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IPI ReportProduced in Partnership with Uhe Poynter Institute Brave Worlds

Navigating the New Media Landscape

Preface

or the past three years, discussions about the future of the have centered Fon the decline of the so-called golden age of and the descent into a chaos characterised by splintered audiences, decimated balance sheets, and the muscling-in of amateurs. Fearing that their halcyon days as the guardians of information are num- bered, many editors and have engaged in collective navel-gazing, asking themselves: What went wrong?

But is the future really so bleak? Is the decline a global phenomenon? Are we moving into a new ‘golden age’? And what does it mean for press freedom?

To find answers to these pressing questions, the International Press Institute teamed up with the Poynter Institute, one of the premier journalism training centers in the world, to set out on a global investigation assembling an international group of editors, jour- nalists, visionaries and sceptics to discover how the future of the news is developing around the world.

The result is that after a 10-year absence, the IPI Report series has returned, revamped and reinvigorated with a new edition entitled “Brave News Worlds”, a report that charts the exciting times ahead for the news media and uncovers the many different global perspectives thereof.

Picking up where the IPI Report series left off in 2000, “Brave News Worlds” explores what the next 10 years hold for the news and journalism industry and offers insight into how journalists and non-journalists alike can take advantage of changes in the media and technology to make the future of news a bright one.

Edited by Bill Mitchell, Head of the Poynter Institute’s Entrepreneurial Journalism and International Programs, the report brings together the greatly diverse perspectives of 42 editors, journalists and media experts from over 20 countries to tackle issues such as regulation and control, emerging forms of journalism and the power of the public, along with the need to reframe traditional news models to better engage with audi- ences.

With a focus on effective solutions and lessons learned, but also providing stimulus for debate, this report is not a definitive map, but instead a compass, pointing us, the global media, in the right direction: To a sustainable and successful future for journalism.

Lauren Dolezal Commissioning and Production Editor Contents

4 Introduction: Discovering New Value Along New 64 Lessons for Journalists in the of Crisis Routes for News Bill Mitchell Information Patrick Meier 68 as a First Draft of Journalism and a Rally- The Journey Ahead ing Cry for Democracy Endy M. Bayuni 71 Crowdsourcing Can Turn Fragmentation into Commu- The Evolution of News nity Jeff Howe 8 News as a Service to be Sustained Rather than a Prod- uct to be Sold Jeff Jarvis Emerging Forms of Journalism 12 Openness, Collaboration Key to New Information 74 Data and Journalism Form a Powerful Combination Ecosystem Alan Rusbridger Paul Bradshaw 15 How Technology Turned News into a Conversation 79 The Tablet Innovates News Presentation as Color Did in Turi Munthe 1970s Mario Garcia 18 The Shock of Inclusion and New Roles for News in the 82 From Adversaries to Allies: Professional and Citizen Fabric of Society Clay Shirky Journalists Need Each Other Solana Larsen 22 Joins the Fourth in Push for Freedom of Expression and the Press William H. Dutton Traditional Concepts Reframed 85 How Niche Journalism Works for Bill Nichols 88 Building a Cabin and a Create Foundation for The Role of Journalists Community Louis Ureneck 26 The Journalism Business and Business of Journalism 92 The Future of TV News Belongs, in Part, to Multi-Plat- Must Align More Closely in the Future Roy Greenslade form Video Steve Herrmann 30 The Irony of Editors and Democracy Alex Jones 95 New Online Tools Usher in Golden Age of Global 33 In the New Media Rush for Instant News, Where are the Muckraking Sheila S. Coronel Journalists? Alison Bethel McKenzie 36 Structures and Cultures Limit Journalism Ownership Innovation Jean-François Fogel 98 Government Support Obliges Australian Broadcasting 39 Three Tasks for Journalism: Control Costs, Embrace Corporation to Innovate and Diversify Mark Scott New Ways, Believe in the Business Paul Tash 102 Nonprofit Ownership is No Panacea; New Models 42 Reinvention of Journalism Marked by Seven Key Needed for New Times Karen B. Dunlap Features & Six Critical Steps Dan Gillmor 105 Conclusions from Paths with Promise: Time to ‘Skill Up’ on 10 Promising Paths Bill Mitchell The State of Law, Regulation and Media Freedom 45 Legal Threats to Privacy, Free Speech Appear Over the Horizon Geoffrey Robertson Reports from the Road 49 Legislation and Libel Laws Erode Press Freedom, Jeop- ardizing Democracy Robin Esser 106 Media Face Different Difficulties in Less Mature 52 Media Freedom in a New Media Landscape Damian Markets Fernando Samaniego Tambini 109 From the : Old-School Storytelling 55 Defending Freedom of Expression on the Using New-School Tools Steve Buttry Susan Pointer 112 From China: Competition Over News Intensifies in China, as Internet Offers Alternative Coverage 59 Conclusions from The Journey Ahead: Trends and Yuen-Ying Chan Tips to Build the Business and Enhance the Craft 116 From Malaysia: Independent Malaysian News Bill Mitchell Site Shores Up its Pay Wall with Innovation Premesh Chandran Paths with Promise 119 From South Africa: Project Offers Case Study in Collaboration Steven Lang The Power of the People 121 From South Africa: Telling the Stores Left Untold by 60 Providing Platforms for Community Involvement in Gaps in Wealth and Bandwidth Ferial Haffajee Journalism as a Social Good Grzegorz Piechota

2 IPI REPORT 125 From Kenya: Telling African Stories the African Brave News Worlds Way Salim Amin 128 From Burma: Peeking Behind Burma's Bamboo IPI Interim Director and Publisher Curtain Soe Myint Alison Bethel McKenzie 131 From India: Media in India Poised to Grow Rapidly Rajesh Kalra Editor in Chief 134 From Russia: Digital Publishing Empowering a Bill Mitchell New Technology in Russia, but is it Journalism? Andrei Soldatov Commissioning & Production Editor 137 From Colombia: La Silla Vacía Models How the Internet Lauren Dolezal Encourages Press Freedom in Colombia Juanita León 140 From Jordan: Digital Technology Fuels both Oppressive Governments and Media Freedom in Michael Kudlak Arab World Daoud Kuttab 143 From Nigeria: NN24, Birth of an African Channel Anthony Dara Julie Moos 146 From Japan: Tracking the Rangers Hockey Team from Tokyo: A Personal Tale of Media Consump- Layout and Design Editor tion Takashi Tanemura Stefan Fuhrer, Fuhrer Visuelle Gestaltung

149 Conclusions: 10 Waypoints Tagged to the Future of IPI Press Freedom & Publications Manager News Bill Mitchell Anthony Mills

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IPI REPORT 3 Introducing IPI’s 60th Anniversary Report: Discovering New Value Along New Routes for News

To make the report as useful as possible, we have attached tags and summaries to the first page of each , easy for you to scan – based on your own interests – during your initial run through the pages that follow. In a concluding essay on page 149, I list 10 of the tags that emerge for me as especially useful way- points through the report – and through the next few years for journalism. The report will also be available in digital formats, with details available at www.poynter.org/futureofnews.

Exploring journalism’s critical issues is a fitting way to mark the By Bill Mitchell first 60 years of the International Press Institute, launched in Oc- tober 1950 by a group of 34 editors from 15 countries meeting at Columbia University in New York.

Those editors focused on the promotion and protection of press freedom and the improvement of journalistic practices. They founded the new organization on a bold and simple premise: that a free press would contribute to the creation of a better world. ot that long ago, journalism’s transition from analog to Ndigital looked a whole lot simpler, the road ahead appearing Creating News in New Shapes and Sizes nearly as straight and narrow as orderly packets of bytes zipping The original shape of that free press has been disrupted, especially down the line one after another. in recent years, by fundamental shifts in the ways news animates our civic lives and supports itself financially. For a time, we even relied on a metaphor that, in retrospect, rings laughably naive. The Information Super Highway has been over- The free press, 60 years on, is sustained by a range of practitioners taken by a messier thicket of trails, many of which lead nowhere. and initiatives never imagined by those editors gathered in Morn- And yet, with renewed signs of reportorial resolve stirring around ingside Heights at the midpoint of the last century. the globe, journalists and non-journalists alike are uncovering paths that hold the promise of informing more people, more thor- Whether you’re a working , a newsroom boss or a busi- oughly, than ever before. ness-side executive, these essays offer evidence and insight useful in shaping your own view of journalism’s future – and the steps From Bogota to Burma, from Warsaw to Washington, they – we – you’ll take to realize it. are mapping new routes for news. You’ll find accounts from each of those datelines and more among the 42 essays that follow. A report like this presumes no single view of the future. Instead, you’ll find some quite specific descriptions of how news is chang- In assembling this report, IPI and its partner in the project, the ing around the world, along with prescriptions that I know you’ll Poynter Institute, asked some of the most creative thinkers in and feel free to accept or reject. As you read the report, consider what around journalism to provide a snapshot of today’s landscape – it suggests about how you and your organization do news today. and to sketch the world of news in the decade ahead. Get clear about what you know, as my colleagues at Poynter like to say, and what you need to know next. Our intent with this collection is more provocation than docu- mentation, more a call to action than a snapshot in time. We’ve di- Like news itself, the report tilts in the direction of what’s new as vided the report’s 42 essays into three chapters organized around opposed to what’s not, highlighting such topics as: three objectives: Scoping out the journey ahead, discovering paths with promise, and discerning lessons learned in reports from the The emergence of the so-called Fifth Estate – bloggers and others field. whose work usually does not generate the bulk (or any) of their

4 IPI REPORT income – and its relationship with mainstream journalists of the former audience. It is also being driven by new entrepreneurs, the . William Dutton and Geoffrey Robertson address the men and women who want to build new kinds of sites and services growing importance to democratic life of the core value of each es- that assume, rather than ignore, the free time and talents of the tate: Freedom of expression and . public.”

The Obstacles facing what Roy Greenslade characterizes as the “the Damian Tambini, the British expert on media law and policy, re- journalism business and the business of journalism, in which the for- jects the notion of a Fourth and Fifth Estate, arguing that there’s mer represents commerce and the latter represents public service.” “no real boundary between ‘the Internet’ and the press.”

The value and values of citizen journalism and its often boisterous Media freedom without media power? cousins, crowdsourcing and social media. How do they fit with But he raises a key question: “The current crisis of the ’s ultimate purpose – as well as its bottom line? Rajesh model, and therefore of the fourth estate, itself leads to an uncom- Kalra points out that news organizations gain not only in content fortable question: Can we have media freedom without media but in loyalty by engaging the contributions of their customers. power?” But several of the authors also describe the challenge of resolving real conflict over such values as verification, fairness and inde- Gone are the days when the twin challenges of journalism’s com- pendence. merce and craft could be addressed separately. Sustaining news as a fuel of democratic life demands not only traditional journalistic The challenge of sustaining, in an era of uncommon customiza- skills, but the entrepreneurial tools that Dan Gillmor lists as essen- tion, a common presentation of news to the diverse constituents tial to creating the sort of value someone will pay for. who populate our civic lives. How do we make good decisions about the commonweal, in other words, if we have our noses Premesh Chandran, the human rights advocate and co-founder of buried in the Daily Me? the leading online publication in Malaysia, Malaysiakini.com, of- fers a case study of ’s struggle to sustain itself with a pay wall The central question for journalists and news organizations in that has been in place since 2002. each of these areas: How will you engage what Clay Shirky de- scribes as the “coordinated voluntary participation” of your read- Reconciling that approach with the increasingly open and collab- ers, viewers, listeners and users in creating the news that civil so- orative environment of the Web has been difficult, with subscrip- ciety requires? tion numbers stagnating since 2008.

Shirky’s seminal 2009 essay, “ and Thinking the Un- “’s ability to spread breaking news fast was …a major blow thinkable,” helped inspire part of IPI’s 60th anniversary Congress, to Malaysiakini’s positioning,” he writes. “Twitter provided news- “Thinking the Unthinkable: Are We Losing the News?” makers, especially politicians, with a direct route to the audience, reducing their reliance on news media. In his essay for this report, he sketches a future that’s quite think- able, for journalists and their audiences alike, but only if journal- “As a subscription site, Malaysiakini has also been cut off from so- ists figure out smart ways of accommodating what he terms “the cial media. Users are more likely to share links on and shock of inclusion” of the former audience in the enterprise of Twitter that their non-subscriber friends can read.” news gathering, distribution and sharing. Chandran is not giving up on the subscription model, linking its Shirky points out that a great deal of audience participation in- rejuvenation to the sort of innovation he hopes will provide suffi- volves voluntary efforts motivated by “human desires to do things cient new value to users to sustain the site. that make us happy, not just things that pay us money.” The year ahead will include significant experimentation with paid He says the “shock of inclusion is coming from the outside in, content, ranging from the sort of blunt pay wall recently imposed driven not by the professionals formerly in charge, but by the on all of the content of the Times of London to the more flexible

IPI REPORT 5 Right: Editors at work in the news hub of in New York, March 2010

metered approach that says it will introduce There’s opportunity to create new value for users with that mate- in January 2011. rial. There are also risks.

