer-generated story appears companies in the United States. Media and Journalism. online in minutes. (The college paper, Computers could mine financial Narrative Science has licensed The Daily Northwestern, covers only transactions to cover many more. software that enables computers to about 25 percent of the season’s “Machines can give voice to the stories write stories about sporting events baseball games.) that are in these data repositories,” based on data they assimilate and Of course machine-generated he said. —Jan Gardner analyze. For example, it may not be stories cannot offer the details that

(recommending the quickest way to then act on one way to describe data computers) and instead write headlines work given the weather, traffic and is going to happen only when there with full names, places and descrip- planned road work). Imagine your local are compelling economic reasons or tions of action, we are in effect tagging traffic reporters replaced by the science it becomes so easy to do that there content for the machines, which in fiction vision of your own version of is no reason not to. turn should help more people find HAL 9000 who might not open the A number of news organizations, our reporting. If you use Delicious or garage doors if the conditions outside however, are already betting that tag photos on Flickr, you are likewise are unsafe to drive in. making their stories more machine doing the work of the semantic Web The good news for local radio sta- friendly will pay off. The New York by making content computer friendly. tion traffic reporters is that the Web Times, the BBC, and Thomson Reuters is messy and filled with contradictory have embraced various facets of the Looking Ahead and unclear information that still semantic Web. Thomson Reuters is needs human interpretation. Semantic making a separate business of it by This move toward semantic publish- Web advocates know the Internet offering a way to tag stories, extracting ing will, I forecast, over the next five will remain confusing for machines information such as places and names years encourage the linking together because we humans keep changing it so they can be more easily found and of many kinds of Web content. Data in unexpected ways, not to mention linked to other data. Applying semantic will be easily gathered and Web our habit of inventing new words and Web ideas to a news archive should, users will reuse the information and meaning. If our use of poor grammar in theory, allow that data to be used interpret it in their own ways. Such and slang is not enough, the develop- and reused by the news organization a world will challenge our notions of ment of the semantic Web faces another and the world at large, reason enough copyright law, fair use, and privacy as challenge. Many people, particularly for The New York Times to invest in data start to flow without attribution those who would have to pay to have just such an effort. or even verification. You can speculate their business apply semantic Web This enhanced findability is the that someday in the next 10 years concepts, do not see the immediate most practical and immediate reason machines combining parts of stories benefit of such an effort. Even if major for journalists to pay attention to the will commit libel by omitting critical corporations embrace it, given that the semantic Web movement. When we context from data they have gathered Web is the result of millions of minds stop writing clever headlines for the and presented. each with their own standards and Web (you might have been told puns While the semantic Web promises goals, getting everyone to agree and are for humans and mean nothing to a world where machines can combine

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 63 What’s Next for News?

data from an infinite number of communities. Humans still will be Stanford University where he studied sources for us—perhaps someday with needed to analyze and use the data to the semantic Web, video streaming, a Skynet avatar delivering customized tell stories. In this way, the semantic social media, and mobile tech- news based on where you are and Web might not be a technology that nologies. He is a former director of what you are doing—the real promise hastens the end of journalism but online content for the Fox Television for journalists is that it should soon instead offers a new beginning.  Stations and author of “Questions offer us easy access to thousands of That Work” a book about succeeding sources of raw data that we will use Andrew Finlayson was a 2009-2010 in work by asking questions that has to tell meaningful stories about our John S. Knight journalism fellow at been translated into four languages.

Journalism on the Map: A Case for Location-Aware Storytelling ‘Every place has a story, and every story has a place.’

BY KRISSY CLARK

“To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.” — Philosopher Simone Weil

nce upon a time I had a vision in the Utah desert and saw the future of journalism. (At least, Opart of its future.) The vision came while I was deliriously hot, driving west of Salt Lake City across a vast stretch of land where almost nobody lives. But there was this house off in the distance. What was it doing there? I couldn’t stop wondering. Who lived in it? Why? It was a familiar feeling, one that fuels my journalism—a deep curiosity about a place and the people who inhabit it. In my delirium, I had the strange Places have stories to tell, and technology is likely to help us connect what we see—like this urge to click on the house as a person old barn—with stories about people and events that happened here. Photo by Krissy Clark. might click on a hyperlink. I wanted to find out more about the house, its inhabitants, and the desert surround- the first road trip to shape my vision most of all the land surrounding the ing it. This urge was delusional, of of journalism. I became a journalist San Francisco Bay, where our family course. The landscape is not made of via road trips. In the late 1980’s, my has lived since 1848. I was navigator, hyperlinks; we can’t click on things father and I took a series of drives squinting over maps, fingering shore- we see in the world to learn more on weekends, together in his beat-up lines, and tracing roads. As I looked about them. brown Mercedes. I was young and out the window, my dad told stories At least, six years ago, when I had curious; he was old and sick with the of what we saw. this vision, we couldn’t. emphysema that would later kill him Down that road, in the little town Before I go any further, let me back when I was in high school. We drove of Birds Landing, were the ruins of up. This drive through Utah was not because he had things to show me, my great-great-grandfather’s store,

64 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 Hacks + Hackers which supplied gold-seeking forty- Mapping the Journey thoughts of people who have stood niners. (Now the building sits in the where you’re standing. shadow of an industrial wind farm.) There is another thing all those road • Yelp and Urbanspoon let you use Up that hill, on Vallejo Street in San trips taught me. Maps are powerful the camera and GPS on the iPhone Francisco, was where my dad and tools. In fact I’ve come to believe that to create a window of augmented his mother before him grew up. (My the best journalism is like a map. It reality that displays comments about great-grandparents moved into the shows where you are in relation to oth- the restaurant in front of you. house after their original house was ers; it provides a sense of topography • EveryBlock reveals data including damaged in the 1906 earthquake.) and can show the best path forward. crime statistics, property values, Past that tollbooth—see it through the Whatever the purpose is of a particular and municipal permit applications fog?—was the place where as teenagers, piece of journalism—breaking a story, on a city block. my dad and his best friend climbed investigating corruption, giving voice up the base of the Golden Gate Bridge to the voiceless—when the job is done All of this is useful information. But (or so they told us) while it was under well, a new place in this world emerges as a journalist it’s worth considering construction. or new understanding of a familiar two things: Too much information can It was on these trips that I first fell one is gained. Effective storytell- be too much of a good thing, if it’s in love with a place and its people, ing helps citizens and communities not vetted and curated. And a place’s and I understood that a landscape is discover where they are (sometimes story is more than the sum of its data. made of stories over time, layer upon by examining who they are). From In other words, facts and tweets and layer, like geologic strata. there, they can better decide where user-generated encyclopedia entries A year after graduating from col- they want to go. and reviews are not the only things lege, I saved up for a bicycle ride And so I come back to that vision to know about a place. There are also across America with my best friend. I had in the desert on that sweltering well-researched, well-crafted stories: We pedaled from California to Mas- drive through Utah when I noticed that the dramas, hopes and concerns of the sachusetts and camped in the yards faraway house and wanted to click on people who live there and the forces of people we met along the way. We it. While that would have seemed a that affect them. had breakfast with roughnecks living ridiculous idea a decade ago, now it is At such a challenging time for large off the gas boom in Wyoming. nearly possible. Look in your purse or journalism, this is good news. The noise and lights from their rigs pocket. There’s a good chance you’ve Now imagine this scenario. I’m kept the town up at night. We stayed got a smartphone in there—equipped driving down Interstate 80 through with a family who raised hogs in Min- not only with Internet access but also the Utah desert and I see a house. I nesota but struggled to compete with with GPS, a compass, and an acceler- wonder about it. So I point my phone corporate farms. We rode through an ometer. It can tell you where you are, in its direction and click; I find a story, impoverished Indian reservation and help you get to where you’re headed, perhaps from The Salt Lake Tribune, met locals who hoped a casino might and even let you know how fast you about the man who built it. Maybe help. We hit the Atlantic Ocean, and are going in getting there. he worked at the Wendover Air Force I didn’t want to stop. Technology like this is changing Base, where the Enola Gay crew trained But I had figured out that what I the media landscape, and the shift before they dropped the first atomic liked doing—meeting people, asking has got me thinking hard about the weapon in 1945. And the desert sur- them questions, learning about the actual landscape under our feet—the rounding this house? Courtesy of the joys and frustrations of the places streets and land we live on, and the Deseret News, I learn that the land they lived—had something to do with layers of stories heaped upon them. may soon be home to a radioactive journalism. Since then, over the course Every place has a story, and every waste dump, just over the ridge over of my career I have let these instincts story has a place. there. A few miles behind me, that’s and values guide me. I have been a So what can that gadget in your where a skydiver fell from the clouds student of how land shapes people car or pocket tell you about a place and broke his pelvis last summer. And and how people shape the land. I’ve right now? The answer: a lot of facts, the town up the road may look sleepy, learned to ask simple questions that figures and user-generated reviews. but in the last few years it has had often lead to surprising answers—and the highest job growth in the nation. interesting stories. Why did San • An application called Wikitude Imagine pointing your smartphone Francisco become the gay-friendliest allows you to point your phone in at the desert and hearing a stream of city? What happens to a cow town the direction of a mountain range stories about the people who live and when the cows are all gone? What or historic building and read a work nearby. Imagine clicking on the drives a city to court a nuclear bomb Wikipedia entry about it. things you see in the world as though factory? What is it like to live in the • Twitter and Foursquare and Gowalla they are hyperlinks. Imagine hear- foreclosure capital of the U.S.? can show the tweets and fleeting ing a podcast as you move through

