Nieman Reports THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY VOL. 62 NO. 4 WINTER 2008 4 The Search for True North: New Directions in a New Territory Spiking the Newspaper to Follow the Digital Road 5 If Murder Is Metaphor | By Steven A. Smith 7 Where the Monitor Is Going, Others Will Follow | By Tom Regan 9 To Prepare for the Future, Skip the Present | By Edward Roussel 11 Journalism as a Conversation | By Katie King 13 Digital Natives: Following Their Lead on a Path to a New Journalism | By Ronald A. Yaros 16 Serendipity, Echo Chambers, and the Front Page | By Ethan Zuckerman Grabbing Readers’ Attention—Youthful Perspectives 18 Net Geners Relate to News in New Ways | By Don Tapscott 20 Passion Replaces the Dullness of an Overused Journalistic Formula | By Robert Niles 21 Accepting the Challenge: Using the Web to Help Newspapers Survive | By Luke Morris 23 Journalism and Citizenship: Making the Connection | By David T.Z. Mindich 26 Distracted: The New News World and the Fate of Attention | By Maggie Jackson 28 Tracking Behavior Changes on the Web | By David Nicholas 30 What Young People Don’t Like About the Web—And News On It | By Vivian Vahlberg 32 Adding Young Voices to the Mix of Newsroom Advisors | By Steven A. Smith 35 Using E-Readers to Explore Some New Media Myths | By Roger Fidler Blogs, Wikis, Social Media—And Journalism 37 Mapping the Blogosphere: Offering a Guide to Journalism’s Future | By John Kelly 40 The End of Journalism as Usual | By Mark Briggs 42 The Wikification of Knowledge | By Kenneth S. Kosik 44 Media Re:public: My Year in the Church of the Web | By Persephone Miel Nieman Reports Online Cover Graphic: Diane Novetsky/Nova Design www.niemanreports.org 47 The Wisdom of the Crowd Resides in How the Crowd Is Used | By Jeff Howe 50 When Journalists Blog: How It Changes What They Do | By Paul Bradshaw 52 Digging Into Social Media to Build a Newspaper Audience | By Bill Adee 54 Web v. Journalism: Court Cases Challenge Long-Held Principles | By Jane Kirtley 57 Ethical Values and Quality Control in the Digital Era | By Bob Steele Rethinking the What, Why, Where and How of What We Do 59 Engaging the Public in Asking Why We Do What We Do | By Nancy San Martin 62 Suggest a Topic—And Content Flows to It | By John A. Byrne 64 Creating a New Platform to Support Reporting | By David Cohn 66 A 21st Century Newswire—Curating the Web With Links | By Josh Korr 68 No Time Left for Reluctant Transformers | By Jim Kennedy 70 Blogging From Inside a TV Station’s Newsroom | By Katie Allison Granju 72 Live Web Cast—From a Newspaper’s Newsroom | By John Hassell 75 Video News: The Videojournalist Comes of Age | By Michael Rosenblum 77 A Retired Newspaper Journalist Takes What He Knows to the Web | By James P. Gannon Words & Reflections 79 The Unchanging Essence of War Photography | By Peter Osnos 86 The Ties That Bind: Newspapers and Nonfiction Books | By Melissa Ludtke 89 Using Strength of Evidence to Tell a Powerful Story About Torture | By Tom Ehrenfeld 91 The Middle East Conflict: American Coverage | By Simon Wilson 93 Peering Deep Into the Essence of Small-Town Life | By Madeleine Blais 3 Curator’s Corner: The Road Ahead: Clear Direction in Tough Economic Times | By Bob Giles 98 Nieman Notes | Compiled by Lois Fiore 98 The View From Baku | By James Trengrove 100 Class Notes 108 End Note: Election Night in Chicago—Capturing the Moment | By Eli Reed 2 Nieman Reports | Winter 2008 Curator’s Corner Clear Direction in Tough Economic Times Economic volatility brings ‘new meaning to the program’s transformative nature.’ BY BOB GILES s the Nieman Foundation’s Advisory Board met its own URL, www.niemanreports.org, offering readers in early November on the eve of the convocation a separate link to each story, its online audience will be celebrating 70 years of Nieman Fellowships, two able to share articles with friends, leave comments, and Aquestions dominated the discussions: publish links to stories related to various topics. • By year’s end, we plan to launch on our Web site, www. • Should the foundation reconsider its mission of midcareer nieman.harvard.edu, an online community for alumni education in response to the dramatic and disruptive tech- that will create a place for fellows to interact and share nological and economic changes affecting journalism? ideas about the program with the foundation staff. • How can the foundation give the fellows a more trans- formational experience to help them think through and The advisory board members reflected on these de- prepare for their roles in the new world of journalism? velopments and talked about other fellowship programs that are introducing significant changes. At the John S. The press is less institutional than it was when the first Knight Fellowships at Stanford, for example, applicants Nieman Fellows came to Harvard in the fall of 1938. While now propose a