In Chapter One of the report, The Journey Ahead, you’ll find an Not all of what users share is accurate. IPI’s Alison Bethel McKenzie essay about a more fundamental issue written by Alex Jones, au- points out the challenge of sorting out truth from rumor in the thor of the 2009 book, “Losing the News,” that helped inspire the blizzard of social media that followed the 2009 Iranian elections. second part of the IPI Congress title. With foreign thrown out of the country, it fell to people on the street to document with cell phone cameras and text Securing Coverage of the ‘Commons’ updates the stories of the uprising that ensued. In an early exam- Jones highlights a concern also raised by South Africa’s Ferial ple of the sort of collaboration that will be required going forward, Haffajee and others in the report: “It is easily possible to know journalists in London, the US and elsewhere stepped in to provide about your favorite sports team or an automobile acci- the fact-checking and context understandably missing from dent in your neighborhood,” Jones writes, “but to be utterly un- reports from the streets. aware of genocide in Africa... to know little about the broad pic- ture that includes points of view that are foreign in every re- Along the way, journalists and their new partners will need to spect.” wrestle with their often conflicting views of such values as verifi- cation, transparency, accountability and fairness. Collaboration He adds: “That is not an enhancement of democracy. The most will be key with a whole range of partners, not just the blogos- democratic – meaning, the non-customized view of the world – is phere. News organizations are also developing new alliances with the one that is most apt to be created with the idea of informing a NGOs, universities and even competitors. lot of people with diverse interests and backgrounds.” The St. Petersburg Times, owned by the Poynter Institute and the The key to saving the news, Jones argues, is the editorial decision- largest in , has merged its reporting from the making exercised by “the old-fashioned and disparaged editor state with its state-wide rival, the Miami Herald. with independent judgment...” The pace of all this change can be overwhelming. International The loss of such professionals has damaged journalism’s capacity media consultant Fernando Samaniego says media executives for public service in ways that Greenslade acknowledges he un- sometimes respond to his call for urgent action by suggesting that derestimated: “I frankly admit that I made a mistake some years the revolution can wait. ago, while in the first throes of cheering the digital advance, of ad- vocating the reduction in editorial jobs,” he writes “It was a reason- “I always tell them that they are dead wrong,” Samaniego writes, able argument at the time but publishers have taken it to an un- “because their readers/clients have discovered the Internet and... reasonable limit.” will bypass traditional media if they are not offered quality content.”

Greenslade says journalists must focus now on the construction The essays collected here suggest no reason to wait. The issues of of “a bridge from old to new media in order to preserve the best of press freedom that moved those 34 founding editors to take action what we have in order to enhance the good that is to come.” 60 years ago are ever more urgent. As IPI’s Bethel McKenzie notes, there’s no let-up in powerful forces erecting barriers to the free- Some of that “good to come” is already being created by newcom- dom of information that’s a fundamental, universal right. ers to the world of journalism, contributors to an emerging ecosys- tem of news who are no longer content simply to receive reports Around the globe, journalists and their collaborators are discov- produced by others. ering the tools and tactics that can yield new routes for news and, in the process, protect the rights common to us all. Steve Buttry points out that journalists have long relied on com- munity members for eye-witness accounts of news that journal- Bill Mitchell leads the Entrepreneurial Journalism and International programs ists missed. Many people have stopped waiting for reporters to at the Poynter Institute, a school for journalists in St. Petersburg, Florida. To show up and are just publishing their observations on their own, contact any of the authors in this report – or to suggest follow-up discussions a trend that enterprising news organizations are beginning to pick of any of the issues raised – send an email to [email protected]. up on as they incorporate some of that content.

6 IPI REPORT IPI REPORT 7 Tags: Linked, Networked, Partnered, Sustained News as a Service to be Sustained Rather than a Product to be Sold

By Jeff Jarvis

A new news ecosystem is e must blow up our concep- in content-and-ad networks, competing forming, in which newspapers Wtion of a news organization—and news. with and its much Very soon, we had better hope that news- heavier cost burden. are part of networks that enable papers aren’t just papers any more but are communities to share and make valued members of larger networks that In Brooklyn, my colleagues and our stu- enable their communities to gather, share, dents at the City University of New York sense of information. and make sense of the news they need. Graduate School of Journalism are running The Local with the New York Times. We are Communities won’t need news organiza- working together to nurture a new ecosys- Editor’s Note: We asked Jeff tions to gather and share information; tem, training members of the community Jarvis, the author, journalism using technology, they are starting to do in media and journalism and training citi- that on their own at a marginal cost of zero. zen sales forces to sell new forms of service professor and media visionary, Journalists and publishers then must ask to local merchants. to update an essay he wrote how they can add value to that process, how they can become platforms (- At Journal Register, a beleaguered and re- three years ago for the World As- like) for conversation and sharing, for ask- cently bankrupt newspaper chain, new sociation of Newspapers. The ing questions and getting answers, for CEO John Paton decreed that his staff pooling knowledge and holding debate, for should put digital first and print last as he topic: “Newspapers in 2020.” adding reporting, for building new ecosys- remakes his company collaborating with tems of news. local blog networks built by startup Growthspur. The company (I’m among its The journalists may offer technology and advisors) has found new efficiencies even training as well as reporting. The publish- in print (on 4 July, all 18 of its dailies were ers may set up networks that help sustain published using only free online tools). their members with advertising, events, services, and other sources of value and Yes, we see the beginnings. But we still have revenue. One company will yield to 100 not been nearly radical enough in rethink- companies, each smaller but—thanks to ing what a newspaper is. the efficiencies of collaboration and spe- cialization and the higher value of target- So what is a newspaper? That’s what young ing—each more efficient and profitable. people may soon ask. Jeffrey Cole of the USC Annenberg School’s Center for the In the US, I see the first seeds of such a new Digital Future concluded from one of his ecosystem of news emerging. surveys of Internet use a few years ago that people 12-to-25 years old—who’ll be in the In Washington, DC, TBD.com, started by the golden 25-to-38 demographic in 2020 – company that owns POLITICO, will cover will “never read a newspaper.” Never is a Washington with a few dozen journalists strong word. Phil Meyer famously pre- collaborating with scores of local bloggers dicted in his book “The Vanishing News -

8 IPI REPORT Below: Google News stories are aggregated by Newsmap according to the frequency at which the stories appear – allowing users to quickly identify stories with the most coverage in a particular region.

paper” that if current trend lines continue, tages is not a viable strategy for growth—or could create a community. The famously the last American paper will be published survival. laconic Zuckerberg’s response: “You can’t.” in 2043 (or sooner perhaps). Let that word, Full stop. too, sink in: last. I’ll argue that a newspaper isn’t even a product. Journalism is a service, a process, Later, Zuckerberg explained that commu- So get ahead of the curve for once. Kill the an organizing principle. And thanks to the nities already exist and are already doing newspaper yourself. Pick a date in the less- technology that some think is a threat to what they want to do, so the question we distant-than-you-think future and unplug newspapers—the Internet—that service can should ask is how we can help them do that the press. And then ask: What’s a newspa- now expand in so many ways, turning a better. Zuckerberg’s prescription: Bring per? What is its real value? And how does newspaper into something new and some- them “elegant organization.” When you that value live on and grow past paper? thing more—at a lower cost. So rather than think about it, that is the essence of what asking what a newspaper will be, I think we journalism has tried to do: It helps organize Oh, printed products may well continue should ask what a news organization’s rela- a community’s knowledge so that a better- and in some countries still grow. But I tionship with its community can be. informed society can accomplish the goals wouldn’t mourn their death so long as we it sets for itself. find ways for their journalism to live on, I am reminded of a moment at the 2007 change, and grow. For a newspaper mustn’t World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. Do what you do best and link to the rest define itself by its medium. It isn’t just In a session of the International Media So I suggest that news organizations turn paper. Its strength and value do not come Council, a leading newspaper publisher be- themselves into service companies, en- from controlling content or distribution. seeched Facebook founder Mark Zucker- abling and training networks of local blog- And protecting those dwindling advan- berg for advice on how his newspaper gers and specialized news sources to sprout

IPI REPORT 9 up in their communities. They should en- able others to succeed at creating content so the news organizations don’t have to go to all that expense alone, so they have something to link to.

The link frees them from the need to waste their ever-dwindling resources on com- ganizations and the US government to networks and of the savings realized by modity information the community al- school on modern media economics in a eliminating print and distribution costs. As ready knows. They no longer need to recre- recent response to Federal Trade Commis- a result of building a strong, collaborative ate the same news everyone else has. They sion ideas for saving (old) news: “The large relationship with the community, they’ll be can link to it. They no longer need to be all profit margins newspapers enjoyed in the able to rely more on word of mouth – as op- things to all people. They can link to spe- past were built on an artificial scarcity: posed to expensive marketing campaigns – cialized coverage that is better than what Limited choice for advertisers as well as to sell products and services of real value to they could have afforded to offer them- readers,” Google said. “With the Internet, customers. (No, I do not think that pay selves. They also no longer need to waste that scarcity has been taken away and re- walls are news’ salvation.) resources on ego, on all having their own placed by abundance. No policy proposal critics, on sending one-too- will be able to restore newspaper revenues Even smaller, how do they make sufficient many reporters to the big story that is all to what they were before the emergence of revenue in the future once print advertis- over TV just so they can say they did. They online news. It is not a question of analog ing disappears (along with print’s costs)? I can collaborate. The link economy de- dollars versus digital dimes, but rather a re- believe that newspapers can and should mands that they do what they do best and alistic assessment of how to make money put themselves at the center of revenue link to the rest. in a world of abundant competitors and networks for the new, emerging media consumer choice.” ecosystems in their communities. They must find other efficiencies in the or- ganization as well. For the economics of Accept this new reality. Then what? News That is what we saw in research we did at media have inexorably changed. On its organizations must operate on a radically CUNY on the ecosystem. We public policy blog, Google took news or- smaller scale, taking advantage of content found hyperlocal bloggers across the US

10 IPI REPORT they cannot afford to waste effort on com- The next question: Can the market meet modity news and production. And there that demand? That’s why we are perform- still is a citywide news organization, but it ing our research at CUNY. We believe we is smaller and much more efficient. are seeing credible ways for the market to Rather than asking what advance. And we are seeing entrepreneurs a newspaper will be, ask There is, I believe, a future for news. It’s not seize that opportunity. guaranteed. It won’t appear on its own. It what a news organization’s must be built, if not by the incumbent in- Then the big question is, again: What can relationship with its stitutions then more likely by the entrepre- and should news be? And I don’t mean it’s neurial journalism students I’m training at an iPad app; thinking that way isn’t rein- community can be. CUNY (whose best opportunity is to disrupt venting news but is more often a sad at- the legacy players). tempt to hold onto old models of news. No, pulling in $200,000 in ad revenue and we I mean, what relationship will news have to believe that could reach $350,000 if they Some suggest that we are seeing a market its community? How can it open up to be- were able to join networks – networks that failure in news. I disagree. We are seeing a come collaborative, networked, efficient, news organizations could create. Those failure of imagination by some—only and sustainable? That is our challenge and news organizations can make money from some—of those legacy players. They are the opportunity. selling top-down advertising and also from ones making themselves vulnerable to new new revenue sources: events, education, and efficient competition by not reinvent- data, and more. ing themselves and instead by resisting in- evitable change and hiding behind the You can find our research at newsinnova- skirts of government, seeking to get regula- tion.com and our models (which you are tion to grant them an uneven playing field free to download and change) at newsinno- by expanding copyright or limiting fair use vation.com/models. The assumptions in or enabling pricing collusion or handcuff- these models are focused on an American ing Google. market, to be sure: In the US we do not have the strong and varied national media Google, by the way, is not news’ enemy. It of European nations; we have stronger sends publishers four billion clicks a local governments that demand stronger month, four billion opportunities to build coverage; and we do not have the growth of a relationship with readers and find value print readership that newspapers in some there. If they can’t, that’s not Google’s fault; nations enjoy. Still, many of the dynamics it’s theirs. Rather than treating Google as and opportunities presented by the Inter- the enemy, news executives should see it as net will be universal. So it’s worth looking a model of success in a new marketplace. at the various experiments under way in They should be asking (pardon me for the US as a canary in the coalmine (and the plugging my book): What would Google canary is tilting on its perch). do?

The ecosystem we envisioned in our CUNY It’s way too soon to give up on the market. Jeff Jarvis heads the Center for Entrepreneurial research had more than 100 companies, Google certainly hasn’t. Journalism at the City University of New York Grad- many owned by journalists, with about 250 uate School of Journalism. He writes about media full-time-equivalent staff for content—an So the real questions are: Will there be a and technology for his blog, Buzzmachine.com, and equivalent resource to what exists in the market demand for reporting and journal- in the UK. He is the author of “What newsroom of a paper in such a city today. ism? It’s a leap of faith, perhaps, but I be- Would Google Do?” and is at work on his next book, But these journalists are much closer and lieve there will be. If not, news and in- “Public Parts.” more accountable to their communities; formed democracies are sunk.

IPI REPORT 11 Tags: Linked, Networked Openness, Collaboration Key to New Information Ecosystem

By Alan Rusbridger

The Guardian’s success with n 2009 you could smell the fear. As banks be done – and what, even as we eventually experimentation in journalism Icrashed and the recession hit, even the submit to sleep, others are busy doing. grandest media companies trembled a lit- suggests linked information is tle. We had all known for some time that We think the future is about endless exper- a path to the future. the revolution we’re all living through imentation, that this is a journey which has would at some stage get really tough. But, barely begun. To us it seems fairly evident for many, as advertising drained out of our there are two features of this new informa- pages and websites, thoughts of survival tion ecosystem which it would be foolish to clouded out all else. ignore, whichever camp you’re in: Open- ness and collaboration. It’s hardly time to relax yet in 2010 but – for the moment – we can come up for air and Openness is shorthand for the way in look at the landscape. How has it changed? which the vast majority of information is, and will continue to be, part of a larger net- Well, much depends on how you saw the work, only a tiny proportion of which is revolution in the first place. It’s now a created by journalists. Information may cliché of media life that these are both the not want to be free, but it does want to be best of times and the worst of times. Those linked. It’s difficult to think of any informa- who were seized by the opportunity and tion in the modern world which doesn’t ac- possibility of digital transformation will be- quire more meaning, power, richness, con- lieve in pushing ahead even faster. Those text, substance and impact by being intelli- who were wavering or skeptical in the first gently linked to other information. place may want to apply the brakes. Collaboration refers to the way we can take I tend, by nature, towards the first camp. this openness one stage further. By collab- Those in the second camp have a rude orating with this vast network of linked in- word for us: Utopians. They believe we formation - and those who are generating have stars in our eyes and have failed to see and sharing it - we can be infinitely more what, to them, is blindingly obvious: That powerful than if we believe we have to gen- the time for playing around has to stop. It’s erate it all ourselves. time for some hard-nosed realities. The rather clumsy name we’ve given this Utopians can’t stop thinking about the pos- openness/collaboration theme at the sibilities ahead: We literally lie awake at Guardian is mutualisation. It’s an attempt night fighting off the thoughts of what can to capture the energy and possibilities we

12 IPI REPORT Below: The Guardian , London. can imagine from working with readers and others to be a different kind of news or- ganization.