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 65 What’s Next for News?

a landscape that would tell you the beach when she heard my radio story where narratives are draped on a stories of that place. about a 97-year-old man who flies landscape, and the news of a region homemade kites there. She found him is not just about what’s new. Place Telling the Stories of a Place and introduced herself. Then there provides an alternative organizing was my friend who told me he caught principle for journalism, prompting Every place has a thousand stories my story about the drought’s effects questions about what forces—eco- that can help us understand our on Lake Mead just as he was driving nomic, political, environmental, world and make decisions as citizens. past the reservoir toward Las Vegas. cultural, personal—shape one spot in Journalists tell these stories every day Those intersections of story and the world. “Where” has always been and news organizations have archives place were just lucky coincidences. one of the fundamental questions full of them. But there could be more We could build tools that ensure those guiding journalists, along with who, efficient, effective and creative ways moments. By harnessing the fleeting what, when, why and how. Now the to link these stories to the places but powerful investment that people answers to those questions—in the where they are rooted. Reporters and have in a place when they are physi- form of stories—might soon emanate newsrooms could geotag their stories cally in it, we fuel curiosity and give from the landscape itself. “If these and archives in a coordinated way so deeper meaning to what is discovered. walls could talk,” the saying goes. I’m that when someone goes to a particular We live at a time and in a world here to tell you: They can.  place or looks at a map of that place, in which people can become so glued she could get an aggregate of relevant, to their gadgets they forget the place Krissy Clark is a contributing well-researched content. where they are standing. But a reporter producer for American Public I’ve gotten glimmers of the power equipped with the right geospatial Media’s documentary unit, American of telling a story at precisely the right devices has a unique opportunity to RadioWorks. She is based in San time and place and heard back about reconnect people to place. Francisco and was a 2009-2010 how the experience enriched my audi- Combine storytelling skills with John S. Knight journalism fellow ence’s understanding. A few years ago, location-aware tools, and the interac- at Stanford University, where a woman e-mailed me to say that she tive landscape of my desert hallucina- she focused her study project on had been driving past Santa Monica tion is nearly possible. I see a world geographically aware journalism.

Digital Immersion: Augmenting Places With Stories And Information ‘News organizations and start-up entrepreneurs are only beginning to explore the potential of augmented reality.’

BY MIKE LIEBHOLD

magine that you are able to interact with a future that is moving and on go the possibilities. Right now see invisible information draped inexorably toward us. data are geocoded so the information is across the physical world. As you Web browsers enable us to view identified with latitude and longitude, Iwalk around, you see labels telling hyperlinked media on a page. Now the though for many future AR applica- the history of a place and offering Web browser is our camera view as we tions, it will be necessary to include geographic attributes of the space as interact with digital-linked media that data about a digital object’s elevation. you walk through. There’s the name are attached to the real world. We can The first generation of smartphone of a tree, the temperature, the age of experience this now through mobile augmented-reality viewers can see a building, and the conduits under technology’s augmented reality (AR) only a few narrow glimpses of the the pavement. Popping into view are on a smartphone using apps like Layar, increasing mass of geocoded data and operating instructions for devices. All Wikitude and Junaio. Eventually we’ll media available nearby. Yet, there’s a of this is digitally overlaid and visible be able to do so with augmented reality growing flood of location-based map across the physical world. glasses. In time, we’ll do this through data, geocoded Web pages, and live This yet-to-be-realized experience is our vehicle’s windows, too, then with sensor data digitally available using a thought experiment for helping us digitally augmented contact lenses, newly opened standards like Keyhole

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Markup Language (KML); this the real world so that people map description language is used can discover digital information by Google Maps and Google attached to these physical places. Earth and named after Keyhole, the company that developed Augmented Reality and Keyhole Earth Viewer, which Journalism was renamed Google Earth when the company was acquired by Until now our knowledge of Google. According to Google, the physical world, as humans, people have already created and has been limited to that which posted more than two billion we can carry around with us to place marks—digital objects help make sense of the physical attached to a place—and a few world. With the Internet and hundred million more using now with relatively inexpensive another Web standard called wireless mobile devices, our geoRSS. This location coding ability to make sense of the is an extension of RSS (Real world as we move through it Simple Syndication), which is is greatly enhanced. All we widely used by news organiza- need to do is to enter a query tions. And now Twitter’s new and view the information on a geocoding tools are being used digital device. But right now to to add location coordinates to see this information in the real millions of tweets. world requires that we launch The beauty of these standard one of dozens of special iPhone codes is that ideally they can or Google Android phone appli- be viewed on any browser, just cations. By 2015, the Institute as an HTML Web page is now for the Future forecasts that easily read on commonly used digital augmentation will work browsers such as Firefox, Inter- seamlessly and naturally through Using an augmented reality browser, a person can see dif- net Explorer, Safari or Opera. the first generation of special ferent layers of information overlaid on the live view from Similarly, KML and geoRSS eyeglasses equipped to show their smartphone’s camera. Photo courtesy of Layar. location data can be viewed on digital data overlaid on the real any map program from Google, world. By 2020, perhaps glasses Microsoft, Yahoo!, or companies won’t be needed as wireless such as ESRI, which is the dominant developments that will enable the contact lenses, already in development map software company. creation and viewing of digital objects in University of Washington labs and Unfortunately our GPS-equipped with precision in 3D space. These will elsewhere, become available. phones can’t calculate location accu- rely on a photographic recognition Just as the hypertext Web changed rately enough to precisely display capability, which major technology our interaction with text, emerging geocoded information that is closer companies such as Nokia, Microsoft, augmented reality technologies will than about five to 20 meters. This is Google, and others are developing. reshape how we understand and behave a technical limitation of both GPS and How will they work? By comparing in the physical world. That’s why it’s of the data. Nor does most geocoded the pattern in the view to a stored important that we—in particular, those information yet include precise 3D pattern. By using the company’s vast who transmit information and inter- coordinates of latitude, longitude and network of computers and massive pret and describe the world for others, elevation. Instead, with this first gen- database of images, Google’s visual as journalists do—start to think about eration of mobile devices, most of the search application can identify an the implications of physical space being apps rely on the GPS and an internal image of a place like the Golden Gate transformed into information space. compass to show viewers the general, Bridge; eventually this technology will I think it’s apparent that we won’t but not the precise location of the data. be able to calculate the “pose” of a want to see everything about all that This works fine for finding a coffee camera, i.e., the 3D location, with the we are viewing. If we did, our natural shop, but is insufficient for learning field of view and precise distance of the vision would be blocked completely. the finer details of an object or place person from the object he is viewing. This means we’ll need to think hard we can see, for example information Nokia’s Point and Find and Microsoft’s about developing ways to query the about an ornamental decoration on a Photosynth work similarly and will information we want and filter from historic building. provide the capability for people to our view potentially vast amounts There are, however, some technical add a precisely located annotation to of information that we don’t want.

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In any place we go, there will exist with fictional art and media. And be able to see old photos and videos the potential for a bombardment of when this happens, even neutral spaces of an earlier time overlaid directly and information that has been aggregated can be transformed into sensory rich precisely on a rendering of the cur- about the thousands of digital objects entertainment experiences. rent environment. This will enable that describe in some way our physical As travelers in information, jour- us to understand better (by seeing) environment—its infrastructure, his- nalists will have the job of making what a place was like at another time. tory, culture, commerce and politics. sense of this new world and they will Indeed, it’s likely that we’ll be able to In the mix will be social and personal do this with a fresh palette of digital see from recordings video ghosts of information and sometimes even tools. It will be incumbent on them people walking down the street and fictional events with this place as a to find ways to tell stories about our listen to them describe experiences backdrop. new blended realities, using tools that from another time in this exact place. With access to this realm of infor- make possible these new dimensions. This futuristic vision of the digital mation, complex objects will become Imagine the possibilities of being able augmentation of our real world seems self-explanatory. People will be able to describe in detail the cultural and quite strange, even disorienting, to to display operating and maintenance social histories of a place that fore- our contemporary sensibilities. In instructions in text, graphics or even shadowed a newsworthy event—and its entirety, it is not yet imminent. in geolocated video and sound. And do this in augmented reality so people We have ample time to explore the just as it will be very easy to encode can visualize all of this. implications, challenges, dilemmas and view facts about a place, it will be There is also the opportunity to and opportunities that it poses. similarly simple to overlay the place overlay statistical probabilities of At the Institute for the Future, we an event occurring. For help people to systematically think example, if a driver looking about the future by following a basic for a parking space can methodology of planning for disruptive see that there have been changes ahead; the process involves many auto thefts nearby, three stages—foresight to insight to he might decide to park action. Foresight happens by gather- somewhere else. If people ing and synthesizing expert opinions; could discover that there one expert might be able to describe is a very high incidence a clear view, but one limited by her of communicable dis- own realm of expertise. By gathering eases near a restaurant, views from multiple experts, we start they might choose to eat to see things at the intersection of elsewhere. various views. Then by developing News organizations and these vivid views of the possible future, start-up entrepreneurs are we arrive at what we can grasp as the only beginning to explore probable future. The next step is to the potential of augmented select actions to build what is seen reality. Map out where as a desirable future that is based on news stories occur at a contextual insights. moment in time and you Through this process, one over- surely will find stories arching theme remains at the center from Washington, D.C. of our thinking. We are not victims and Baghdad, others from of the future; we can shape our own Afghanistan, and a mixture futures. The takeaway for journalists of local coverage. However, is that the tools and probable use of if we gather stories related augmented reality are not the stuff of to a place over a longer science fiction. To those who find ways period of time, there is to use this technology to tell stories—to a higher density of news gather and distribute news—will flow present in that place. And the audience.  so both the temporal and spatial density of informa- Mike Liebhold is a senior researcher tion in any one place can and distinguished fellow at the become a more complete Institute for the Future, an indepen- Most of the apps on the first generation of smartphones and richer resource. dent nonprofit research group in Palo rely on GPS and an internal compass to provide general Recently Microsoft Alto, California. information about a place. Photo courtesy of Layar. demonstrated how we’ll

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The Future of Storytelling: A Participatory Endeavor At the Center for Future Storytelling, researchers envision how technology can give people more control over TV programs they encounter and stories they follow.