project—to be worked on during their most fellows still come from mainstream news organizations, fellowship year—that addresses a journalistic challenge especially newspapers, an increasing number of fellows with an emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurship arrive as freelancers, and many of them blog. Even those resulting in a business proposal, a progress report, or a from established newsrooms bring with them a sense that public conference. their careers will head them in new directions. Our discussions about the continuing role of the Nie- The central design of a year of study in Harvard class- man Fellowship program took place under the shadow rooms has remained steady through the years. Each fel- of volatility in the financial markets and uncertainty that low shapes a program designed to serve a specific need: persists as a new economic reality. Some advisory board filling gaps in education, exploring new fields of learning, members wondered whether the changes in journalism preparing for a different assignment at year’s end. Nieman and the downsizing of mainstream news organizations Fellows have always been in transition in thinking deeply would influence the composition of future Nieman classes. about what they want to do as journalists. For years, this Will the number of applicants increase or shrink? Would meant enriching their minds as preparation for their re- journalists be attracted to the program at earlier points turn to their newspaper or broadcast news organization. in their careers as they look to buttress their journalistic Today, Nieman Fellows explore unfamiliar paths and use values and acquire knowledge to influence their work in the knowledge and skills gained along the way as the keys the years ahead? to unlocking fresh opportunity. Board members encouraged the Nieman Foundation to These days fellows face buyout offers or circumstances stay the course and preserve the original purpose of a year that force them to consider taking alternative paths in for fellows to learn and reflect, whether they are in transit journalism. This unsettling reality brings new meaning to or anticipate a return to their newsrooms. the program’s transformative nature, and we are addressing Here at Harvard, President Drew Faust has told the this challenge by supplementing the core program with university community that even though universities have seminars and workshops that acquaint fellows with the for centuries shown remarkable resilience and creative new tools necessary for storytelling in the digital age. power in the face of unpredictability and change, the pres- Fellows also benefit from Nieman initiatives serving ent downturn will have an impact on even well diversified audiences beyond Harvard. portfolios such as Harvard’s. What the impact will be is influenced by the university’s prudent policies over the • The Nieman Journalism Lab is finding a place in ongo- years in distributing endowment payouts. ing discussions about journalism in a digital world and Harvard’s management practices are designed to weather the search for economic models that can sustain quality this kind of downturn and enable endowed units, such as journalism. The lab, through its Web site, www.niemanlab. the Nieman Foundation, to avoid making sharp cuts in org, is providing daily posts about issues of the journalistic its educational programs. In this time of uncertainty, the craft and business models. foundation is weighing options and discussing strategic • Nieman Reports is enlarging its capacity in the digital steps that will enable us to continue a strong fellowship arena, aided by the foundation’s redesigned Web site. With program for the class of 2010 and beyond. Nieman Reports | Winter 2008 3 The Search for True North Journalists: Start your engines. The digital road awaits, and it favors those with a sturdy back and daring attitude. Don’t forget to pack the digital recorder, headphones and mic, the BlackBerry, maybe an iPhone, too, the Flip camera, and perhaps a digital camcorder. Toss in a tripod and grab an underwater case for your Flip. Who knows? The news might be a flood or fire. Then, squeeze in the notebook computer, assorted USB cables, batteries, chargers and a few flash drives. Oh yes, be sure you have the digital camera for those slideshows and, for old-times sake, throw in a few pens and a paper notebook. Packed up. Ready to go. Now the tough part begins. Your work—once destined for print or broadcast with advertising paying your way to bring this news to eager subscribers and newsstand customers—will emerge now in search of “eyeballs” and “clicks” and with the hope of topping the “most e-mailed list.” To follow possible routes laid out on one map (below)—the vision of Dietmar Schantin, the director of IFRA’s Newsplex—is to absorb a sense of the ricocheting ride of words and images in the digital media.