Some examples of where it has borne fruit:

● An investigation into corporate tax avoidance. This was an area where some of our readers almost certainly knew more than we did about an infinitely complex matrix of international accountancy, law and high finance. We appealed for their help in finding the information and in in- terpreting it. It worked. We were sent some extremely interesting leads – and readers saved us a lot of time, trouble and expense by advising us on the meaning of docu- ments and transactions.

● The death of Ian Tomlinson. Traditional reporting completely failed to uncover the true story behind the death of an innocent man at the G20 conference in London in 2009. It took one reporter, Twitter, and the collaboration of thousands of readers to find the digital record of the moment a po- liceman struck Tomlinson. Conventional reporting would not have revealed the possible task for conventional newsroom five or six full time writers on the subject, truth as quickly if at all. to handle. We built a widget that allowed we realized we would not be able to do it 23,000 Guardian readers to help us identify justice alone. So we created a Guardian En- ● Trafigura. A “super-injunction”1 granted the important documents. vironment Network whereby we host the by the British Courts and aggressive action best contributions from some of the excel- by the oil trading firm’s lawyers prevented ● Comment is Free. In addition to a tradi- lent websites and that already cover the reporting of documents and parlia- tional op-ed section – with a handful of the subject. We gain: the content on the site mentary questions about the dumping of staff writers – we built a site where hun- is deeper, better and generally more com- toxic waste in Africa, together with the in- dreds of experts, most of them non-jour- prehensive than we could ever achieve juries and deaths which it was claimed nalists and most of them writing for no ourselves. Our partners gain by being ex- were associated with the dumping. Again, payment, have their say and thousands of posed to much greater traffic (we currently the use of Twitter led to thousands of peo- others join in the argument. The result is a have 32-35 million unique visitors a ple ferreting out the suppressed informa- comment website which is much richer month) and from a share of revenues from tion and to the company backing down and more diverse than we advertising. from legal action. The collaboration of could possibly achieve in Utopians like me thousands of strangers achieved some- print alone or without in- think the future ● Travel. The traditional thing a newspaper on its own would have volving numerous other travel section sends writers struggled with – but it needed a newspa- people. of journalism is off to distant parts to report per’s investigative skills to get the informa- about endless back. Why not harness the tion in the first place. ● Environment. We built a people who live there, or website with real ambition experimentation, who know the places better ● MPs expenses. Reviewing 400,000 docu- to cover this most impor- that this is a than any visting travel ments released by parliament posed an im- tant of issues. Even with writer? We can have hun- journey which has barely begun. IPI REPORT 13 Left: YouTube video captured during the 2009 G20 protests in London reveals an assault by police officers as the cause of Ian Tomlinson’s death.

rative with, the countless people who are with us on that journey. I don’t see that as particularly utopian. I think of it as a basic dreds of contributions about a particular erally little by way of response. The next necessity for survival. city, recommending bars, museums, hotels day you’d move onto the next story. and activities – much more comprehensive 1 A super-injunction is one in which the existence and knowledgeable than we could aspire to Everything about that tidy world has of the injunction, and the accompanying court in the past. changed. Smart reporters now often in- proceedings, cannot be reported. volve their contacts or readers or ‘commu- These are all examples of openness and col- nities’ in research – i.e., the “life” of a story laboration in our journalism. In some of may begin well before it is actually pub- the above examples, our journalists started lished. A reporter may choose not to write something: It could begin with a story or an a story at all, but to blog it. A blog need not old-fashioned investigation. In other cases ‘report’ a story in the conventional way: it our involvement can be confined to edit- can link to other reports and to ma- ing, or moderating the response. terials. Within minutes of publication most stories will be subject to challenge or addi- We are embracing a world where we do not tion or clarification or correction. How we imagine that we, as traditionally trained react to, or incorporate, that challenge is of journalists, are the only experts or author- basic concern. A ‘story’, thus told, may ities. By harnessing the expertise, knowl- have no obvious natural finishing point. edge and ideas of others we can build The resulting piece of journalism is more something richer than we could alone. We fluid than its predecessors. It more closely can begin to think of ourselves as a plat- resembles the real world, which is rarely form for others as well as a publisher of our about neatly cut and dried events with own. only one narrative version and a finite ending. There are challenges to how we think of journalism implicit in all this. One of the The more we learn to involve others in Alan Rusbridger is Editor in Chief of the Guardian most fundamental questions is about how what we do, the richer and more trusted Newspaper in London. His editorship has been no- we think of the basic currency of journal- our journalism will become. It is certainly table for pioneering the development of the paper’s ism - the story. 10 years ago few of us the way the rest of the Web is going. But it digital edition, twice voted the best newspaper would have questioned what a story was: it is up to us endlessly to experiment and pi- website in the world. He is also noted for fighting, was efficient , pyramid-structured way of oneer these new forms of story-telling. and winning, a number of high-profile legal cases telling the reader what happened at a par- involving free speech issues and corruption in gov- ticular point in time. It often had a begin- It is difficult to see how that can be done ernment. ning, a middle and an end. There was gen- except through being open to, and collabo-

14 IPI REPORT Tags: Linked, Networked, Partnered, Sustained How Technology Turned News into a Conversation

By Turi Munthe

Collaborative journalism has ot even 15 years ago, the only annotating and distributing global news changed sourcing, storytelling Nway for a non-professional journalist to stories in ever increasing ways. Technology join the news debate (apart from being its has made journalism a conversation be- and distribution, while it subject, of course) was to write in to the pa- tween the reporter and the reader (and reminds us of the value of pers. And in the UK at least, the likelihood often the participant). Today, the newspa- of being published in the left-wing press if pers’ online “letters” pages (also known as . you weren’t a trade-union leader was as the comments stream) on any political arti- slim as being published in the right-wing cle on any major news site on the Web can press if you weren’t a Lord. A rare Oxbridge run into the hundreds, with rarely a Lord or academic might merit a mention, but as an trade-union chief’s missive among them. exception rather than the rule. The news was a lecture; op-eds were sermons: jour- The role of the non-professional journalist nalism was a job for pulpiteers. in the news space has changed every aspect of the business. For sourcing, I don’t know Today, news is a conversation: a single professional reporter who doesn’t ● Some of the first pictures of the Hudson use social media as a feed, and I know of River plane crash in January 2009 were many who use it as an encyclopedia. When published via Twitpic by non-journalist the MPs expenses scandal broke in the UK, Janis Krums. the Guardian dropped the nearly half-mil- lion documents into a public widget that ● With professional journalists jailed or de- about 23,000 citizens across the country ported during the election in June downloaded and helped dissect. 2009, the world subsisted for a fortnight on local Twitter updates hash-tagged #iran- In story-telling, the advantages of immedi- election that were circulated over one bil- ate reporter/reader interaction have cre- lion times, as well as through YouTube, op- ated a whole new journalistic form in the position leader Mir Hossein Mousavi’s liveblog which reports, corrects and veri- Facebook group, and Demotix, which I run. fies as it publishes in direct communica- tion with its readers, all in real-time. ● Twitter – by which I mean thousands of people’s Twitter feeds – broke the Trafigura But it is in distribution that ‘people power’ story. , back in 2005, was the resource really flexes its muscles. It is no longer ex- of record for the Kifaya demonstrations in clusively editors who choose what goes on ; Blogger for news of the Israel- the front page anymore – it is you. The un- Lebanon war in the same year. bundling of news on the Web – whereby you can get your cricket news from Pak- Non-journalists, through a combination of istan’s Dawn.com, news from the Web and social networks, are breaking, London’s Financial Times and your general

IPI REPORT 15

Through social networks & other digital tools, citizens are increasingly info from CNN.com – essen- breaking, annotating it do possibly the most to marshal into a functioning business tially means that whatever is & distributing global important form of news model. Citizen journalists, which today most popular amongst your reporting on its own – broadly means anyone with a Internet friends on Facebook, or most news. that is, investigative connection and an interest in the news, are tweeted amongst those you journalism. part of the solution, not the problem. And follow on Twitter, or most Digged, Stum- while, of course, only a tiny fraction of bledUpon or Reddited will be your front The trouble is, increasingly, neither can Web surfers engage with real news, their page of the day. mainstream news. Although a handful of engagement with the news has incompa- US news organizations still maintain ro- rably augmented the conversation, and ex- It’s no surprise then, given the wash of in- bust foreign news operations, the once panded its reach. formation available (and its endless repeti- mighty foreign staff of the Baltimore Sun tion, distortion and misattribution), that has been eliminated and the consolidation As news organizations, professional jour- the top-hit news sources on the Web con- of Tribune Co. staffing overseas has nalists and geeks figure out new and more tinue to be the mainstream news outlets. trimmed those ranks as well. efficient ways to harness the power of mil- Trust is a major factor, but so is that critical lions of engaged voices and opinions on the journalistic function: editing. Not just in The latest State of the News Media report Web, the quality of global news and report- the packaging of what is told, but in choos- found that US newsrooms lost 25 percent ing and information will explode. And that ing what counts as news. of their staffers over the last three years. will only accelerate once the media Professional journalism has suffered not moghuls figure out how to fix their busi- We read the news not just to keep in- just in foreign reporting, but in domestic ness models. formed, but to be part of a conversation – reporting and regional, national, communitarian – about (which is increasingly the bailiwick of the Spare a thought for them, not for journal- it. The news around us helps us define our nonprofit sector, see ProPublica and, in ism as we know it. relationship to the world, and to those also the UK, the Bureau for Investigative Jour- engaged in defining themselves. Newspa- nalism). pers and broadcasters create communities: just ask CNN viewers what they think If old-fashioned news reporting has been about viewers. brutally attacked by the Web’s free-con- tent-for-all business-model dictat, it has to But more than building communities of look to the Web (and to its highly-in- interest, old-fashioned journalism also formed, entrepreneurial reader-cum-ac- speaks to an understanding of what news tivist-cum-contributors) for some of its sal- is that ‘citizen journalism’ cannot, because vation. Yesterday’s sub-editor is today’s most news of real interest is built painstak- commenter (get a fact wrong in an article ingly and over time. Most news is, in fact, a online and you’re a global laughing stock). story. Yesterday’s roving foreign is today an army of local bloggers and local The kind of news that can be crowd- stringers. sourced is bitty, image-led, or data-driven: Vide the examples above – pictures of sur- Citizen journalists, amateur photographers prise events like 9/11 or the tsunami, acci- and others willing to join the news conver- dental reporting of the Mayhill Flower va- sation, or supply their content for free are riety (who caught Obama referring to dis- often blamed for the ever-more harried enfranchised Pennsylvanians who “cling (and underfunded) lot of the professional to guns or religion”), or the kind of (fantas- journalist. They shouldn’t be. If anything is Turi Munthe is the Founder of Demotix – tic) work being done by a host of open- to blame for that, it is the wholesale depar- www.demotix.com – the multiple-award winning data outfits like , WIkiLeaks or the ture of the classifieds market to independ- open newswire, with over 3,000 reporters in 190 Open Knowledge Network. What it can’t ent sites like Craigslist, Facebook, et al, and countries around the world. Follow him on Twitter do is tell meaningful, full-length stories the massively smaller ad revenues of the @turimunthe or @demotix. about that information, nor, critically, can Web that no newspaper site has been able

17 Tags: Catalyzed, Connected, Volunteered The Shock of Inclusion and New Roles for News in the Fabric of Society

By Clay Shirky

Technological and cultural shifts f you were in the news business in the we needed permission from the pros, who have enabled a new coordinated, I20th century, you worked in a kind of had to be convinced to print our letters to pipeline, where reporters and editors the editor, or to give us a few moments of voluntary participation in media, would gather facts and observations and airtime on a call-in show. a “” that in turn them into stories, which were then committed to ink on paper or waves in the That pipeline model still shapes the self- aggregate is changing the nature air, and finally consumed, at the far end of conception of working professionals in the of news and how it is created and those various modes of transport, by the news business (at least working profes- audience. sionals of a certain age), but the gap be- shared. tween that model and the real world has A pipeline is the simplest metaphor for that grown large and is growing larger, because process, whether distribution of news was the formerly separate worlds of the profes- organized around the printing press or the sionals and the amateurs are intersecting broadcast tower. Part of the conceptual more dramatically, and more unpre- simplicity of traditional media came from dictably, by the day. the near-total division of the roles between professionals and amateurs, and the subse- Cognitive Surplus quent clarity that division provided. Re- Here’s a 21st century question: What is porters and editors (and producers and en- made of? Or another: What is gineers) worked “upstream,” which is to say Flickr, with its billions of photos, made of? as the source of the news. They created and Or Wordpress, the open-source blogging refined the product, decided when it was platform: What is Wordpress made of? ready for consumption, and sent it out when it was, to readers or listeners or view- The shallow answer is that Wikipedia is ers. made of words and Flickr is made of pic- tures and Wordpress is made of code. That’s Meanwhile, we, the audience, were “down- true enough, of course, but we had words stream.” We were the recipients of this and pictures and code in the 20th century, product, seeing it only in its final, packaged and we didn’t get pedia, or anything form. We could consume it, of course (our else that relied on a large pool of amateur principal job), and we could talk about it contributors. around the dinner table or the water cooler, but little more. News was something we The deeper answer, the answer that’s true got, not something we used. If we wanted of all those projects and countless more, is to put our own observations out in public, that they are made of coordinated volun-