For 25 years the Massachusetts Insti- who watch TV on their iPhones want- Jan Gardner: Is there a tension between tute of Technology’s Media Lab has ing to have a personalized interactive providing a rich experience and an been at the forefront of exploring how experience. How do you simultaneously overwhelming one? technology can enhance communica- create what will be a shared experience tion and storytelling. V. Michael Bove, and a personalized experience such Bove: The problem of overwhelming- Jr., a principal research scientist, that everybody comes away happy? ness is maybe generationally defined. So leads a number of initiatives at the The second tension is between different people—depending on what lab including the Center for Future large organizations—such as Disney- they grew up with—are overwhelmed Storytelling, which was founded in Pixar—which do very good storytelling by differing amounts of media richness 2008. Jan Gardner, assistant editor by getting the best talent and having and saturation and ubiquity. I heard a of Nieman Reports, spoke with Bove a culture that nurtures what they number this morning that 87 percent at the lab. Edited excerpts follow as do—and the YouTube generation. How of teenagers who text sleep with their Bove, one of three codirectors of the do you support both of those visions cell phones. I don’t know that it’s easy center, talked about television viewers without casting them in opposition to overwhelm somebody like that with as directors and media consumers as to each other? How do you look hard media ubiquity. But that doesn’t mean collaborators. at the business models, content and everybody wants that. So I think that technologies with some meeting of information dissemination is going V. Michael Bove, Jr.: Our effort at the the minds, in ways in which each to be even more multi-dimensional. center looks very broadly at the ways side feels that there’s some benefit in And you can’t just be in the business in which people will express themselves talking with the other? of one dimension. and share stories and at the different Recently we had about 150 people tensions involved in doing this. There at an event called Story 3.0. A big Gardner: What was discussed at the are two that I particularly care about. part of that gathering was an attempt Story 3.0 gathering? The first is the tension between the to figure out what people are already shared social experience of inviting doing that relates to these questions, Bove: One topic was a project from friends over to watch the Super Bowl as well as some interesting directions my group called “surround vision” in on your big screen TV versus people to follow up on. which we are saying “let’s take your high-definition television set and add augmented reality to it.” What that means is you’re watching a debate, a talk show, an entertainment program, a sporting event, and it’s the same thing everybody else can see. So you’d say, “I want to see the audience’s reaction to what Jay [Leno] just said.” On “The Tonight Show” there’s always a camera pointed at the audience, but most of the time the feed doesn’t go out. What if those additional video feeds were available and all I had to do was take my iPhone and hold it up and look around behind me? Or during a debate I could look at the reactions of the other candidates to what the person at the podium just said. I would not then be relying on A prototype of a handheld device application that could enable surround vision to happen the producer providing the video to in ways similar to what audio technology now enables. From video by Melanie Gonick, MIT. decide which view I ought to see.

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Or for a sporting event, I may want Bove: We have to assume the print going on, you had to watch the show to look at the other end of the field medium is part of an ecosystem and and go to the Web site. The audience than what they are showing right now. then ask what happens when all the turned out to be very, very earnest. The field is surrounded by cameras, pieces of the ecosystem fit together. The point is that there are some so video is being shot. What is the overall experience? This cases where producers and directors We are looking at a variety of content is another issue. Too often in orga- say that they probably should have ranging from entertainment to sports nizations that produce media one listened to the people on the Web to news and public affairs. Initially, team does the main product, another because there were a lot more of them we’re not looking to add complexity does the Web site, others work on spending their lives thinking about or expense to the production or post- the mobile app, and then there are what should happen and how the story production process. We’re trying to teams that do something else. That’s arc ought to progress than the small take stuff that is already being shot, unsustainable economically because it’s team of writers. And if they paid a where there’s additional material, and a huge duplication of effort. It’s also bit more attention, the show probably simply providing a means for making not a particularly good idea in terms would have been better. On the other that available. What that means is that of coherence because what you would hand, not everybody is comfortable individuals will have a bit more control. like is for the experience to play out giving up that much control. But if across these different platforms in dif- you go to these online forums where Gardner: So viewers can become their ferent ways and let users go back and people are discussing what ought to own producer. forth among them. It’s not necessarily happen next, there are some very clever the job of the creators to drive you and thoughtful people out there who Bove: You can become your own to a primary platform. I don’t think probably understand the characters at director. Or you can decide to have a you can do that anymore. Figuring least as well as the writers do. lean-back experience. So it’s not like playing Gardner: Do you look a video game. You don’t for any lessons from constantly have to be You can become your own director. Or you can the past for the work pressing buttons or you’re doing? moving around to make decide to have a lean-back experience. So it’s not the story advance. But if Bove: What comes to you want to invest more like playing a video game. You don’t constantly mind is the 1998 book, in it, you can get more have to be pressing buttons or moving around to “The Victorian Inter- in return. That’s a theme net,” in which Tom that my students have make the story advance. But if you want to invest Standage explains how been working on for a almost everything that long time, the notion more in it, you can get more in return. the Internet was sup- that we want to have posed to do to society television that’s interac- was actually done to tive when we want it to society by the telegraph. be. But if you don’t interact with it, out how to make it work financially Even up to the degree that the tele- it’s still a perfectly valuable experience. is another matter. graph was this extremely economically We did a television program with Julia important means of communication Child and WGBH in 1999 that worked Gardner: What else came out of Story essentially being run by very young that way—it was a dinner party that 3.0? people who developed their own sort she hosted. She put all of the dishes of text message shorthand. out on the table, and if you wanted Bove: We had a case study that MTV On the one hand, we can take this to know more about a particular dish, presented where they rather radically stuff all a little bit too seriously and you could click on it and she gave a had to alter what they were doing believe that OK, nothing new is going lesson in how to prepare it. because the audience was actually more on and there are no new lessons to A lot of the technology we need to demanding than they’d expected. It learn. On the other hand, we can feel do these things is almost off the shelf was a show called “Valemont” about a that any time something comes along now. So it’s more a matter of creative university for vampires. People said to that looks as if it’s going to amplify vision and business model, but we also themselves, “Oh, geez, it’s going to be our ability to communicate with others have to reinvent television to make 167 hours until the next episode goes over time and distance, we should pour this happen. on the air, entertain us till then.” The as much of ourselves as we can into story was advancing both through the that new means of doing so. Gardner: What about the implications broadcast show and online, so if you In truth, the really fun stuff happens for print? really wanted to find out what was in the early days before anybody figures

70 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 Hacks + Hackers out what the new technology is good Connectivity is a given, just as are to work that way. for. I thought the Web was a great place richer user interfaces and offering All of these things do not in any in the mid ’90s although nobody had more context. The best way to deal way minimize the role of the human a business model for it because people with an onslaught of information is creating the content. They actually would just try anything. In the same to have the system figure out what’s amplify the ability to get the content way, TV was much more interesting appropriate for you. No one really to the people who really want it. So in in the mid ’50s when nobody knew needs 1,000 television channels. What the future the metric of success might quite what it was good for. I’ve always wanted to do is make a not be whether a story appeared in television that essentially has an on/ a publication with a circulation of a Gardner: Mobile technology is big now. off button and a guess-again button, million readers, but whether 10,000 What about the future? where the TV shows what it thinks you people read it to the end within 15 probably want to see. You tell it “No, minutes of it being posted.  Bove: The real question is: Is there not that,” and it shows its second-best going to be anything but mobile? guess. A lot of things are going to have

Storytelling in the Digital Age: Finding the Sweet Spot ‘Old metrics for credibility and trust no longer guide us, nor does trust emanate exclusively from the power of a brand name or from the overpowering resources of a recognized institution.’