18 IPI REPORT The News Pipeline: a 20th Century metaphor

tary participation. The participation part can change the very idea of news – what it speech on his own, without institutional comes from a medium that is implicitly is, how it is created and experienced and support; Marshall was an amateur blogger two-way and group-oriented, a medium shared. (not yet having incorporated); and the that makes everyone who connects to it a source contacted the news outlet, 1,500 potential producer of bits and not just a How participation has changed news miles away, rather than vice-versa. No pro- consumer of them. Here are a few surprises in the news busi- fessionals anywhere in sight. ness in our little corner of the 21st century, The voluntary part comes from the stagger- courtesy of the ability of amateurs, working In 2005, the London transit system was ing volume of free time available in the de- alone and together, to participate and not bombed. Sir Ian Blair, the head of London’s veloped world (trillions of hours a year), just consume: Metropolitan police, went on and TV coupled with human desires to do things to announce that the the cause had been an that make us happy, not just things that In 2002, after Speaker of the House Trent electrical failure in the underground. pay us money. Lott praised Strom Thurmond’s segrega- Within minutes of Blair’s statements, peo- tionist 1948 campaign, the man that did ple began posting and analyzing pictures of And the coordination comes from entre- Lott in was Ed Sebesta, an amateur histo- a bombed double-decker bus in Tavistock preneurs of generosity, people like the rian who had been tracking racists state- Square, and in less than two hours, there founders of Wikipedia or Flickr or Word- ments made by American politicians to were hundreds of blog posts analyzing this press who offer us opportunities to pool segregationist groups. Shortly after Lott evidence and explicitly contradicting our free time, using this group-oriented said his praise had been an uncharacteris- Blair’s interpretation. medium, to make ourselves feel happy or tic slip, Sebesta contacted Josh Micah Mar- engaged or satisfied by creating things to- shall, who ran the blog Talking Points Seeing this, and overriding the advice of his gether we couldn't create on our own. Memo, to share recorded comments made own communications staff, Blair went on by Lott dating back to the 1980s. air again less than two hours later to say Taken together, this coordinated voluntary that it had indeed been a bombing, that the participation is a new resource, a cognitive These comments help destroy Lott’s ability police didn’t have all the answers yet, and surplus that allows us to treat the con- to characterize his comments as a slip, and that he would continue reporting as they nected world’s free time and talents in ag- led to hims losing his position as Speaker. knew more. When he spoke to the public, gregate, as something which, used right, Sebesta had built the database of racist Blair had the power of all the traditional

IPI REPORT 19 media behind him, but it was clear that Hanni realized that on the Web, news out- the Green Uprising, or the chemical com- merely having a consistent message on lets could act not just as a source of infor- pany Trafigura’s inability to preserve the every broadcast channel in existence was mation, but as a site of coordination, find- press injunction of their pollution off the no longer the same as having control. ing the people who cared about a particular Coast of Côte d’ Ivoire, once Twitter users story and helping them take action to- got on the case. In 2006, Kate Hanni was stuck, for 8 hours, gether. The US airline industry had success- on a flight that landed in Dallas during a fully fought off pressure to create any new The cognitive surplus of the former audi- lightning storm, while the airline refused to rights for passengers for decades, but ence is increasingly driving hybrid profes- allow passengers off the plane. She was as within three years of the launch of Hanni’s sional-amateur models that would have furious as all the other passengers who’ve group, first New York State and then the US been both unthinkable and unworkable ever experienced such a thing, but she de- Congress passed a Passengers Bill of Rights, even 10 years ago: ProPublica covering cided to do something about it. She largely because Hanni had used the press to every Iowa caucus in 2008 with citizen founded a pressure group agitating for an turn an unorganized group of angry pas- journalists, a feat that would have bank- air passengers bill or rights, and then she sengers into an organized group of angry rupted them had they done it with set about recruiting members by finding passengers. stringers; the reshaping of Korean presi- accounts of flight delays, dential politics by Ohmynews, a pro-am and posting about her nascent group in the On and on this list goes: Tehrani protestors journalism site; the Guardian’s crowd- comments of those articles. using their camera phones to document sourcing its tracking of the expenses of UK

20 IPI REPORT Left: Former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Senator Trent Lott announces his retirement after allegations of racism broken by blog site Talking Points Memo.

Page 20: Trafigura trending on Twitter, 13 October 2009

What’s going away isn’t the importance of news, or the importance of dedicated professionals. What’s going away is the passivity of the audience.

Members of Parliament, because the job, son can clip one newspaper column and zens can now engage in. The kinds of done by employees, would not just have mail it to one other person, but to catalyze changes that are coming will dwarf those cost too much but taken too long. mass action takes something likes Kate we’ve already seen, as citizen involvement Hanni’s use of the Web. stops being a set of special cases, and be- Now journalists have always used tip lines comes a core to our conception of how and man-in-the-street interviews, and con- What’s going away, from the pipeline news can be, and should be, part of the fab- sumers have always clipped and forwarded model, isn’t the importance of news, or the ric of society. favorite articles. What’s new here isn’t the importance of dedicated professionals. possibility of occasional citizen involve- What’s going away is the linearity of the ment. What’s new is the speed and scale process, and the passivity of the audience. and leverage of that involvement, the pos- What’s going away is a world where the sibility of persistent, dramatic amounts of news was only made by professionals, and citizen involvement. What’s new is that consumed by amateurs who couldn’t do making public statements no longer re- much to produce news on their own, or to quires professional outlets, that citizens distribute it, or to act on it en masse. now have tools that enable them to assem- ble around causes they care about without We are living through a shock of inclusion, needing to live near each other. where the former audience is becoming in- creasingly intertwined with all aspects of This is a change in degree so large, in other news, as sources who can go public on their words, that it amounts to a change in kind. own, as groups that can both create and As Steven Levy observed, writing about the comb through data in ways the profession- iPod, when you make something 10 per- als can’t, as disseminators and syndicators cent better, you’ve created an improve- and users of the news. ment, but when you make something 10 times better, you’ve made a new thing. This shock of inclusion is coming from the outside in, driven not by the professionals So it is with the harnessing our our cogni- formerly in charge, but by the former audi- tive surplus. Tip lines only worked in geo- ence. It is also being driven by new news graphically local areas, but Ed Sebesta was entrepreneurs, the men and women who Clay Shirky teaches and writes on the social and able to find Josh Micah Marshall halfway want to build new kinds of sites and serv- economic effects of Internet technologies. He is the across the country. Man-in-the-street inter- ices that assume, rather than ignore, the Edward R. Murrow Lecturer at Harvard’s Shoren- views are random, because the profession- free time and talents of the public. stein Center on Media and Public Policy and a Fel- als controlled the mode and of pub- low at the Berkman Center for the Internet and lic utterances, but with Flickr and weblogs, This a change so varied and robust that we Society. Shirky is the author of “Here Comes Every- British bloggers could discuss the London need to consider retiring the word ‘con- body” and “Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Gen- bombings in public, at will, and with no sumer’ altogether, and treat consumption erosity in a Connected Age.” professionals anywhere in sight. One per- as simply one behavior of many that citi-

IPI REPORT 21 Tags: Democratized, Distributed, Networked, Trusted Fifth Estate Joins the Fourth in Push for Freedom of Expression and the Press

By William H. Dutton

If the Fourth Estate is defined as he creative and economic chal- estates as the legislative, executive and ju- traditional media institutions, Tlenges posed by Internet-enabled digital dicial branches of government in the US), media now top the agenda of most tradi- the identification of the Fourth Estate with the new, networked power tional print and broadcast enterprises. The independent, free news media has re- brokers of the Internet can be growing popularity of, and trust in, the In- mained consistent. It is based on philoso- ternet relative to other media is one of the pher Edmund Burke’s coining of the phrase defined as the Fifth Estate, most important developments of recent in the 18th Century to identify the Re- which faces unique challenges years. For example, Internet users in porters’ Gallery in the British Parliament as Britain view the network as being more es- becoming more important than the other and requires unique protections. sential as a source of information than tel- three Estates. The emerging Fifth Estate has evision or newspapers. Moreover, users distinctive characteristics that identify it as trust the information they can obtain on- more than simply an extension or adjunct line as much as broadcast news and more to the Fourth Estate. Unlike the original es- than they trust newspapers. tates, it is not based on an institution but on a new ‘network of networks’ space, or plat- Such analyses of the nature of actual Inter- form. This is independent of other estates net use helps to reveal how this kind of and can be used by individuals to reconfig- ‘new media’ has enabled an emerging ‘Fifth ure their access locally and globally to in- Estate’ of networked individuals (Dutton formation, people and other resources in 2009). This complements and competes ways that enable them to enhance their with the traditional press, the Fourth Estate ‘communicative power’ relative to institu- of one-to-many mass media. It also opens tions of the other estates. new ways of making government, media and other institutions more socially ac- This enhanced communicative power of countable. Protection of freedom of expres- networked individuals rather than institu- sion and open access to information on the tions helps to change outcomes. When Internet is therefore likely to be as central people read the news online rather than in to democratic processes as freedom of the a newspaper or , they frequently press has been for the mass media. come across stories they would not have seen otherwise; and the relationship be- The concept of ‘estates of the realm’ origi- tween media producers, gatekeepers and nally related to divisions in feudal society consumers are changed profoundly when between the clergy, nobility and the com- previously passive audiences generate and mons. Although the characterization of distribute their own blogs and when these estates has evolved (e.g. the first three search engines point to numerous sources

22 IPI REPORT Protesters demonstrate against the MPs’ expenses scandal outside the Westminster Magistrates Court in central London, 11 March, 2010. Four British MP’s appeared in court for their allegedly shady practices in filing their expense claims.

reflecting different views on the same against traditional media. The two-sided individuals to challenge such controls. For news item or topic. The ability to hold nature of the Internet means that the way example, the www.herdict.org website ac- other estates more socially accountable it opens doors to a cascading array of user- cepts and publishes reports from Internet through the interplay between ever- generated innovations and content also al- users of inaccessible sites around the world, changing networks of networks in the Fifth lows in techniques that can block online while the OpenNet Initiative and Reporters Estate does not in itself mean the Internet access and comprehensively monitor and Sans Frontièrs (RSF) are among the groups inevitably empowers all its users directly. filter Internet traffic. campaigning in this area. Instead, it supports access to online re- sources that both incorporate and go be- These attempts are typified by the Chinese The RSF website includes the Internet as yond the resources of more traditional in- government’s efforts to control Internet one of its sections detailing restrictions on stitutions (e.g. local newspaper, library, content, creating the ‘Great Firewall of freedom of expression and physical intim- university or government office). Individ- China’. There are many other examples, in- idation of journalists and bloggers around uals can then network with information cluding the Burmese government closing the world, which indicates similarities be- and people in ways that can change their down the country’s Internet service during tween freedom of speech issues online and relationships with more institutionalized political protests in 2007 and a court order offline, as stressed by the US Secretary of centres of authority in the other estates. in in May 2010 stopping the use of State, Hillary Clinton. a Facebook page called ‘Everybody Draw Fifth Estate Faces Threats to Freedom of Mohammed Day!’ as the portrayal of the However, the democratic implications of Speech and Freedom of Information Prophet Mohammed is against Islamic the Fifth Estate are far broader than such The enhanced communicative power of teachings. overlaps between new and traditional networked individuals has led to many at- media. Research at the Oxford Internet In- tempts to censor and control the Fifth Es- At the same time, as the Internet diffuses stitute (OII) has shown that Internet users tate which are equivalent to those used worldwide it is being used by networked increasingly go online as their first port of

IPI REPORT 23 call when looking for information on all The communicative power of these net- the existence of a Fifth Estate role of net- types of subjects. Networked individuals worked individuals crucially depends on worked individuals as a key democratic can also mobilize political campaigns effec- open access to information and the tools to constraint on unacceptable activities, as re- tively, as occurred to boost the election of analyse it. In 2009, for instance, the Daily flected in the subsequent coalition govern- President Obama in 2008. Telegraph newspaper bought a disk con- ment’s announcement that “greater trans- taining full details of the expenses of UK parency across Government is at the heart People involved in a particular sphere, Members of Parliament, which led to the ex- of our shared commitment to enable the such as medical professionals and patients, posure of what were generally regarded as public to hold politicians and public bodies can also use the Internet to reach trusted many unacceptable practices. As the news- to account”. A key element in this policy is online sources of information and services paper owned the disk, it could still act as the to publish more information online in ‘user in their field of interest and not be limited gatekeeper in analysing and disseminating friendly’ forms, including detailed depart- to their local practice or organization. the information according to its own prior- mental plans and all new items of central ities. In response to the re- government spending over Growing numbers within institutions sultant public outrage with The growing £25,000 ($38,535). rooted in the other estates are also net- politicians, and the limita- popularity of, working beyond the boundaries of their or- tions of the press, the gov- Protecting the Openness of ganizations. This has led to geographically ernment at the time legis- and trust in, the the Fifth Estate distributed individuals coming together lated to ensure all expenses Internet relative The democratizing potential online, form collaborative network organ- would in future be pub- of the Fifth Estate could be lost izations to co-produce new information lished on the Web, avail- to other media if inappropriate forms of In- products and services. The online ency- able to all to analyse. is one of the ternet regulation are intro- clopaedia Wikipedia and open source soft- duced that restrict its open- ware products such as the Firefox browser The government’s move most important ness and creativity. Yet, ten- are examples of this phenomenon. implicitly acknowledged developments of sions with other estates result-

24 IPI REPORT recent years. Left: A court-ban of Facebook’s Everybody Draw Mohammed Day is met with enthusiastic support from Islamic protestors.

The Fifth Estate and other institutions: partnerships and threats

Traditional Estate Modern Type of threat to Fifth Estate Partnership opportunity

1st: Clergy Public intellectuals Internet as an amateurs’ space World wide research networks; sci- without expert knowledge and ence commons; experts’ websites analytical rigour. and blogs.

2nd: Nobility Economic elites Centralization of information Collaborative network organiza- utilities; commercialization of Fifth tions; new online relationships with Estate spaces. customers.

3rd: Commons Government Censorship, regulation and other Online innovations in engagements controls that constrain and block with citizens (e-democracy; Internet access. e-government).

4th: Press Mass media Competition for Use of Fifth Estate spaces to com- audiences, funding; charging for plement traditional media. access to information.

Mob Citizens, audiences, consumers, Undermining of trust in the Internet Informed, helpful fora (e.g. on med- Internet users through malicious (e.g. spam, ical and other specialist issues); hacking) and accidental uses. greater democratic engagement. ing from the Internet’s role in challenging ‘the Mob’ by Burke. Over-commercializa- traditional institutions could lead to de- tion of the Internet and the activities of ma- mands for such restrictions. As Table 1 il- licious users in the lay public are among lustrates, threats emanate from each of the the key threats. four estates. Public intellectuals, a contem- porary equivalent of the clergy, have at- It is important therefore to formulate tacked the Fifth Estate as amateurs, not guidelines for appropriate regulations to worthy of serious attention. However, the protect participants in the Fifth Estate of amateurs can complement and enlarge the the Internet realm. These should address public agenda since they are not part of the threats to the Fifth Estate as well as support pack. Economic elites, today’s nobility, are areas of productive and creative coopera- generating wealth through the Internet, tion. but place the Fifth Estate at risk in building monopolies that will jeopardize trust in search and information sources. Govern- ments, representing the commons, are placing increasing controls on freedom of speech and information, such as out of concern for privacy, security and consumer William H. Dutton is Director of the Oxford Inter- protection. The Fourth Estate is emulating net Institute, Professor of Internet Studies, Univer- aspects of the Fifth Estate, but also seeking sity of Oxford, and Fellow of Balliol College. He is to co-opt its users and producers. Finally, also Principal Investigator of the Oxford e-Social among its wide base of users are malicious Science (OeSS) Project. individuals, whom might have been called

IPI REPORT 25 Tags: Bloody, Diminished, Linked, Transition The Journalism Business and Business of Journalism Must Align More Closely in the Future

By Roy Greenslade

The sometimes-uncomfortable here are we going? That I am troubled by the way in which others marriage of commerce and Wquestion, and variants of it, is the one I am who share this vision of a coming golden asked most often by practising journalists age appear to be untroubled by the prob- public service has become and, most particularly, by increasingly con- lems we are now facing. Unlike too many of increasingly strained for news cerned students about to embark on media them, I am deeply concerned by this in- careers. creasingly bloody period of transition be- organizations. As cost cutting cause we are losing journalists with valu- on the one side has limited My answer? I always tell them I don’t really able skills and, at the same time, failing to know. It has the virtue of honesty, though I forge a meaningful online strategy that journalism on the other, will note the raising of eyebrows. melds the best of “old” mainstream jour- democracy be the victim? nalism with the emerging “new” journal- After all, I have called myself a digital revo- ism. lutionary. I have espoused the panacea of a participatory, inter-connected, linked jour- Old media is on its knees and, in the nalism. I want to consign to the dustbin of process, is destroying journalism. Its history the undemocratic vertical relation- owners and managers, confronted with ship between us, the secular priests known crisis, have chosen to dispense with the as journalists and the readers, formerly people who produce words – the informa- known as the audience. tion-seeking, news-gathering, story-writ- ing, -composing, picture-making In its place I envisage a horizontal relation- staff. ship, a journalism of the community, for the community, by the community. I know I readily accept that there has been an eco- it’s an idealistic vision but surely none the nomic crisis. The newspaper business worse for that. Pursuing ideals is good. model has been wrecked, though there are differences in the effect on companies from Despite being unsure of the outcome, I am country to country. For example, several convinced it’s the direction we should be traditional publishers in the United States taking, and I know that the technology have been forced into bankruptcy protec- both allows it and invites it. The danger, tion to deal with colossal debts while, in however, is that we will neglect this historic Britain, publishers have managed to avoid opportunity to shape a coherent journalis- falling through the insolvency trap door tic landscape for the future. and continued to trade profitably.

26 IPI REPORT Across Europe, there have been similar changing and will change further. What Below: problems, again with wide variations. In al- they are doing is putting off the evil day. The golden age of revenue: most all cases, however, the medicine to This is perfectly rational. Debts aside, This poster advertising the cure the ills has been similar: publishers though operating profits may be dwin- classifieds section of the Evening News circa 1956 was have indulged in an orgy of cost-cutting. dling, they are still profits. However, the found in a disused passage- They have employed new media technol- consequences for journalism are truly way in London’s Notting Hill ogy to save money, not to embrace its terrifying. Underground Station. power to advance towards a new form of journalism. In short, they have subverted a crucial technological breakthrough for their own commercial ends.

There are exceptions of course. I am aware that when describing a contemporaneous revolutionary process it is easy to fall into the trap of generalisation and overstate- ment. Damning every media owner and manager would be wrong because there are newspaper groups, along with the indi- viduals who guide them, who can envision a radical new journalistic activity and are genuinely trying to practise what the revo- lutionaries preach.

The vast majority, however, do nothing more than pay lip service to a brave new world. They pretend they are moving on- wards and upwards by inelegantly spin- ning every tranche of editorial cuts with jargon-loaded announcements about their enthusiastic engagement with a dynamic new form of publishing (the word “journal- ism” appears less than I’d like).

One key problem for them, and for us, is that they still operate within a media para- digm constructed in the 19th century, one built of the logic of big businesses max- imising profits through advertising rev- enue and an accompanying journalism that was created on the principle of cen- tralised elitism.

It was a commercial and editorial model that stood publishers and journalists in good stead for so long that it’s unsurprising they should seek ways of sustaining it. Many of them, even while recognising that there is little chance of maintaining this system, do understand that things are

IPI REPORT 27 Below: A sign of the times - a man picks up a copy of the free Metro newspaper across the street from the New York Times headquarters.

I want to make a distinction here between For journalists, the commercial depart- staff who have been the backbone of news- the journalism business and the business ments were the dark side. For managers, gathering and news processing. of journalism, in which the former repre- journalists were an on-cost. As the late sents commerce and the latter represents publisher, Lord Thomson, memorably I frankly admit that I made a mistake public service. The former is about private joked: News merely fills the space between some years ago, while in the first throes of profit, the production of newspapers on the the adverts. cheering the digital advance, of advocat- baked bean ethos. The latter is about acting ing the reduction in editorial jobs. It was a for and on behalf of society. Now look where the twins’ journey has reasonable argument at the time. But pub- taken us - to an era when the siblings are lishers have taken it to an unreasonable Throughout the 20th century the twins - becoming more and more estranged. And it limit. fraternal, never identical - marched hand is the fate of the journalistic twin that in hand. They knew they depended on each should concern us most. Newspapers did tend to be overstaffed or, at other and though they occasionally fell out, least, employing people to do jobs that as siblings tend to do, they regarded each Grotesque cost-cutting threatens to divest became genuinely unnecessary in a digital other as a necessary evil. us of skilled, experienced and dedicated environment. Judicious editorial budget

28 IPI REPORT savings were therefore in order. New preserve the best of what we have in order Where are we going? media’s glittering array of innovations were to enhance the good that is to come. I envisage a horizontal seen by publishers as some sort of labour- saving device. In this period of transition from old to new, relationship, a journalism journalism is suffering. At virtually every of the community, for It hardly helped that running in parallel newspaper in Britain - national, regional with a technological revolution was a and local, daily and weekly - journalists are the community, by the banking crisis followed by a deep recession, being required to feed two platforms, print community. disemboweling a business that relied on and online, and both, in their different advertising revenue. All this came against ways, are the loser. a background of the relentless decline in print circulations. There is precious little synergy between them despite the building of work struc- Publishers took measures that made finan- tures that enable editorial copy to appear as cial sense, at least in the short term. They smoothly as possible on both. Papers such cut costs. It is fair to say that the early cost- as the Financial Times, the Guardian and cutting was probably justified. There were the Daily Telegraph have performed won- too many under-used print works. Top- ders by providing 24-hour news coverage heavy staffs needed pruning. There had to in which their journalists produce print be some financial compensation for digital copy, online text, video and audio material, investment. and mobile phone alerts.

Initial success with cost-savings - as pub- It is a tribute to them, their editors and ded- lishers prefer to refer to cuts - went to their icated in-house digital pioneers that they heads. It became the only game in town. do it so well after a steep and rapid learning Cuts begat cuts. The management of de- curve. The situation outside of the London cline soon spawned a language all of its nationals is altogether more depressing. own. But, with the greatest of respect to all those newspaper journalists who are making Publishers justified their excesses with a valiant online efforts, almost all of it is old range of euphemisms about rationalisation media journalism masquerading as new in the digital age, concentration of re- media journalism. sources, improvements to editorial effi- ciency and so on. They jumped at the Mainstream journalists are not engaging chance to reduce staffs still further by out- with their audience. To allow online users sourcing a range of tasks. to comment is all very well, but if the orig- inator of the article merely observes read- At this point, readers may be forgiven for ers’ contributions (in many cases, they saying: We know all that. My point in giving don’t even bother to scan the threads), then the history lesson was to provide the con- it is a bogus exercise, without any value. Roy Greenslade, Professor of Journalism at City text for my contention that if this process of University London, writes a daily blog about the editorial sabotage continues then journal- What we face, though too many journalists media for the Guardian website and is the media ism, and society, will be the loser. fail to grasp it and too many publishers re- for the London Evening Standard. He has fuse to discuss it, is a looming crisis for been a journalist for 45 years, in which time he has At first sight, this may seem odd, given that journalism. It has the potential to eradicate worked for most of Britain’s national newspapers, I have espoused the value of an emergent the key historic role of the media to act for culminating in the editorship of the Daily Mirror journalistic form. The point is, however, the public good as a countervailing force from 1990-91. He has written a history of British that we have a way to go before we reach against political and commercial power. In newspapers, “Press Gang: How Newspapers Make that promised land. We need to construct a short, if this is not too pompous, democ- Profits From Propaganda”. bridge from old to new media in order to racy is at risk.

IPI REPORT 29 Tags: Edited, Indepentent, Personalized The Irony of Editors and Democracy

By Alex Jones

As algorithms become editors t the Personal Democracy As Jeremy W. Peters wrote a month later in and readers use other tools to AForum in New York in June, a collective The New York Times, “Welcome to the era gasp rippled through the sophisticated au- of algorithm as editor.” filter information, there is dience of Web geeks, political analysts and still an important role for new media triumphalists at a morning ses- In 1993, the introduction of the Mosaic sion called, “Can the Internet Fix Politics?” Web browser software launched the World professional journalists whose Wide Web as a gigantic, global information news judgment aims to serve Eli Pariser, the former executive director of system. From the start, the interactive, MoveOn.org, told the assembled activists what-you-want, non-heirarchical Internet democracy. that if each of them went to Google on their culture was viewed as a giant step toward iPads, iPhones, or BlackBerrys and “democratization.” searched “BP,” each person in the room would get a different response. Early zealots tended to crow at how the digital world had broken the tyranny of Some doing the search might get tens of top-down editors who had long imposed millions more results than others. But the their view of what was important on their top responses of everyone would be differ- audiences. The Web made it possible to be ent, because of algorithms that Google has your own editor, and as a result to have in place and does not explain. They are, to more breadth and depth and variety to the use Pariser’s term, “invisible.” news and information that shaped your view of reality. Hugh Hewitt, an Emmy- Over lunch, everyone at my table did the winning former news-anchor-turned- BP search. In every case, Google kicked out blogger, was expressing a widely held an individualized, customized response. view among New Media converts when he “There is no standard Google anymore,” proclaimed that “the power of elites to de- said Pariser. termine what (is) news via a tightly con- trolled dissemination system (has been) Instead, at Google and other search en- shattered.” gines, there is a “personalized” response based on dozens of criteria that are not dis- As we approach the Web’s second decade, it closed and make each searcher as singular has delivered on two of the promises it as a finger print. The idea is to be helpful, to made in democratizing the media. Anyone give you what the search engine thinks you with Web access can create content, and want. anyone can also collect virtually unlimited content provided by others. But the third But the implications of such a mechanism promise – that democracy would be en- for informing people about news, politics hanced – remains a promise that may be and public affairs hit that audience like a impossible to fulfill without those same sharp slap. elites that were to be shattered.

30 IPI REPORT Glory Days: A copy of the Sunday New York Times, 17 October 1965, the largest edition in the paper’s 114-year history, weighed nearly eight pounds and contained 946 pages.