BY HANSON HOSEIN

ix years ago I turned novice filmmaker, I figured away from my television this was the right moment to career with NBC News. combine the timeless art of SAround me, I was seeing the storytelling with 21st century explosion of broadband Inter- digital tools by making a film net access, powerful computer about a civic issue of grow- processors, cheap digital ing concern. Could I build a storage, and the proliferation community with trust at its of portable content creation core through such an effort? and distribution devices. All I didn’t know, but I wanted of this was throwing the very to try. controlled communication The film’s topic was the system that provided my work displacement of Main Street’s and income into turmoil. Filmmakers Hanson Hosein and Heather Hughes took their dog commerce and community Suddenly almost everyone Miles with them on the road to make “Independent America: The by soulless big box stores— had access to a cheap and Two-Lane Search for Mom & Pop.” Photo by Paul Perrier. massive structures enticing easy-to-use digital commu- people away from the core nication medium. or act in some way on what’s been of their towns along stretches of road Yet the reality is still that humans learned. with a corporate shopping experience have only so much time and interest Early in 2005, blogging was hitting a at the end. So my wife, my dog, and I in consuming media. When virtually critical mass. High-definition cameras set out on a cross-country trip, one in everyone can produce content, the were descending to consumer-level which we vowed to stay off interstates challenge becomes convincing people prices, and new multimedia distri- and away from corporate chain stores. to pay attention and effect a transac- bution platforms were proliferating. As I conceived our story—it would be tion—share the content, get involved, (YouTube launched that year.) As a portrayed as a personal journey—these

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constraints would serve mostly as a we encounter a community-supported again with different names, places and headline gimmick; by the time our film, department store in Wyoming that details. Yet we continue to be deeply “Independent America: The Two-Lane offers an alternative to the destruction attracted to these archetypal tales. Search for Mom & Pop” was ready for of community that we’d seen before. Certainly advertisers and public broadcast, the journalist inside of me Aristotle’s enduring formula would relations professionals apply Camp- realized that these two “rules” gave predict that our mid-story tension bell and Aristotle in their marketing us an ideal storytelling structure and followed by this final release would campaigns, sometimes even serializing actually were our story. satisfy our story’s audience. In fact, them like a television drama. But In his “Poetics,” Aristotle observed what we offered as a return on their until very recently these have been what we now consider obvious; every investment of attention and time was an 20th century mass media products of story has a beginning, middle and end. emotional bond—in this case, empathy. passive, one-way, filter-then-publish He likened structure to the tightening And through this we managed to build media distribution. There we used of a knot—lay out the premise at the trust and form community. We came to sit, without choice, as commercials outset, then twist it tighter into a to be regarded as credible storytellers played. By and large, we trusted what complication until a transformation who might be able to re-engage an was said, in part, because the words (the climax) occurs. This leads to the audience in the future. and images reached us as they did. We denouement, literally the untying of ascribed credibility to organizations complication—a release of the story’s Establishing Trust: Then and based, in part, on the huge resources tension. Here is where storytellers (and Now and effort they deployed to reach us; filmmakers) will often let the audience those high barriers to entry must count off the hook with an emotional release. Stories are encoded within our DNA for something, we figured, if only by as humans. Joseph Campbell spent his winnowing out losers and charlatans. Our Brains: Emotion and life studying myths that have emerged With digital media, barriers to entry Decision from many cultures. In doing so, he are eroded. Old metrics for credibility discovered a universal pattern that and trust no longer guide us, nor does The emotional element turns out to transcends both culture and history. trust emanate exclusively from the be crucial, since it actually helps us He called it the “hero’s journey”—the power of a brand name or from the make decisions. In “How We Decide,” story of when a seemingly ordinary overpowering resources of a recognized Jonah Lehrer observed that the right person reluctantly accepts a call to institution. Through social networks, side of our brain allows us to see what action, leaves behind the status quo, we adopt ways of trusting people we’ve we would otherwise fail to notice with and embarks on a journey that entails never met, often based on identifying a our rational hemisphere on the left. trials and tribulations from which this mutual interest or point of agreement. “These wise yet inexplicable feelings hero learns valuable lessons. Ultimately When we find these, they encourage us are an essential part of the decision- he undergoes a transformation for to open a channel of communication. making process. Even when we think better or for worse and returns home If we inject that channel with story, we know nothing, our brains know a changed person. Jesus, Moses, authenticity and a certain amount of something. That’s what our feelings Mohammed, Harry Potter, Luke Sky- emotion, we have laid the groundwork are trying to tell us,” Lehrer writes. walker, Frodo—these are all legendary for an ongoing relationship of credible What this means to us, as journalists, personalities who have undertaken the communication.1 is that in competing for attention in hero’s journey. Back in 2005, in addition to the an information-saturated society, we Campbell believed that our love digital tools at our disposal, we had want people to make decisions based and belief in these myths originates another powerful asset: a nascent on what we communicate to them. from experiences we have as human relationship with the grassroots It’s important to know the value and beings who are born, live and die, American Independent Business Alli- potential use we can make of emotional and that each of us pursues his own ance (AMIBA). As I contemplated impact. In “Independent America,” hero’s journey, with a clear beginning, documenting our journey, I called upon there is mounting tension toward the middle and end and a transformation AMIBA to help drive their members middle of the film about whether we’d along the way. Thus, inherently we to our blog. This simple request for a complete the journey. (We did.) As the grasp these three stages deep within partnership of sorts was why we suc- end of the film approaches, we pres- ourselves. Indeed, we spend our lives ceeded. Not only did engaging AMIBA ent viewers with an epiphany about trying to come to terms with it, so it’s members help shape the content of Americans’ growing mistrust of large, no wonder that disparate societies can the story, but with them we built powerful institutions. This happens as tell the same stories over and over up a large amount of social capital.

1 Hosein elaborates on these themes in “The Storytelling Uprising,” a slideshow available at www.slideshare.net/hrhmedia.

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Before the end of our trip, members Still we wondered how we might high-profile exposure on Yahoo! and of AMIBA were clamoring for a DVD reach a wider audience. Despite our Hulu. of the film so they could buy it and leanings in favor of Main Street, as a Somewhere between the monopo- screen it in their communities. They journalist I also wanted our portrayal of listic, hierarchic and centralized mass hoped to convince neighbors and city the issues to be fair and not dogmatic. media outlets of the 20th century and officials to reform economic policy as Ditto with our conclusions. Along the the atomistic, anarchic and decentral- it affected local retail. way, we made our editorial practices ized nature of citizen production and We tapped into power by appealing transparent in blog posts and our distribution lies the sweet spot, a to a niche community with the pas- mission statement. And such transpar- place between institution and ama- sion and focus to support the issues ency—and striving for fairness—led teur, between left and right brain. and ideas that “Independent America” us to an unexpected interview with The influence of these media creators championed. We didn’t start out Wal-Mart officials. Wal-Mart receives comes not from any institution, but believing that this was a story that 800 interview requests each week; they from their own personal brand—trust would capture the attention and stir granted us an interview even though built through ongoing storytelling and the energy of a mass audience. The we didn’t even have a distributor for the curation of knowledge within a good news for us was that the mass the film because, they told us, they community.  audience, like mass media, was already were impressed by our professionalism dividing into digital communities of and independence. Hanson Hosein is the director of the interest. So it seemed natural, as well, After our film was made, we Master of Communication in Digital to abandon the veneer of journalistic found that we could break out of our Media program at the University objectivity—a blunting of the editorial niche community to reach a much of Washington, a filmmaker, and a edges to appeal to a mass audience broader-based audience. We did this former NBC News correspondent and without offending them—given that we by connection to a wide mix of digital producer. He is working on a book were already relegated to the populist communications streams, broadcasting about storytelling in the digital age. sidelines. the film internationally, and receiving

Apple’s iPad Meets Hamlet’s Blackberry History teaches that ‘long-established media technologies, when faced with the prospect of commercial extinction, counter with their own dialectic.’

BY PETER COBUS

“E-paper has entered the market, but argues print’s invincibility as the me- pect of commercial extinction, counter not yet in a big way. No technology is dium of choice for long-format nar- with their own dialectic. Despite the yet sufficiently paper-like to grab the rative consumption—whether in book, iPad’s digital sophistication—and the huge latent market widely recognized to magazine or broadsheet format. assuredness that more sophisticated be there. … This is a lot like the early The timing of his book’s release tools will surely follow—history is days of television development, when couldn’t be better: Industrywide buzz a good guide in reminding us that everyone knew what was needed but surrounding the launch of Apple’s iPad what is happening in the digital realm getting the technology right was tough.” has triggered—for newsprint-based cannot be the death knell for all of — Nicholas K. Sheridon, organizations—the kind of vexatious print media. who developed a forerunner to bouts of self-examination one might e-paper, from a 2007 interview. expect of a melancholy Dane. Reinvention So now it’s time to bring up the n 2006, National Journal media crit- house lights. Any illuminating history When people assumed talkies heralded ic William Powers wrote “Hamlet’s of print says perseverance, not pulp, the death of theater, motion pictures Blackberry: Why Paper is Eternal,” is its most distinctive trait; even a and stage found ways to coexist, albeit Ian essay—recently expanded to book cursory review reveals the consistency within a reconfigured marketplace; length and scheduled to be published with which long-established media plays were adapted to film and vice in June by Harper—that compellingly technologies, when faced with the pros- versa, and stage and screen performers