Indeed, it is especially ironic that the As a veteran of small daily newspapers and as though it were his own body. He knew much-maligned top-down editor at main- New York Times, I feel I know editing – the sensitive areas and the competing stream news organizations from commu- which is to say the selection and shaping of yearnings, when to indulge and when to nity dailies to The New York Times may a daily report using news judgment. discipline. He was beloved and respected, prove to be the greatest bastion of demo- but most important, he was integral. It is a cratic journalism in a world of editing-by- My first editor was J. Neil Ensminger and he model that every community newspaper algorithm and customized news. could not type. But he knew his community should follow. Was it democratic? No one

IPI REPORT 31 With a vital mission, editors still decide had elected him to do the what appears on utterly unaware of genocide But that does not mean, as a practical mat- job. But they trusted him the front page and in Africa. It is easily possible ter, that the job of editors is not alive and and felt free to complain to have a flow of news that well. Editors still decide what appears on and criticize - a right that above the fold or is tailored to your politics or the front page and above the fold or what is he indulged with pleasure what is featured on race or narrow interests, featured on the nightly news. The impact of by publishing letters-to- and therefore know little those traditional news delivery systems is the-editor without a re- the nightly news. about the broad picture that still tremendous, in part because many of sponse, even if the facts includes points of view that us want someone to help guide us to what were wrong. “If you correct them, it takes are foreign in every respect. we really need to know. the sting out, “ he told me, “and they need their chance to sting.” A good rant was not That is not an enhancement of democracy. The most important thing for the editor of the creation of the Web. The most democratic - meaning, the non- today is not to lose confidence in the job’s customized view of the world - is the one power and its mission. It still has power, At The New York Times, every afternoon that is most apt to be created with the idea and the mission has never been more vital. the top editors of every department of the of informing a lot of people with diverse in- paper assembled to battle for space on the terests and backgrounds. Indeed, it may be the old fashioned and dis- front page. The foreign editor would pitch paraged editor with independent judgment his best stories, then the national editor, the For instance, on an ordinary Saturday in who will prove to be the champion of metro editor, and on down the line - busi- July 2010, the A section of The New York democracy in an age in which the choice is ness, arts, culture, science - each making a Times’ national edition had 44 full stories, often news by algorithm or a flood of infor- case like a lawyer before a jury. plus a dozen or more short summaries. mation that recognizes no constraints. Some were updates from and Pakistan, Then, with passionate argument and a but it is hard to imagine a customized news sense that they were creating the best-pos- list that would include articles as diverse as sible snapshot of the world for Times read- a piece on flawed brain research at Colum- ers, the top editors chose what led the bia University (above the fold), obituaries paper, what was the off-lede, what above of an African American scholar on proba- the fold, what inside. bility and the country music song writer who wrote Patsy Cline’s “I Fall To Pieces,” The collective education, training, skill, ex- and a long piece about the artist Christo’s perience, intelligence and commitment ongoing effort to drape the Colorado River. represented by the corps of editors struck me as staggering. Here they were, strug- It is the gatekeeper – the editor – who seeks gling each day, to select the best fruit of all to appeal to a mass audience that assem- the material that had been assembled by bles such a varied, rich and nourishing the paper’s reporters, put it into form that mix of news. was clear, and then picked over it to make sure that the most important things got But how does the gatekeeper do that worth- space. while job in a digital age when a quasi-out- law organization such as WikiLeaks by- When I pick up my Times each morning - passes gatekeepers altogether by publishing which I do, on paper - I still marvel at what classified information that may well have went into creating this version of the state not been reported on ethical grounds when of the world and how valuable it is to me editors truly functioned as the arbiters of to have editors doing that work on my be- information? Alex Jones directs the Joan Shorenstein Center on half. the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard The answer is a realistic recognition that in Kennedy School and is the author of “Losing the It is easily possible to know in depth about some respects the gatekeeping role is moot News” and, with Susan Tifft, “The Trust: The Private your favorite sports team or an automobile in a free-flowing online information envi- and Powerful Family Behind The New York Times.” accident in your neighborhood, but to be ronment.

32 IPI REPORT Tags: Credibility, Informed, Linked In the New Media Rush for Instant News, Where are the Journalists?

By Alison Bethel McKenzie

More information is not very human being has a funda- human and financial resources of a gov- necessarily better information Emental, universal right to information. ernment or corporation in an acute cri- sis … The new lightweight technologies if standards of accuracy and However, across the world many people in available to almost anyone mean a new credibility slip due to citizen positions of power do everything they can capacity for instant scrutiny and ac- to prevent the free flow of information. The countability that is way beyond the nar- journalism or the new practices barriers they throw up have traditionally rower, assumed power and influence of readers inspire in the newsroom. included assassination, physical assault, the traditional media.” harassment, arrest, absurd fines, imprison- ment, and unfair trials. Until a few years Nowhere has this seismic been more ago, their victims were often journalists apparent over the last 15 months than in using traditional, easy-to-monitor means Iran, which was wracked by violence fol- of information dissemination, including lowing the disputed June 2009 re-election newspapers, radio broadcasts and televi- of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president. sion reports. Despite a media blackout imposed by the authorities, graphic footage of the violence However, in recent years there has been a seeped out, through YouTube, Twitter and rapid and dramatic evolution in the kind of other outlets. Surreptitiously ‘armed’ with media used to capture and transmit news. mobile phones and other handheld de- vices, or simply reporting through Twitter, In a commentary piece for the Guardian citizen journalists informed the world newspaper, renowned BBC World presen- about what was really happening inside ter Nik Gowing noted: Iran.

“New information technologies and dy- A deadly-earnest game of cat-and-mouse namics are together driving a wave of ensued, with the Iranian authorities trying democratisation and accountability. It to shut down the virtual space in which shifts and redefines the nature of power this vital information was circulating. It in such moments. It also creates a new was reported, at the time, that hackers were policy vulnerability and brittleness for helping Iranian bloggers and others cir- institutions, who then struggle even cumvent the Iranian authorities’ efforts to harder to maintain public confidence. hinder the flow of information across the Internet. “Increasingly routinely, a cheap, ‘go-any- where’ camera or mobile phone chal- Across the world, the bloggers and citizen lenges the credibility of the massive journalists who – often at great personal

IPI REPORT 33 Left: Signs depict missing or dead journalists during protests in Mexico City, 7 August 2010.

risk – were hailed as heroes as they shared breaking news with the rest of the world. And heroes they were.

But were they journalists?

Amid the frenzy surrounding the Iran de- velopments, and the reliance of the global public on citizen journalists, an important element was often forgotten: How reliable was the information, particularly since it had not been vetted by experienced edi- tors?

The dangers inherent in the citizen journal- ism process were highlighted when CNN iReport published an inaccurate report from someone stating that Apple boss Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack and had been rushed to the hospital. Apple shares nose-dived almost immediately fol- lowing publication of the report.

According to the BBC, the report said:

“Steve Jobs was rushed to the ER just a few hours ago after suffering a major heart attack. I have an insider who tells me that paramedics were called after Steve claimed to be suffering from se- vere chest pains and shortness of breath. My source has opted to remain anony- mous, but he is quite reliable. I haven’t seen anything about this anywhere else yet, and as of right now, I have no further information, so I thought this would be a good place to start. If anyone else has more information, please share it.”

The report did not run on the CNN broad- cast channels, nor did it appear on the CNN website. Instead it was on the broadcaster’s iReport forum which is open to all, and bills itself as “Unedited. Unfiltered. News.”

BBC reporter Rory Cellan-Jones said that he was sent the following statement by CNN: “iReport.com is an entirely user-gener- ated site where the content is deter-

34 IPI REPORT Right: Reports from citizen journalists that Steve Jobs had suffered a severe heart attack proved to be false.

mined by the community. Content that does not comply with Community Guidelines will be removed. After the content in question was uploaded to iReport.com, the community brought it to our attention. Based on our Terms of Use that govern user behaviour on iRe- port.com, the fraudulent content was re- moved.”

The fact remains, though, that the inaccu- rate information appeared in a forum asso- ciated with CNN - and readers could be for- given for thinking that the forum reflected CNN standards of accuracy. Middle East Editor Octavia Nasr after she Governments have a responsibility to re- expressed respect for Lebanese cleric frain from hindering the free flow of infor- Standard editorial guidelines at any radio Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fad- mation. At the same time, journalists station, TV broadcaster or newspaper lallah in a Twitter post. should abide by self-regulatory – not statu- would have prevented publication of such tory – systems to ensure that their integrity a report without prior fact-checking. How- Parisa Khosravi, CNN International’s senior and the professional values of journalism ever, CNN, like many other news outlets, is vice president for newsgathering, wrote in are upheld, and that the information they under pressure to promote the new, virtu- a memo: “At this point, we believe that her impart or promote is the truth. ally-instantaneous, interactive world in credibility in her position as senior editor which the viewers and readers are engaged; for Middle Eastern affairs has been com- but the line between professional and am- promised going forward.” ateur journalism becomes blurred. Tradi- tional media, in an attempt to redefine it- It’s not surprising that a number of organi- self and provide news now for a ‘now’ gen- zations, including , have launched eration, is embracing ‘open source’ media – guidelines on how their employees should which allows it to integrate across multiple use social media to ensure that their jour- platforms. nalistic integrity – which includes exuding a balanced image - remains intact. For all the assertions that the inaccurate content on the iReport forum was not It is vital that – while embracing rapid tech- CNN’s (which of course it wasn’t), the nological change – journalists and editors broadcaster’s reputation for accuracy still continue to ensure that news consumers suffers when such a fallacious report is around the world receive accurate, fair and published – particularly when it suggests balanced information. that Steve Jobs is in the hospital with a heart attack, and Apple shares go through The free flow of information is a central the floor. tenet of democracy. Article It is vital that jour- 19 of the U.N. Universal Dec- The promotion of multiple nalists continue laration of Human Rights Alison Bethel McKenzie is Interim Director of the platforms for the delivery of underscores the right to International Press Institute. Before taking up her comment and news has to ensure that “seek, receive and impart in- post at IPI she spent a year in Ghana working for the even caused problems for news consumers formation and ideas.” There- Washington, DC–based International Center for experienced reporters. fore, citizens and journalists Journalists as a Knight International Journalism Fel- around the world are inextricably linked by low. She has over 20 years experience as a journal- In early July 2010, CNN fired receive accurate, the right to seek and impart ist, reporter, editor and trainer. 20-year veteran and Senior information. fair and balanced information. IPI REPORT 35 Tags: Factory-like, Obsolete, One-Way Newsroom Structures and Cultures Limit Journalism Innovation

By Jean-François Fogel

Old media newsrooms uddites are resilient. Since their quote the name of a significant piece of dig- are structured for analog Lfirst rise, against the stocking frames of the ital code – a program, a tool, a mere appli- nascent textile industry in England, they cation – invented by a news organization. publishing and create obstacles have been fighting new machines and It’s that simple: So far, old media played no to digital publishing. A factory technologies. For two centuries they lost, part in the invention of the new media. again and again, while transport, agricul- line model of production, ture, energy and the production of goods The management of their companies is still diffuse responsibilities and a were totally transformed all over the world. asking, over and over, the same question: Nonetheless they kept alive their old tune What can I do with my content? Actually, resistance to change will saying that you never change for the better. there is only one legitimate question: What challenge newsrooms trying Today luddites are entrenched in old media can I do for the audience? Search, map- newsrooms. ping, aggregation, open conversation, geo- to reinvent themselves. localization, social networking are impos- Of course, no company would dare to pres- sible answers for people looking at the dig- ent itself as an old media anymore. Any ital world with content ownership and ana- media company has at least a digital busi- log business models in mind. ness or pretends to have it. Old media have been running news websites for years now. Nothing personal. As a consultant working Newspapers are online; radio programs are in Europe and Latin America, I’ve met distributed through ; and watch- wonderful multi-skilled journalists in tra- ing TV is more and more a catch-up activ- ditional media newsrooms. They’re tal- ity. ented and efficient people, able in the same day – sometimes on the same assignment – Actually, the digital track record of old to commute from the old to the new media media is an awful one. The press, especially and back. But for the most part, the news- the printed press, missed most of its oppor- room – that structure inherited from the tunities. It lost the classifieds market to industrial age – is so precisely designed for Craigslist or look-alike online services; it the production of old media content that was late to recognize the potential of blogs, we must see it as a main hurdle on the path giving away a huge slice of to the digital future. the news market; it The newsroom is thought of ads mainly as a a factory that feeds Newsrooms are the curse of display and never tried to any news organization try- produce news on demand; printing plants; ing to add a digital channel and, yes, right now, it’s a journalists are of distribution to its tradi- mere follower of the social tional one. When such op- media revolution. In a but the first leg erations integrate – asking world driven by technol- of an efficient and journalists of a single news- ogy, it’s impossible to room to produce across two repetitive industrial 36 IPI REPORT process. or more platforms – radio and television at the same time, using the same technol- dozens of such newsrooms. Nowhere, have are in a slightly better position. Thanks to ogy because it’s the only way to have a re- I found more than a third of the journalists real time broadcasting, staffers in those sponsible cost-effective production of news actually working for both media on the newsrooms move content quickly from old fitted into pages. To the contrary, a good – same day. Of course, in a company focused media to new. Trapped in the beat of a daily i.e. innovative - digital media is a lab con- on a single platform – a so-called pure play deadline, on the other hand, newspapers nected to a workshop with ever changing – each person is involved all day long with face a rougher situation. They’re faced with tools and crafts because the digital technol- the invention of the new media, obeying a three limitations as they struggle to get old ogy and the audience behavior move very single clock and using a single set of tools. newsrooms producing new media. fast. The success online of elcomercio.pe, the First and foremost, the newsroom is a fac- To ask a workforce to feed a printing plant digital branch of the old Peruvian newspa- tory. When it feeds printing plants, journal- and a news website, simultaneously, is to per, is based on such a no-nonsense ap- ists have no choice there but to be the first run a team with two clocks. Quite often it’s proach. The site uses a content manage- leg of an efficient and repetitive industrial done with poorly integrated tools, even ment system designed for a tagged content process. They do the same tasks every day, with two distinct toolboxes. I’ve visited and serviced by a team dealing with search