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found ways to reinvent themselves to Powers, they typically dislike in relation to new technological television and online-multimedia developments. When Betamax ads due to their intrusive nature. arrived on the market, it surely Print ads are regarded solely meant the death of the cineplex. on a reader’s terms, while their But this was not to be as Hol- multimedia counterparts on the lywood rose to the challenge by Web can be as intensely irritating creating films of greater aural and as they are deliberately attention visual sophistication and made the grabbing. Is it any wonder that big-screen experience something people frequently describe feeling newly distinct from home view- a lack of control over the online- ing. (The business bonus was that news reading experience? Or that cinema flops could stanch financial people overwhelmingly prefer to hemorrhaging by going straight to read long-format news in print VHS or DVD.) rather than on a Web site? But if old media’s tenacity isn’t Even Google is attuned to this persuasive, consider how print situation with the staid white materials insist on their own pres- emptiness of its homepage. This ence. A newspaper delivered in the entry anchors a global informa- morning remains on the kitchen tion network and thereby marks table while errands get run; when This flexible electronic paper display was created the commercial epicenter of the we return home, its open pages are by E Ink Corporation and LG.Philips LCD in 2005. barely controlled chaos that is an unsuspecting reminder of our Photo courtesy of LG.Philips LCD. today’s Internet. It is a kind of intention, prodding us to finish cybersanctum of determined stasis: what we started before the day only a blinking cursor awaits your ends. Unlike words we receive digitally, of digital ephemera. It can be what arrival in the search bar. Each online words on paper—or, to paraphrase settles us when we push away from the session is initiated purely on your Powers, the electronic data that our company of the constantly updating own terms. absurdly futuristic-looking copiers A pop-futurist sensibility contin- and printers spray across their ues to imbue the digital marketplace surface—evade the out-of-sight, with a kind of mythical ethos of out-of-mind gauziness that is the ... print can be seen as the modern consumer. Audio-visual perpetual present of the constantly sophistication and elaborate user updated homepage. And, at the risk an essential medium of interfaces are assumed to be the of intellectualizing, I’d suggest hard strongest selling points of any copy periodicals maintain a kind accommodating stasis, a thing new device. As humans, we seem of residual fixedness that seems to that complements our own programmed to grab at any device resonate, however subtly, with that that improves our (simultaneous) of our own physical vessel—the momentary respite from the ability to watch TV, play films, chat human body. with friends, video-talk with loved There can be no lingering doubt perpetual deluge of digital ones, take photographs, locate a online media will rule breaking ephemera. restaurant, record a discussion, and/ news—the fact-finding or “just tell or indulge in activities we didn’t even me what I need to know” strategies know we wanted to do—anything of gleaning information online. Yet that keeps us occupied. print media (or the first interactive Yet it would seem the quiet and technology that can replicate their updates of the contemporary breaking solace of an uninterrupted white space every physical attribute) will remain news portal. Print rescues us, in ways, is analogous to what humans find indispensable to the long-form narra- from the eternal now that news orga- essential in the experience of deep tives that provide us with the substance nizations not only chronicle but, for thinking and reading. Sadly, it is this of what we find necessary to nurture better or worse, have come to embody. simple lesson—born of what it is that our moments of personal reflection. No matter how much the anatomy makes us human—that we seem too Amidst the digital invasion, print of our news media infrastructure willing to forget.  can be seen as an essential medium might change, advertising revenue will of accommodating stasis, a thing that likely remain its lifeblood. Research Peter Cobus works on The Wash- complements our own momentary has shown that consumers say they ington Post’s universal news desk. respite from the perpetual deluge enjoy print advertising and, according

74 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 Hacks + Hackers

The Tablet’s Mobile Multimedia Revolution: A Reality Check ‘In my opinion, tablets, like the Internet in the past, are fantastic opportunities, not just devices on which to perform the same old tricks.’

BY JUAN ANTONIO GINER

t’s the wine, not the bottle. Readers, • Failed to integrate its print and time for publishing companies to audiences and communities don’t Web newsrooms begin to reinvest in their staffs drink light wines anymore. They • Salespeople who still don’t sell at all levels. Companies that do Iwant rich, full-bodied wines. multimedia packages so will thrive. New opportunities So executives who run a monomedia • Journalists and managers who don’t are emerging every day that their information winery don’t have to worry talk to each other staffs will recognize and exploit. about the tablet, Internet or mobile • Information technology people who Companies that don’t will see the media. Print media will survive but want to control everything future pass them by. with a shrinking market, fewer and • Visual journalists who are still older readers, and not very much monomedia storytellers In my opinion, tablets, like the advertising, increasing production and • Journalists who are not able to cre- Internet in the past, are fantastic distribution costs, and falling margins ate unique, relevant and compelling opportunities, not just devices on and profits. It might be difficult to content which to perform the same old tricks. attract new and young talent. • Failed to become a 24/7 multimedia This is a radical departure from how But those who believe in the future operation newspapers and other media busi- of the news business, understand the • Failed to spend money on research, nesses develop new relations with public’s new habits, and want to be a training and innovation. readers and advertisers as well as reliable and profitable player in this how customers interact with them, new media landscape should pay As media consultant Daniel Ambrose anywhere, anytime, all the time. attention to the new mobile media wrote on his Online Publishing Insider That’s good news for the media if devices like tablets and smartphones. blog: they are able to produce richer wines. They are here to stay. Content rules. Tablets are not the salvation of print It should be clear … that if Good journalism will be, as always, media, but newspapers and magazines reaching the maximum number good business but what cannot be are still the best journalistic vehicles of readers and customers—and ignored are the new ways to access, for finding exclusive news. What is customers for advertisers— provide and enhance the unique critical are the skills to edit relevant remains a key strategy for media experience of getting the news first, stories and design compelling news companies, they’ll be doing that explaining it better than anybody else, packages, not just for static monomedia on a wider and wider range of and presenting it in the most appealing platforms but for the new, dynamic, devices and platforms. Analog and reliable multimedia news packages mobile and multimedia platforms. media companies have struggled possible, produced by a new generation Don’t expect miracles. If a mono- to adapt to one important new of publishers, editors, reporters and media operation produces secondhand distribution platform in the last visual journalists.  news and stories, the tablets will not 15 years: the browser-based change anything. Remember: garbage Internet. Over the next 15 years Juan Antonio Giner is president in, garbage out. But if a newsroom there will be dozens of new oppor- and founder of Innovation Interna- embraces these new digital multimedia tunities to deliver media company tional Media Consulting Group in narratives, the life of a publisher, editor content and services. It’s time to London. He writes the What’s Next: or reporter is going to change forever. begin the education process in Innovations in Newspapers blog and A newsroom will not be prepared earnest; not with highly specific is an editor of the World Associa- to handle new platforms if it has: training on particular platforms tion of Newspapers’ annual report anointed by management, but Innovations in Newspapers. He can • Continued to think print first with conceptual thinking that be reached at giner@innovation- • Web site staff who still think online provides a framework for taking mediaconsulting.com. first in each new delivery form. It’s

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 75 NIEMAN NOTES From Rejection to Success—With ‘Radiohead Journalism’ In a crowdfunding experiment that earned back what it cost to report a story, a writer discovers a fresh, but unproven, path for long narrative stories.

When Paige Williams, a 1997 pitched the whole world on before turning her back on that Nieman Fellow, couldn’t find a Dolly Freed. Seriously, every world for a life that felt more home for a story she was passion- magazine you can think of authentic. Yeah, I can’t see the ate about, she published it online Iand a hundred more. Nobody appeal whatsoever. and set out to crowdfund her was interested in a profile of a So after months of rejection, expenses. Donations and praise woman who used to eat road- I bought myself a Web site and reached her Web site. But is the kill, make moonshine, and sit in January used it to self-publish approach she calls “Radiohead around reading Jean-Paul Sartre a long-form feature story called journalism”—a term adapted with her alcoholic and probably- “Finding Dolly Freed.” from a 2007 experiment in online genius father; a woman who In 1978 the pseudonymous music sales—a viable way to keep later went on to get her GED, Dolly Freed wrote a book called narrative journalism alive? In put herself through college, and “Possum Living: How to Live Well this article, adapted from one she become a NASA rocket scientist Without a Job and With (Almost) wrote for Wired.com, Williams who helped figure out the mess No Money.” She was 18 and had reports on her experiment. behind the Challenger explosion a seventh-grade education. She used a pseudonym because she was a teenage truant and because she and her father had an intriguing relationship with the law. After a slightly surreal post-publishing blitz that included an appearance on “The Merv Griffin Show,” Dolly slipped out of sight. In the ensuing decades, fans wondered what had become of her. What became of her was Texas, among other things. She now lives and works outside Houston as an environmental educator, and she goes by her real name, which I promised not to reveal. She still lives a frugal lifestyle. Dolly is, she told me, “half-possuming.” Having lost my job two days before hearing about Dolly, in the worst months The story of Dolly Freed and her back-to-nature frugal lifestyle became the occasion for an experiment of the economic meltdown, in crowdfunding narrative journalism. Photo by Audra Melton. I felt that she was a story

76 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 Nieman Notes for our times. “Possum Living” was then an editor at Boston magazine story as part of the “Possum Living” scheduled to be re-issued in January and now at The Atlantic, edited audiobook. And get this: Although a by Tin House. the piece, and refused to accept kill fee usually runs 20 percent, the Late last year The New York Times a dime. Everyone else got paid Times paid me a 50 percent kill fee. bought Dolly (yay!) for its Style pages (the fact checker, the copy editor), These two checks put me over the top. but killed it (boo!) when I declined to and those expenses went into the I made back the out-of-pocket money reveal Dolly’s real name. So I hired a debit column along with Audra’s I spent reporting the story and earned Web designer and ran the piece online.1 travel, my initial travel to Texas a few hundred extra to plow back into I included a PayPal link in hopes of (air, hotel, car), Web site expenses the Web site. recouping some of the $2,000-plus I ($800 for design plus other fees for spent on the project. Anybody could Web hosting, domain registration, Judging the Outcome read “Finding Dolly Freed” for free etc.), and miscellaneous FedEx and but had the option to donate whatever photocopying charges. So did Radiohead journalism succeed? amount they chose, sort of the way • You’ve got to burp the baby. I I guess it depends on the definition of the English alternative rock band thought I could release Dolly into success. In the strictest sense of the Radiohead did with their 2007 album the wild and my work would be word, yes, it worked: I recovered my “In Rainbows.” done. Puh. Once you birth the costs. Yet given the visitor-donation At that point, the Dolly Freed baby you gotta feed her, change ratio—roughly 200 of more than project became not only an exercise her diapers, protect her from bul- 5,000 visitors from around the world in self-publishing but also an experi- lies, take her out into public. The contributed—this doesn’t portend to ment. Would readers pay for a story back-end work included tweaking be a sustainable model, at least not in that they could read for free on an the site, answering queries, tweeting its current form. I choose to look at it independent Web site by a writer and retweeting, and monitoring the this way: People sent money they didn’t they’d never heard of? Web for mentions or questions that have to spend to a person they didn’t needed either immediate attention even know. That, to me, is wondrous. Lessons Learned or restrained silence. Momentum Someone else may find a better way, dies without a master. and I hope they do. I’d be thrilled Here are a few things I learned in to see independent self-publishing transforming rejection into success: Minutes after the site went live, the models for journalism fly, as long first donation via PayPal arrived. The as the authors adhere to inviolable • Social media work. I used Twitter contributions came regularly for weeks, standards of accuracy, fairness, solid and Facebook to spread the word in amounts ranging from 50 cents to ethics, and reporting. Institutional after posting “Finding Dolly Freed.” $100. Three people gave $100, includ- backing confers credibility, but in the Powerful folks online are critical to ing Penenberg, who’d done such great wilds of the Internet, trust begins and the dialogue. If Adam L. Penenberg, tweeting about it, and Hank Stuever, ends with the storyteller and his or the author of “Viral Loop: From a wonderful Washington Post feature her integrity and approach. Facebook to Twitter, How Today’s writer who e-mailed me these words: After oxygen and carbon, humans Smartest Businesses Grow Them- are made up of stories; telling and selves,” and New York University I’m happy to feel strongly enough craving them is elemental to our professor Jay Rosen hadn’t tweeted about what you do—what we existence. Storytelling will never die. about the project, it never would do—to put money behind it. I The vexing question is where we’ll have entered this particular sliver feel it all going away: seren- tell our stories, and how, and how of the public consciousness in a way dipitous stories, lark, wonder, to monetize online narrative without that compelled other journalists to exploration, heart. Everything bastardizing it. The good news is that talk about it. in the newsroom now is just it’s anybody’s game.  • People are awesome. A few of reactive, scoop-centered, gossipy, the characters behind the Dolly fuss-and-chit-chat. I have lots of Paige Williams is executive editor project worked for no money or thoughts about that, which I’m of Boston magazine and has taught for expenses only. My talented pal still sorting through, and may journalism at New York University Audra Melton jumped on a plane never sort through. and Emory University. She won the to Texas to photograph Dolly, for 2008 National Magazine Award literally no paycheck. (In fact, I’m As of early June, donations totaled for feature writing and has written pretty sure she lost money in the $2,100. I earned an extra $500 when for The New York Times, New York deal.) Another friend, Geoff Gagnon, Audible.com asked me to record the magazine, Salon.com, and GQ.

1 The story can be read at www.paige-williams.com.

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 77 Nieman Notes

1951 he was detained in Germany with “no comment” to reporters, and he 135 other journalists, diplomats and was the station chief in Berlin and American officials. To pass the time New Delhi, according to the obituary Angus MacLean Thuermer, a for- and because to do otherwise would in the Post. eign correspondent turned CIA official, be “unconstitutional,” Thuermer later He is survived by his wife, Alice, died on April 14th of pneumonia. He told The Washington Post, he and two daughters, one son, and a was 92. two other prisoners formed the Bad granddaughter. While studying German in Berlin Nauheim Wurlitzer Cup Series, a four- after college, he began working for team baseball league. They whittled 1953 The Associated Press to earn extra a tree branch to make a bat, which money. Thuermer covered major events he donated to the National Baseball leading up to World War II including Hall of Fame nearly 50 years after John Strohmeyer, a Pulitzer Prize- Kristallnacht and Germany’s invasion his release. winning editor, died of heart failure of Poland. Before retiring in 1978 after 26 on March 3rd at his winter home in After the Japanese bombed Pearl years with the CIA, Thuermer served Crystal River, Florida. He was 85. Harbor and the U.S. declared war, as the agency’s “spooksman,” offering Strohmeyer spent nearly 30 years

2010 Lukas Project Awards Presented to Authors

aspects of making war. a narrative nonfiction book, was pre- At times it is almost sented to former (Newark) Star-Ledger unbearable to read … crime reporter Jonathan Schuppe for [but] Finkel does what “Ghetto Ball: A Coach, His Team, and all great writers do: he the Struggle of an American City” to makes it impossible to be published by Henry Holt. The book look away.” The book will follow a Little League team in the was published by Sarah South Ward neighborhood of Newark, Crichton Books/Farrar, New Jersey, the most depressed in the Straus & Giroux. city. Judges said of the project that, The $10,000 Mark “[with] no sentimentality, his narrative Lynton History Prize suggests in these flawed characters the was awarded to James heroism and waste that illuminate great From left, award recipients David Finkel, James Davidson, Davidson for “The novels. As in the work of J. Anthony and Jonathan Schuppe, as they discussed their books after Greeks and Greek Love: Lukas, at the core of Mr. Schuppe’s the presentation. Photo by Tsar Fedorsky. A Bold New Explora- writing is a sense of responsibility, as tion of the Ancient if this book needs to be written. We World,” his examina- believe it does.” Columbia’s Graduate School of Jour- tion of homosexuality in ancient The Lukas Prizes were established nalism and the Nieman Foundation Greek culture, published by Random in 1998 to recognize nonfiction writing honored the recipients of the 2010 J. House. The judges wrote that David- that exemplifies the literary grace and Anthony Lukas Prize Project Awards son “reconstructs in rich detail the commitment to serious research and for exceptional nonfiction in a cer- circumstances in which homoerotic social concern that characterized the emony at the foundation in May. love found expression and shows that work of the awards’ Pulitzer Prize- David Finkel, a Washington Post homosexuality did not have one mean- winning namesake, J. Anthony Lukas, staffer, received the $10,000 J. ing but many. … Intriguing, always NF ’69, who died in 1997. The Mark Anthony Lukas Book Prize for “The lucid and often very funny, his book Lynton History Prize is named for the Good Soldiers” about a battalion of is one of the most entertaining pieces late Mark Lynton, business executive soldiers serving in Iraq. In their cita- of historical writing in years, and a and author of “Accidental Journey: tion, the judges wrote that “this is delightful invitation to any reader A Cambridge Internee’s Memoir of not a book about policy or geopolitics wishing to enter the classical world.” World War II.” The Lynton family or even about military strategy; it is The J. Anthony Lukas Work-in- has sponsored the Lukas Prize Project about something far more important, Progress Award, which provides since its inception.  namely the human (and inhuman) $30,000 to assist in the completion of

78 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 Nieman Notes at the Bethlehem (Penn.) Globe-Times where he wrote a series of editorials Headliner Awards for Print and Radio Journalism on racial unrest that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1972. He was the paper’s Three Nieman Fellows have been a variety of feature stories she wrote editor from 1956 until 1984, when honored by the National Headliner for The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer. he was awarded an Alicia Patterson Awards program, which is one of the Among them were a profile of a Fellowship and left the paper to write oldest and largest annual contests local eccentric who discovered that the book “Crisis in Bethlehem: Big recognizing journalistic merit in he suffers from Asperger’s syndrome Steel’s Struggle to Survive.” He later print, broadcast and online. and two pieces about a family help- taught at Lehigh University for a year Guy Raz, NF ’09, along with NPR ing their daughter deal with a rare before becoming the Atwood Profes- colleagues Travis Larchuk and Rick brain affliction. sor of Journalism at the University of Holter, received first-place honors Margie Mason, NF ’09, and her Alaska Anchorage. At the time of his for a feature that aired on “All Associated Press colleague Martha death, he was writer in residence at Things Considered.” “Every Plant Mendoza, received a third-place the university and writing columns for Has Meaning on ‘The Island of Bar award in the health and medical the Anchorage Daily News. Codes’ ” describes Plummers Island, science category for the five-part Strohmeyer also wrote “Extreme the “most studied island in North series “When Drugs Stop Working.” Conditions: Big Oil and the Trans- America,” where scientists have been The series, developed during her formation of Alaska” and “Historic developing a method of sequencing Nieman Fellowship in Global Health Anchorage: An Illustrated History.” the DNA of every plant and animal Reporting, explores how doctors He is survived by his wife, Sylvia on earth. are losing ground in treating major Broady, and one son, one daughter, Elizabeth Leland, NF ’92, was the diseases because of the extensive and eight grandchildren. His first wife, second-place recipient of honors for use of antibiotics in agriculture.  Nancy Jordan, died in 2000, and one son died in 1998. Johnson traveled internationally During the height of the civil rights 1959 for a number of documentaries he movement, he served as a negotiator produced, three of which were honored and mediator for the federal govern- with George Foster Peabody Awards. ment and worked with Martin Luther Phil Johnson, a three-time Peabody He was inducted into the Greater New King, Jr. to help bring about a peaceful award-winning broadcaster in New Orleans Broadcasters Association’s solution in Selma, Alabama. Orleans, died March 22nd after a New Orleans Broadcasting Hall of After Secrest sold the Chronicle, he lengthy illness. He was 80. Fame and received Loyola’s highest taught journalism at the University Johnson, a native of New Orleans, honor as well as a Lifetime Achieve- of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for graduated from Loyola University and ment Award from the Press Club of five years. He moved to Durham to worked in print journalism in Miami New Orleans. help establish the communications and Chicago before returning to his He is survived by his wife, Freida, department at North Carolina Central hometown a year after his Nieman five children, and eight grandchildren. University, retiring nine years later. In Fellowship to become promotions 2007 he was inducted into the UNC director for WWL-TV. 1961 School of Journalism’s Hall of Fame. Two years later he was brought into the news department and began 1966 delivering editorials on air, a practice Andrew M. “Mac” Secrest, a he continued for 37 years. “Beginning reporter, publisher, educator and vocal today and every weekday thereafter, critic of segregation, died on April 17th Robert A. Caro has been named to this station will present editorial after complications from surgery for the inaugural class of the New York opinion—a living, vigorous commen- throat cancer. He was 86. Library Association’s New York State tary on all things pertaining to New As owner and publisher of The Writers Hall of Fame. Orleans, its people, and its future,” Cheraw (S.C.) Chronicle weekly from In February Caro received the 2009 Johnson said in his first editorial, 1953 to 1968, he pushed back against National Humanities Medal, which adding that his goal was “commentary those who advocated resistance to “honors individuals or groups whose designed to stimulate thought, to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in work has deepened the nation’s under- awaken in all of us an awareness of Brown v. Board of Education, among standing of the humanities, broadened our responsibilities, not only to our them Senator Strom Thurmond and our citizens’ engagement with the community but to each other and to many fellow newspaper editors in the humanities, or helped preserve and ourselves,” according to the obituary South. He faced threats and attacks expand Americans’ access to important on WWL-TV’s Web site. on his home. resources in the humanities,” according