IPI REPORT 37 engines and communities. In other words, monopoly or an oligopoly that it can’t should you use my simple trick: I shoot pic- it’s a traffic-driven team as opposed to the bring itself to abandon what seemed for so tures of the integrated newsroom in the news-driven environment of the old news- long like best practices. morning at 8 am, 9 am, no later than 9.30 room. am. And then I show empty desks. By 10 It’s a classic pattern in the diffusion of new am in most digital media, the morning traf- That makes a huge difference, impossible technology: Facing a disruptive innovation, fic is already past its peak. How can you to evaluate unless you’ve experienced the a profession does its best to keep its old cul- fight for a news website if your troops don’t digital revolution within a pure play env- ture, preventing or slowing down the show up at the beginning of the battle? To iornment with no strings attached to an old process of change. The stubbornness and win the morning in order to win the day is news organization. To quote Gary Hamel, arrogance evident in smart press people re- a basic rule for a media drawing most of its the theorist of modern management, in the flects their uncomfortable feelings: They traffic from workplaces. past we had only two ways to bring human know what they are giving up and they resources together: bureaucracy and mar- can’t imagine their future. They used to The newsroom as we knew it is doomed. ket. The digital world added a new way: the speak, but now they must listen to their au- The idea that information wants to be free, network. Here is the second limit of the old dience. They must learn how to read data as Steward Brand said in his often mis- newsroom: It is unable to organize itself as traffic as a marketer. They must imagine quoted statement, is still worthy of debate. a network. Its pyramidal power structure new applications or tools as a developer. But surely journalists deserve to be free. from the editor to the intern journalist, its That will happen only if they are released vertical hierarchy so closely knitted with The challenge is tough but not insur- from yesterday’s newsroom. desks, sections, and crafts along the copy mountable. Lanacion.com.ar, in Argentina, flow, and its necessary definition of a daily the digital child of a traditional newspaper, budget, are quite contrary to the sponta- has improved a lot in the recent years neous, horizontal and interactive way thanks to the digital efforts of key journal- news is produced and distributed in a digi- ists. Many have decided to upload content tal media. and speak to their audience several times during the day, significantly improving the You don’t have to breathe more than a few digital density of the online offer. minutes in lasillavacia.com, in Colombia, or elmostrador.cl, in Chile, to catch the dis- As I commute a lot between Europe and tinct feeling of a team interacting with its Latin America, people ask me what differ- audience. In those two countries, histori- ences I find between cultures of the two cally stricken by political violence, both continents. Apart from languages, there is sites are pure players displaying a strong none. North and south news media share flow of user comments generated by the the same endeavors. The two distinct con- open and quick way they serve news. It’s tinents, regarding the press, are now the like a dialogue around a cup of coffee. digital one, where journalists work within the audience, and the traditional one, The third limit is the biggest one: an atti- where publishing and broadcasting remain tude problem. As individuals, journalists mainly a one-way process. Latin America understand that they live now in a new, as a whole isn’t lagging behind the rest of news ecosystem. Some have written mag- the press. A large chunk of its press is well nificent stories about the digital age. Some established in the digital world, largely as Jean-François Fogel is a journalist and writer. He are even changing the way they work and the result of individual journalists acting as worked for the Agence France-Presse, the daily Lib- they relate to their audience. pioneers, pushing and struggling in order eration and the weekly Le Point. Beside his activity to build their future. as a journalist, he was the advisor of Le Monde’s But as a whole, they share an esprit de CEO from 1994 to 2002 and later ran the design and corps, embodied in the newsroom, that To tell the management of an old media organization of lemonde.fr. He is presently advising prevents the necessary mutation. For about the true level of their digital readi- several media organizations in Europe and Latin decades, the press was so influential so ness isn’t the most comfortable part of a America. profitable, so protected by its position as a consultant’s life. But it’s easier that it seems,

38 IPI REPORT Tags: Independent, Profitable, Sustainable Three Tasks for Journalism: Control Costs, Embrace New Ways, Believe in the Business

By Paul Tash

Newspaper profitability has etween 1980 and 2000, the profit that newspapers were a lot like electric com- varied over time, and the past Bmargin of the Chicago Tribune grew from 8 panies; both were pretty hard to screw up. to 30 percent. A former publisher of that holds some lessons for the newspaper revealed those figures during a But after another decade, those days of easy future. After such a party, the conference at the Poynter Institute several money and all-but-certain success seem a years ago, stamping them in my memory. fond but distant memory. According to the hangover needn’t be fatal. Newspaper Association of America, adver- My question, then and now: Which per- tising revenues have dropped to the same centage was the exception? total that the industry posted in 1986, when numbers were on the way up. At the beginning of the new century, the generous profits most newspapers were Too bad you missed the ‘80s, I tell my generating seemed well established. One of young colleagues. You would have liked my elders in the business once confided them. The business isn’t what it used to be.

IPI REPORT 39 Or is it? For much of their history, newspa- I don’t pretend to be a scholar of newspaper Bergman, is an Internet whiz in Seattle. pers were not an especially profitable en- history, but it strikes me there are lessons Among other things, he has started a group terprise. Nor is this the first time that great we can take from the best of our predeces- of neighborhood websites where residents newspapers have struggled or even suc- sors, including these: can post local news that big organizations cumbed to financial challenge. Some fine don’t cover. He says he is trying to keep the newspapers are still published in New York, They kept costs down. Upon his death in costs of journalism low enough that it can but Hearst’s Journal American and 1978, Nelson Poynter gave away the St. be sustained. Pulitzer’s World are not among them. Petersburg Times to keep it independent and out of a chain. He was a great vision- In the early days of such collective commu- Perhaps the historic aberration was the last ary. By all accounts, he was also tight with nity efforts, I heard a Wall Street Journal quarter of the last century, when gushing a buck. columnist sneer that citizen journalism “is revenues indulged higher costs and en- a lot like citizen surgery.” That drew a big couraged bold ambitions. After such a At the school that bears Poynter’s name, we laugh from a convention hall full of editors. party, the hangover has been hideous, but periodically gather a board of advisers from But the truth is: Just about anybody can it need not be fatal. around the country. One of them, Cory learn to do a little first aid.

40 IPI REPORT Page 39: Chicago billionaire and owner of the Chicago Tribune, Sam Zell, pre- dicts the end of home-delivered newspapers.

Left: The St. Petersburg Times celebra- tes two Pulitzer Prizes in 2009, inclu- ding one for PolitiFact.

These days, I don’t hear any editors laugh- took a chance on quick profits. Chastened ing at the notion that non-journalists not by experience, he now foretells the end might provide some useful material, for of printed newspapers delivered to sub- free. scribers.

They embraced new ways. At this year’s Truth be told, a note of pessimism – even meeting of Florida publishers and editors, fatalism – has crept into the conversation it was the oldest person in the room who of some longtime newspaper operators was carrying an iPad. Old dogs can learn over the last several years. In this thinking, new tricks, or at least adapt some tricks print is in a holding pattern against the fu- Too bad you missed they know already. ture, and creative energy should be de- the ‘80s, I tell my young voted to all things digital. At the St. Pete Times, we have retooled our colleagues. You would political coverage by launching a website – But not, I would caution, at the expense of have liked them. The PolitiFact.com – devoted not just to report- our established print business, the one with ing what politicians say, but testing a rich history and – for all its current chal- business isn’t what it whether their statements are true. Those lenges – some enduring strengths. Like any used to be. Or is it? statements get a rating from our Truth-o- enterprise, it also needs fresh thinking and Meter, with “pants on fire” for the real investment. Six years ago, our company whoppers. launched a new newspaper – tbt* – a free tabloid edited for a This takes work, leaving less room for du- younger audience. It has grown sharply and plication of coverage we might secure from steadily, to the point that its advertising rev- other sources. Within Florida, we have enues now exceed those of our website, and combined forces with the Miami Herald it contributes nicely to our financial results. for political coverage, and scoops from The most frequent complaint from readers each paper get prominent play in the is that the boxes are empty before they can other. Beyond Florida, we are building a find a copy. Who says print is dying? network of PolitiFact partners, with news- papers in Texas, Georgia, Rhode Island and In contrast to the blowhard from the Ohio. Windy City, another media mogul bears more attention in my book. Rupert Mur- So far, PolitiFact’s success is mostly journal- doch recently told a conference in New istic, including a Pulitzer Prize in 2009, but York that printed newspapers would be broadening our scale for a bigger audience around “for decades.” Note the plural. The creates a better climate for advertising and first step in planning for the future is to be- commercial reward. lieve there is one.

They believed in their business. In 1980, the Chicago Tribune was in the hands of Paul Tash is chairman and chief executive of the newspaper people. Today, it is part of a St. Petersburg Times, and chairman of the Poynter company struggling through bankruptcy Institute, the school that owns the newspaper. at the hands of a real estate magnate who

IPI REPORT 41 Tags: Diversified, Experimented, Innovated Reinvention of Journalism Marked by Seven Key Features & Six Critical Steps

By Dan Gillmor

Journalism’s future requires n April 1999, at the annual meeting of the to be obvious... And my history of the entrepreneurial thinking, IAmerican Society of Newspaper Editors, technology industry is you cannot save Andy Grove took the stage. In a conversa- yourself out of a strategic inflection as a startup culture pervades tion with Jerry Ceppos, former editor of the point. You can save yourself deeper into competitive experiments San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley’s the morass that you’re heading to, but once-great daily newspaper, Grove warned you can only invest your way out of it, outside newsrooms. the editors that their time was running and I really wonder how many people short. Newspapers faced a financial melt- who are in charge of the business down, he said. He wasn’t the first to issue processes of journalism understand such a warning, and hardly the last. But the that.” degree to which he was ignored remains instructive, and sad. Grove was right about the trajectory, though a bit premature about the timing. Grove was chief executive of Intel Corp., He was even more right about the indus- one of Silicon Valley’s classic entrepreneur- try’s likely response: Rampant cost-cutting, ial success stories. More than a decade ear- much too little investment and, above all, lier he’d led his company through a the failure to appreciate the value of entre- wrenching transition. He and his col- preneurial thinking. leagues changed Intel’s focus from com- puter memory, a business they were losing You might imagine I’m a pessimist about to Asian competitors, to the central proces- journalism’s future. You would be dead sor chips that became the heart of the wrong. I’m a wild optimist. world’s personal computers. With that move, the of which became clear Why? Because the startup culture has infil- only much later, Grove gave Intel its fu- trated journalism in a big way – because so ture – at least for the next several decades – many people are trying new things, mostly and assured his own place as one of Amer- outside of big enterprises but also inside ica’s great business leaders. the more progressive ones; because exper- imentation is so inexpensive; and because Now he was telling editors they, too, were in we can already see the outlines of what’s deep trouble if they didn’t wake up. He emerging. said: Although the transition will be messy, “You’re where Intel was three years be- we’re heading toward a great new era in fore the roof fell in on us. You’re heading media and journalism. To be sure, we are toward a strategic inflection point, and losing some things we need, at least three years from now, maybe, it’s going temporarily. But if we do this right we’ll

42 IPI REPORT BNO News morphed from a Twitter news service with approximately 1.5 million followers into a subscription- based newswire.

have a more diverse and vibrant media prises, but what economist Joseph A. consider Big Journalism’s role as a watch- ecosystem. Schumpeter called “creative destruction,” dog, inconsistent though the dominant assuming that we have fair and enforceable companies have been in serving that role. “Ecosystem” and “diversity” are key words rules of the road for all, ensures the long- But the worriers appear to assume that we here. The dangers of monocultures – sys- term sustainability of the economy. can’t replace what we will lose. They have tems that have little or no diversity – are no faith in the restorative power of a well understood, even though they still The journalistic ecosystem of the past half- diverse ecosystem, because they don’t exist in many areas, such as modern farm- century, like the overall media ecosystem, know what it’s like to be part of one. ing and finance. Because monocultures are was dominated by a small number of giant inherently unstable, the results are cata- companies. Those enterprises, aided by As Clay Shirky and others have noted, the strophic when they fail. A diverse ecosys- governmental policies and manufacturing- cost of trying new ideas is heading toward tem, by contrast, features ongoing failure era efficiencies of scale, controlled the mar- zero in the digital media world. That side by side with new success. Entire ketplace and grew bigger and bigger. The means lots and lots of people will be – they species come and go, but the impact of los- collision of Internet-fueled technology and already are – testing the possibilities. What ing a single species in a truly diverse traditional media’s advertising model was is entrepreneurship all about? Whether ecosystem, however unfortunate for that cataclysmic for the big companies that you’re doing it inside or outside another species, is limited. dominated. enterprise, the following are key features:

In a diverse and vibrant capitalist economy, But is it catastrophic for the communities Ownership: This doesn’t necessarily mean the failure of enterprises is tragic only for and society they served? In the short term, owning stock in a company, though of the specific constituencies of those enter- it’s plainly problematic, at least when we course there’s nothing wrong with that.

IPI REPORT 43 It’s about owning the process, and the out- The process of entrepreneurship differs from I hear about dozens of new startups every come, of what you’re doing. project to project. In the digital media space, month. Most will fail, but I have to stress however, I’d suggest the following: again: This is not a flaw in the system. It’s a Focus: If you can’t focus, you can’t suc- feature. ceed in a startup. I know this from experi- First, start with a good idea, and above ence. all follow your personal passion. An en- I’m jealous of my students, and I tell them trepreneur who doesn’t believe in their so. I’m jealous that I’m not their age, start- Ambiguity: Startups are full of ambigui- goal with every fiber of their being has al- ing out when the slate is so blank, when the ties and even chaos. If you’re the kind of ready started to fail. possibilities are so wide open. They, not my person who can’t deal with this, you may generation, will invent our future. be wrong for entrepreneurship. Under- Second, develop it quickly and collabo- stand a rule of startups: Your ultimate ratively, using off-the-shelf tools when product is likely to be vastly different than possible and writing code only to get the what you originally imagined, and it’ll parts you can’t find elsewhere. Be open keep evolving. with others about what you are doing. “Stealth mode” projects can and do work, Resourcefulness: Startups have to use but most ideas will find more traction with what’s available. If you have everything on the help of others who care about what your wish list, you’re either over-funded or you’re doing. under-creative. Third, launch before you think you’re Speed: Entrepreneurs move fast. They fully ready. As my friend Reid Hoffman, change with evolving conditions and take founder of the LinkedIn network and a pre- advantage of opportunities that emerge scient investor in Internet companies has and disappear in short order. They make said, “If you aren’t completely embarrassed decisions and move forward. by your website when you launch, you waited too long.” Innovation: You can innovate by being more efficient or thorough, not just by Fourth, assume you’re in beta mode for inventing new technologies. The some time. You will have bugs and prob- are few and far between, but innovators lems. Fix what’s broken and keep iterating. often connect dots where others can’t imagine the connections. Fifth, if you see the project will fail, do that quickly, too. Don’t prolong failure, Risk: Appreciating risk is essential to the and don’t spend investors’ money after it’s entrepreneurial process, but it doesn’t be- clear you should stop. long at the top of the list. You minimize the risk when you can, understanding that you Sixth, repeat. A smart failure teaches valu- can’t eliminate it. able lessons. Internal entrepreneurship in companies, also called “intrapreneurship,” should be especially forgiving of failure, as- Dan Gillmor is director of the Knight Center for We’re heading toward suming it’s not stupid or reckless. Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & a great new era in media While large enterprises can innovate, they Mass Communications. This is an edited excerpt and journalism. If we do may be better off in the digital media world from Mediactive, his new book and online project, buying or licensing from startups. Bill Joy, and is licensed under a “Attri- this right we’ll have a co-founder of Sun Microsystems, put it best bution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported more diverse and vibrant when he said, “No matter who you are, License” (see http://creativecommons.org/li- most of the smartest people work for some- censes/by-nc-sa/3.0/). media ecosystem. one else.”