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 79 Nieman Notes

to the National Endowment for the at the association’s conference in Dietrich blends historical details into Humanities Web site. April. Adler, an NPR correspondent the narrative, along with research and Caro, who started his career as a based in New York, is the author of real-life details from his time as a newspaper reporter, is best known for “Drawing Down the Moon,” a study of journalist. his Pulitzer Prize-winning biographies contemporary nature religions. of New York master planner Robert Gene Weingarten received a Moses (“The Power Broker”) and 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in President Lyndon Johnson (“The Years April for “Fatal Distraction” in The of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Washington Post Magazine. Fifteen Senate”). He is working on the fourth Gustavo Gorriti has launched an to 25 children a year die of hyper- volume of the Johnson biography. investigative reporting Web site that thermia after parents leave them in covers the Peruvian government, IDL- the backseats of cars, and Weingarten 1969 Reporteros (http://idl-reporteros.pe). explored whether parents should be In his first column, Gorriti wrote that charged with a crime and how they the Spanish-language site’s mission is cope with their loss. Richard C. Longworth reports: to “report, investigate, discover and Weingarten, who writes the Below “I’m combining my Midwestern roots publish the cases and topics that the Beltway column for the Post, won a with my years as a foreign correspon- affect the rights, property, or destiny Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for “Pearls Before dent (for UPI and the Chicago Tribune) of the people.” Breakfast.” He convinced a world-class to carve out a new career in what were violinist to play in a Washington, D.C. supposed to be my retirement years. I’m 1987 Metro station during rush hour to see a senior fellow at the Chicago Council how commuters would react; passers- on Global Affairs, working mostly on by gave him a total of $32.17 for 43 the impact of the global economy on Doug Cumming’s minutes of playing. Chicago and the Midwest. My book, book “The Southern In an online chat at washington- ‘Caught in the Middle: America’s Press: Literary Leg- post.com after the second award, Heartland in the Age of Globalism’ acies and the Chal- Weingarten said, “I think this [“Fatal (Bloomsbury) went through three lenge of Modernity” Distraction”] story had greater conse- printings and is out now in paperback. was published by quence, yes. The first [“Pearls Before In the two years since it came out, Northwestern Uni- Breakfast”] was an unabashed stunt. I’ve given some 180 presentations versity Press last But both, I think, succeeded in mak- around the Midwest. I spent a year year. ing people think differently about as Distinguished Visiting Scholar at In the book, their lives.” DePaul University and have lectured Cumming, a journalism professor Before joining the Post, Weingarten at most of the major universities in the at Washington and Lee University was editor of The Miami Herald’s region. All this has led to the founding and former staff member of The Tropic Magazine, which won two of two centers here at the council—the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Pulitzer Prizes under his direction. Global Chicago Center, devoted to (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer, traces the study of Chicago’s transformation the history of Southern newspapers. 1991 from industrial city to global city, and Hodding Carter III, NF ’66, wrote the Global Midwest Initiative, spon- the foreword. soring reports and seminars on the Kabral Blay- Midwest and how, for the most part, 1988 Amihere reports it’s flunking the economic, political on his new book and social challenges produced by this and role in the new economy. Mostly, I’m having an William Dietrich’s government of exciting time, after a lifetime in other historical novel “The Ghana: “My third people’s countries, rediscovering my Barbary Pirates” book since my Nie- own home turf.” was published by m a n y e a r — Harper in March. ‘Between the Lion 1982 The novel is the and the Elephant: fourth in his series Memoirs of an African Diplomat’—was of Ethan Gage launched on March 24, 2010. It is a Margot Adler received the Asso- adventures and fol- recollection of my experiences as an ciation for the Study of Women and lows the explorer as ambassador for my country, Ghana, Mythology’s first Demeter Award for he searches for the mirror of Archi- in two conflict zones, Cote d’Ivoire Leadership in Women’s Spirituality medes. As with many of his novels, and Sierra Leone. It catalogs efforts

80 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 Nieman Notes by the international community, the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Craig Welch’s first notably the Economic Community of Achievement Award for her radio book “Shell Games: West African States and the United work. It was presented by the Edward Rogues, Smugglers, Nations, that resulted in the resolution R. Murrow School of Communication and the Hunt for of the decade-long civil war in Sierra at Washington State University. Nature’s Bounty” Leone (symbolized by the lion) and was published in peace initiatives in Cote d’Ivoire (the 2000 April by William elephant). The book also offers rich Morrow. It focuses perspectives into the Ghana Foreign on the black market Service and several initiatives and Deborah Schoch joined the Cali- trade in unusual innovations I undertook as an envoy fornia HealthCare Foundation Center marine creatures from Puget Sound for my country for seven years. ... for Health Reporting at the University and the federal agents who work to Meanwhile, I currently serve as the of Southern California’s Annenberg catch the thieves. Welch is the environ- chairman of the National Media Com- School for Communication & Journal- ment reporter for The Seattle Times. mission [NMC], a constitutional body ism in March as a senior writer. The charged with the promotion of press center’s goal is to expand and improve 2009 freedom and professional standards coverage of health care in California. in Ghana. It is an elective post. The It will be supported by a three-year NMC is made up of 18 members, grant of about $3.3 million from the Alfredo Corchado, Mexico bureau representing a broad spectrum of California HealthCare Foundation. chief for The Dallas Morning News, is media stakeholders. I represent the Schoch left the Los Angeles Times the 2010 winner of the Elijah Parish Ghana Journalists Association on this where she covered health care and Lovejoy Award for courageous jour- body.” the environment for 18 years. nalism to be given at Colby College in September. He is being recognized 1992 2004 for his coverage of issues involving the U.S.-Mexico border.

Deborah Amos, who is a foreign Carol Bradley’s first 2010 news correspondent for NPR, received book “Saving Gra- cie: How One Dog Escaped the Shad- Marcela Valdes was one of two SPJ Awards owy World of Amer- critics to receive the first annual ican Puppy Mills” Roger Shattuck Prize for Criticism. It Two Nieman Fellows received was released by is designed to support and encourage Sigma Delta Chi Awards from the Wiley in March. emerging critics. Valdes, who special- Society of Professional Journal- A r e v i e w i n izes in writing about Latin American ists for outstanding journalism Library Journal arts and culture and was this year’s published or broadcast in 2009. called the book about a dog that was arts and culture fellow, is a freelance Mary Kay Magistad, NF rescued from a Pennsylvania puppy book critic.  ’00, who covers Asia for Public mill a “compelling account” and an Radio International’s “The World,” “excellent exposé of a shady industry.” received an award for “Created Bradley, who covered animal welfare in China,” a five-part series that issues as a newspaper reporter, studied looked at the decline in Chinese animal law during her Nieman year. innovation over the last 500 years and the government’s efforts to 2007 reverse the trend. Chris Cobler, NF ’06, was Correction part of the reporting team at Andrea McCarren is working as the Victoria (Tex.) Advocate that a full-time multimedia journalist for In the Spring 2010 issue, an essay received an award for a 16-month WUSA-TV, the CBS station in Wash- titled “Connecting What Happened investigation called “Fatal Funnel” ington, D.C., after spending a year as Then With What Happens Now” about a smuggling route in Texas a freelance reporter and producer. In about Loren Ghiglione’s book that brings drugs and people into addition to reporting for television “CBS’s Don Hollenbeck” incorrectly the U.S. and sends cash and guns and the Web, McCarren shoots and described “CBS Views the Press.” into Mexico.  edits some of her own stories, a role It was a radio program. she embraces.

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 81 Nieman Notes

Welcoming a New Class of Nieman Fellows

The Nieman Foundation has selected Anna Gorman, staff writer, Los Atsuko Chiba (NF ’68) Nieman 25 journalists from the United States Angeles Times. Fellow. and abroad to join the 73rd class of Joshua Prager, freelance journal- Florence Martin-Kessler Nieman Fellows. The group includes ist and author based in New York. (France), documentary filmmaker. journalists who work in print, radio, Deb Price, Washington corre- She is the Robert Waldo Ruhl Nie- television, photography, filmmaking spondent, The Detroit News. She man Fellow. and online media. is the Louis Stark Nieman Fellow. Hollman Morris Rincón (Colom- The class of 2011 also includes Gwen Thompkins, East Africa bia), independent journalist and the first Nieman Fellow from correspondent, National Public Contravía TV series director. He Afghanistan, bringing to 90 the Radio. is a John S. and James L. Knight number of countries represented by Annmarie Timmins, reporter, Foundation Latin American Nie- the program. Concord (N.H.) Monitor. She is the man Fellow. Bob Giles, NF ’66, curator of the Donald W. Reynolds Nieman Fellow Rob Rose (South Africa), busi- foundation, said, “The new fellows in Community Journalism. ness reporter, the Sunday Times are a highly talented group of jour- in Johannesburg. His fellowship is nalists with extraordinarily diverse Nieman Fellows in Global supported by the Nieman Society of backgrounds and interests. Together, Health Reporting: Southern Africa. they’ll have the opportunity to share Philippa Thomas (United King- their expertise and learn from each Antigone Barton (United States), dom), anchor and correspondent, other as they take full advantage of freelance journalist. BBC World News television. the exceptional educational resources Helen Branswell (Canada), medi- Maxim Trudolyubov (Russia), available at Harvard. This year, a cal reporter, The Canadian Press. editorial page editor of the business large number of them are freelancers daily Vedomosti. He is the William and some have launched innovative International Nieman Montalbano (NF ’70) Nieman Fellow. journalism projects. They represent a Fellows: Abdul Waheed Wafa (Afghani- new breed of pioneering journalists stan), a reporter, based in Kabul, who will carry us, well informed, Fernando Berguido (Panama), for The New York Times. He is the into the future.” publisher and editor, La Prensa. Barry Bingham, Jr. Nieman Fellow. Stefan Candea (Romania), free- U.S. Nieman Fellows: lance journalist and cofounder of the The U.S. fellows were selected by Romanian Centre for Investigative Ju-Don Marshall Roberts (NF ’04), Loch Adamson, London bureau Journalism based in Bucharest. He senior vice president and executive chief, Institutional Investor. She is is the Carroll Binder Nieman Fellow. editor of Beliefnet and the former the Donald W. Reynolds Nieman Pablo Corral Vega (Ecuador), managing editor of washingtonpost. Fellow in Business Journalism, a new photographer and founder of Nuestra com; Margaret Engel (NF ’79), fellowship supported by the Donald Mirada, an online network for Latin director of the Alicia Patterson W. Reynolds Foundation. American documentary photogra- Foundation; and Donna Hicks, an Tony Bartelme, projects reporter, phers. He is a John S. and James L. associate at Harvard’s Weatherhead The Post and Courier, Charleston, Knight Foundation Latin American Center for International Affairs. South Carolina. Nieman Fellow. The Nieman Global Health Tyler Bridges, author and free- Kevin Doyle (Ireland), editor Reporting Fellows were chosen by lance journalist based in Lima, Peru. in chief, The Cambodia Daily in Jon Sawyer, director of the Pulitzer Jennifer Eccleston, broadcast Phnom Penh. Center on Crisis Reporting, and journalist and writer who has worked Nazila Fathi (Iran), a reporter Stefanie Friedhoff (NF ’01), special overseas. covering Iran for The New York projects manager for the Nieman Michael Fitzgerald, freelance Times. She is the Ruth Cowan Nash Foundation. writer in the Boston area. Nieman Fellow. Giles chaired the selection com- Darcy Frey, author and contrib- Hui Siu Fun (China), principal mittees for the U.S. and Global Health uting writer, The New York Times producer, Television Broadcasts Reporting fellows and selected the Magazine. Limited in Hong Kong. She is the international fellows. 

82 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 END NOTE

AN ESSAY IN WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS

A Nation’s Past and Promise: A Shift in the Meaning of American Symbols

BY DERRICK Z. JACKSON

n a surprisingly sum- flag. This was despite the fact Daily News editorial. mery October afternoon that few of the presidential can- The night before, Obama told in 2007 at a fairground didates, Democrat or Republican, a Cedar Rapids television station Oin Independence, Iowa, Barack consistently wore a pin. that he wore the pin for a while Obama’s sleeves were rolled up “Tricky politics here for Barack after 9/11 but stopped wearing against a heat wave. In this region Obama,” said an anchor for ABC one because it was often misused where cornfields were turning News. as a “substitute for, I think, true bronze, critics were making hay “A breathtaking misunder- patriotism.” Then, at this event, with the fact that Obama did not standing of the symbolism of the which I happened to be covering wear a lapel pin of the American American flag,” said a New York as a columnist for The Boston Globe, Obama spoke on the issue for the first time. “Somebody noticed I wasn’t wearing a flag lapel pin and I told folks, well you know what? I haven’t probably worn that pin in a very long time,” Obama said. “I wore it right after 9/11. But after a while, you start noticing people wearing a lapel pin, but not acting very patriotic. Not voting to provide veterans with resources that they need. Not voting to make sure that dis- ability payments were coming out on time.” He continued, “My attitude is that I’m less concerned about what you’re wearing on your lapel than what’s in your heart.” Obama spoke about flag pins with a giant American flag draped behind him. Besides my pen, pad and tape recorder, I also had Two weeks after Barack Obama was questioned about his patriotism and failure to wear a flag my camera. Things clicked for pin, he beamed the brightest of smiles before a giant American flag in the famously liberal college me and I started clicking away. city of Madison, Wisconsin. A century earlier, W.E.B. Du Bois wrote that African Americans sim- Here he was, negotiating the ply want “to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed classic tortured straits of African Americans, having to go an extra or spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face.” measure to affirm his patriotism before a flag that historically was

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 83 End Note

In Iowa, Obama reached out to hold the hand of a moist-eyed woman whose brother, suffering from cancer, held on to his job so he could keep his health insurance. The woman said that the way Obama looked her in the eyes and held her quaking hands “meant more to me than anything.”

a blind sentinel on America’s torture Many people ask me what it was refused those invitations. of black people. Yet, if he won, this like to be in Chicago’s Grant Park the I was too young to be part of the civil black man would represent this flag night of Obama’s election. I will most rights movement, but old enough to as arguably the most powerful man remember the crowd of 125,000 people adorn myself with the artifacts of anger, on earth. saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Like like my “Free Angela Davis” button. For two years beginning in February so many Americans, I grew up with Old enough to protest the exclusion 2007, I took photographs as I traveled highly conflicted feelings about the of Africa from my high school world across America covering the Obama pledge and the flag. Now 54, I am the history class and to get called before campaign. A selection of those images, son of parents who fled segregated Mis- the vice principal for writing a review “From Iowa to the White House: sissippi for the factories of Milwaukee. of “The Autobiography of Malcolm Historic Photos of President Barack My mother, a light-skinned African X.” I was a beneficiary of a decent Obama,” was displayed at the Museum American, told me white co-workers public school education, affirmative of African American History in Boston, invited her to picnics but asked her action, and the Kerner Commission Massachusetts earlier this year. not to tell her darker co-workers. She report that said America needed more

Photo and text by Derrick Z. Jackson.

84 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 End Note

Barack Obama’s presence on the campaign trail created scenes that looked like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. When voters in Madison, Wisconsin reached out to shake Obama’s hand, it brought to mind the scene of the white man surrounded by generations of ador- ing family members in Rockwell’s 1948 “Christmas Homecoming.” By 1961 the painter had progressed from that all-white scene to a multicul- tural vision in “Golden Rule.”

black journalists. But after getting “liberty and justice for all” evoked Lou Jones wrote in 2006, “Stories in the door, I saw too many ceilings neither the clank of chains nor the are ephemeral. Memories fade. Pho- still placed against the aspirations of cackle of cruelty, but a warm tickle tographs do not. Photographers bring my colleagues. To this day, African- of Jeffersonian slave-owning irony: back permanent proof of things never American journalists comprise only Justice cannot sleep forever. before seen.”  5 percent of newsroom staff. That was a long way from 1847 I wrote in the Globe that I had never when Frederick Douglass said, “I have Derrick Z. Jackson, a 1984 Nieman in my life heard such a multicultural no patriotism” for a nation that does Fellow, is a columnist at The Boston throng recite the pledge with such “not recognize me as a man.” Given Globe. determined enunciation, expelling it that Douglass spoke in the Museum from the heart in a treble soaring to of African American History’s historic the skies and a bass drumming through African Meeting House in Boston, it is the soil to vibrate my feet. The treble the best of full circles. As the award- and bass met in my spine, where winning, Boston-based photographer

Photo and text by Derrick Z. Jackson.

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 85 End Note

On the day before the Iowa caucuses, Obama asked the crowd in this gymnasium who among them was still undecided. One of the undecid- ed voters was St. Ambrose University professor Bill Hitchings. The next night Hitchings voted for Obama in his caucus. What was his reason? “I talked to an older black woman at the Obama event,” Hitchings said. “I helped four white women in their 70s find their place at the caucus and they all said the same thing. They said Obama is the hope for their grandsons and their grandchildren.”

Obama turned his attention to this member of a future generation of voters during a campaign stop at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Photos and text by Derrick Z. Jackson.

86 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 End Note

A girl perched on the shoulders of her father to get a better view on Inauguration Day in Washington, D.C. might make one wonder: What will witnessing the swearing-in of the first African-American president mean for this girl when it is her turn to become a leader?

Photo and text by Derrick Z. Jackson.

Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 87 NIEMAN REPORTS NIEMAN

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