44 IPI REPORT Tags: Leaked, Right to Privacy, WikiLeaks Legal Threats to Privacy, Free Speech Appear Over the Horizon

By Geoffrey Robertson

Recent developments, including his is a crucial moment to ponder York Times, the Guardian and Der Spiegel the publication of Afghanistan Tthe future of international investigative and published as if they amounted to a lat- journalism in light of the legal constraints ter day Pentagon Papers coup, demonstrat- war documents by WikiLeaks that increasingly threaten. The haemor- ing the failures and illegalities of the war and major news organizations, rhaging of “top secret” data about the war against the Taliban. Soon the doubts set in, in Afghanistan has raised fundamental fanned by rival newspapers and encour- highlight looming legal issues questions about the definition and role of aged by the Pentagon: Was this not irre- related to free speech and journalism, as politicians demand prosecu- sponsible conduct that put at risk the lives tions of sources and of WikiLeaks. Mean- of those who have provided information to privacy. while, the tentacles of privacy law are be- the allied forces? ginning to strangle valuable forms of jour- nalism previously free from the chill of the The three newspapers said they had alerted courtroom: The damage award against the the Pentagon before publishing and had re- author of “The Bookseller of Kabul” is the ceived no request to hold the reports, but latest example. the Pentagon replied that it had not been supplied with any details (and if it had, in- The European Court of Human Rights junctions might have been obtained on na- (ECtHR), once the vanguard of free speech tional security grounds, at least in the UK). in Europe, has lost its way, with some intel- The media could not decide whether Julian lectually inferior judgments which lack Assange, the fly-by-night founder of Wik- understanding of the practicalities of jour- iLeaks, was a hero or villain, or even nalism and of the principles of freedom of whether he was a journalist. expression. There is some good news from abroad: The Speech Act in the US Congress Clearly, old definitions of journalism and promises to discourage some forms of libel ancient debates over media responsibility tourism - but the challenges of defending must be revisited and updated. The Penta- free speech in this Internet age are greater gon Papers case in itself – that great than ever. Supreme Court rejection of censorship on grounds of national security – made ex- The first challenge for the media is to agree ceptions where lives were at stake or on free speech principles in relation to elec- where the publication revealed “troop tronic publishing, an agreement that was movements in wartime,” and arguably the so embarrassingly lacking at the end of the WikiLeaks material revealed both. But first week of the WikiLeaks saga (the point who is to decide - Mr. Assange? Or the edi- at which I am writing). tors of the Guardian, or the Pentagon cen- sors? Ultimately, I suppose, the Taliban - if The 75,000 pages of raw war data were it actually uses the information for lethal made available exclusively to The New reprisals.

IPI REPORT 45 But this cannot be the basis of a free speech ment freedoms, has no constitutional pro- What has gone wrong with the European principle, which must either be absolute tection for sources (the result of an ad- Convention is fairly clear and is to some ex- (putting the onus on the military to en- verse 5:4 decision in Branzburg v Hayes), tent a question of what has gone wrong crypt or otherwise secure information re- and it severely punishes those who blow with the calibre of judges on the ECtHR. lating to informers and to protect them the whistle to journalists from govern- should their cover get blown) or else to ment offices (a Sunday Times source for When the Convention was formulated, make sensible distinctions that are based information from the US Drug Enforce- back in 1950, it was endowed with a free- on the long-run public interest, i.e. the ment Agency’s files about UK politicians standing and quite formidable freedom of public’s right to know the extent to which a was recently jailed for two years). expression (Article 10(1)) defeasible only if brutal war fought in its name is killing in- “necessary in a democratic society” to serve nocent civilians through irresponsible or il- If the implications for national security some overriding public interests including legal targeting decisions. transparency call for more considered the rights and reputations of others. media ethics as the basis for a common po- If Mr. Assange is not a journalist, he is cer- sition against the new Official Secrecy laws So Article 10 set up a presumption in favor tainly an awfully big source for journalists that are being threatened, the almost expo- of free speech - the individual’s right to pri- and the media has a duty to protect him nential development of privacy law needs vacy and reputation were exceptions to be and his subsidiary sources if it uses their forceful and immediate challenge, cer- narrowly construed and applied only material. It must be remembered that the tainly in Europe where the growth is rap- where necessary to reflect an overriding US, for all its much admired First Amend- idly turning privacy into a jungle. social need. The right to privacy in Article 8

46 IPI REPORT Far left: Anthony Russo and Daniel Ellsberg outside the Federal Building in at the hight of the Pentagon Papers Scandal, 1973.

Left: Max Mosley leaves the Royal Court of Justice on 24 July 2008 after winning a privacy-invasion lawsuit over the claims by the News of the World that he took part in a Nazi-themed orgy.

a public context, which may fall within the scope of private life.”

This psycho-babble provides no compre- hensible basis for restrictions on freedom to communicate truthful information: what is meant by “a zone of interaction of a person with others even in a public con- text”? National courts have interpreted it as a recipe for awarding damages for the pub- lication of truthful information and even opinion about public figures caught in morally dubious circumstances and Silvio Belusconi is trying to make it the basis for a new law that will stop the Italian media from poking their noses and lenses and mi- crophones into aspects of his life that oth- ers might regard as corrupt.

The plaintiffs in the “Bookseller of Kabul” case invited the journalist into their home to write a book about them: When it turned out to be less than hagiographic they sued. One of the booksellers’ wives received €26,000 ($33,264) for the invasion of her was limited to “the right to respect for his cle 8 to include protection of the “reputa- privacy. Formula One mogul and son of a family life his home and his correspon- tion” and requiring a “balancing act” be- prominent British fascist, Max Mosely, dence.” tween Articles 8 and 10. And of course, it is whose penchant for beating women for judges - not editors - that get to do the bal- pleasure (his and theirs) was exposed by a There was debate over whether to include ancing. The rot set in with the decision in British tabloid, received £60,000 ($67,776) “honor and reputation” as a privacy right the Von Hannover case, in which it was de- for breach of privacy. He should have re- but this was emphatically rejected. There cided that Princess Caroline of Monaco ceived damages for libel - he was wrongly was to be no “balancing act” between Arti- could not be photographed in a public accused of running a Nazi sex orgy, when in cles 8 and 10: Media cases should be de- place: fact it had been an old fashioned British sex cided according to the taxonomy of Article orgy. He has now been permitted to take his 10 with privacy and reputation as a limited “…private life, in the court’s view, in- case to the European Court claiming that exception to free speech. This was the ap- cludes a person’s physical and psycho- Article 8 requires prior notification by the proach in the court’s early free speech cases, logical integrity;… Article 8 of the Con- media to those who they intend to expose. permitting the courts to publish full details vention is primarily intended to ensure So celebrities can run to court and obtain of the thalidomide tragedy and allowing re- the development, without outside inter- pre-publication injunctions. These devel- porter Bill Goodwin to protect his source. ference, of the personality of each indi- opments have been opposed by the media vidual in his relations with other human in different countries in a half-hearted and But in recent years, the court has changed beings…There is therefore a zone of in- disorganised way, which has failed to its approach, improperly interpreting Arti- teraction of a person with others, even in curb the unprincipled growth of privacy

IPI REPORT 47 Left: Founder and Editor of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, faces the media in London 27 July 2010, following the website’s release of 90,000 US army and intelligence documents.

The first challenge for media is to agree on free speech principles in relation to electronic publishing.

restraints that are impacting severely on shopping - the device of suing in Europe journalists and authors exacerbated by the (especially in plaintiff friendly London) to failure of many of the current European harass foreign publishers. But it will apply court judges to understand and apply free mainly to protect US publishers, by pre- speech principles. venting libel awards being enforced in the US The European media need to lobby to This process will continue unless and until change the laws here which give plaintiffs the European, national and international far too much choice about where to sue, es- media make common cause and put their pecially in relation to Internet publica- collective heads together and fight the tions. growth of privacy law and stop the progres- sive weakening of Article 10. Press freedom is so often a case of one step forward and two steps back. There have It must also be remembered, of course, that been some important advances but plain- free speech is a right to be enjoyed by the tiffs’ lawyers have regrouped and retaken public, and the public has no legitimate in- the offensive. The new “right to personal terest in protecting the publication of false- dignity” in the Lisbon Treaty will be a great hoods or reckless half truths or in permit- boost to those of their clients seeking to ting paparazzi to harass celebrities or allow- protect “dignity” which their secret deal- ing journalists to publish personal informa- ings - if exposed - would show they do not tion without public interest justification. deserve. There are big battles ahead for Geoffrey Robertson QC is head of Doughty Street freedom of expression, and the media will Chambers and author of “Media Law” (5th edition), The Speech Act, which is likely to be ap- lose them unless it can come together with “Crimes Against Humanity” and “The Case of the proved by the US Congress later this year, a Europe wide, if not a worldwide, strategy Pope”, all published by Penguin Books. will do something to discourage forum for winning the struggle.

48 IPI REPORT Tags: Democratic Deficit, Regulated, Restricted Legislation and Libel Laws Erode Press Freedom, Jeopardizing Democracy

By Robin Esser

With regulation, less is more, few years ago I was asked to independence of those newspapers has if it protects journalism’s public Agive evidence to a British quango called the been hedged in by new legislation and by Better Regulation Commission. I began my the increasingly draconian and expensive service function rather than address with the words: Better regulation, laws of libel and privacy, eroding freedom of undermining it. in my book, is less regulation. the press to an alarming extent. Democracy itself is in danger on a local, regional and na- This is especially true as far as newspapers, tional level in Britain. in all their forms, are concerned, and it is also true of television, which is regulated in Few people realise that the Labour Govern- the UK with statutory force. ment, almost as its last act, brought in a law, the Bribery Act – which could, and given the Only in the US is press freedom a part of the impact on Members of Parliament probably Constitution. In Britain – the supposed cra- would – have been used to prevent the Daily dle of democracy – the media is only half Telegraph publishing their MP’s expenses free and faces an uncertain future in the exposé, which has altered the face of Parlia- face of authoritarian laws, publicly funded ment forever. rivals, feather-bedded by taxpayer money, and economic stress. Agreed that so far this century no editors have been thrown into British jails and no The restrictions on news media in Britain presses have been blown up. send the wrong message abroad, encourag- ing regulation of the media in other parts of Journalists working in oppressive and dic- the world and bringing comfort to those tatorial regimes, sometimes in fear of their who wish to keep their populations in ig- lives, may think these restrictions are minor norance. – but they encourage those oppressions when the Mother of All Parliaments counte- The case for official regulation of TV has nances such restrictions. long since gone with the multiplicity of channels now available. The UK govern- In Britain there are now many Acts under ment could save a lot of taxpayers money which journalists can be jailed for doing by abolishing the broadcast regulator, their job. OfCom. Prison is the punishment for breaches of the Ironically, as the influence of newspapers Bribery Act (10 years), potentially in the has extended online far beyond the bound- Data Protection Act (two years) in the Ha- aries of their physical circulation areas, the rassment Act, and in the anti-terrorist laws.

IPI REPORT 49 Right: Front page of The Daily Telegraph 12 October 2009

It is prescribed in the Representation of the People Act (6 months); in the Criminal Jus- tice & Public Order Act 1994; in the Crimi- nal Justice & Immigration Act 2008 – stir- ring up hatred on grounds of sexual orien- tation (6 months or 7 years) in the Racial & Religious Hatred Act 2006; in the Public Order Act and the Criminal Justice Act 1987; and in the Official Secrets Act 1989. It’s a wonder any of us are free!

While the Government protests that these laws are not intended to suppress press freedom, how long before a government that wants to reduce media criticism comes into power?

Legislation, hanging over news media like the Sword of Damocles, is not the only worry.

Britain has one of the world’s most dracon- ian and expensive set of libel laws which are a constant threat to freedom. When it costs up to £1,000,000 or more to defend a case due to the 100 percent success fees upgrade introduced by the last government, editors are reluctant to risk a controversial story which could bankrupt their publisher.

Added to that are the sinister ranks of PR, fering in domestic law, is to hear a case information the public should know but spin doctors, agents and clever lawyers being brought by Max Mosley which de- has been hidden from them heretofore by who are dedicated to projecting and pro- mands the establishment of a rigid “prior obsessive secrecy on the part of those who tecting their rich clients’ reputations at the notification” requirement for all critical rule over us. However, having let the genie expense of the truth. The use of super in- stories. out of the bottle, the government then tried junctions and injunctions to suppress legit- to weaken the Act and protect rafts of pub- imate stories, and the development by un- Imagine what the powerful international lic service workers from its probes. In elected judges of a privacy law in their in- drug companies, the conglomerates, and Britain, the Society of Editors helped to terpretation of the vague terms of the the rich and powerful would make of that ward off this backsliding. Human Rights Act, have a chilling effect on in terms of suppression of the news! investigative journalism. The Society recently produced a compre- Prior notification would soon become hensive report, written by Professor Peter As we come more and more under the in- prior restraint. Cole, Emeritus Professor of Journalism at fluence and power of Europe, the threat of the University of Sheffield and a former na- further restrictive regulation at the behest Society of Editors Fights to Enhance tional newspaper editor. of the European Court of Human Rights Media Freedom (ECtHR) is all too real. The ECtHR, criticised The last government must take credit for In writing about the so-called “democratic by Lord Hoffman as being unable to resist the Freedom of Information Act which has deficit” in Britain today he identified the “aggrandising its jurisdiction” and as inter- enabled so many news outlets to ferret out following problems:

50 IPI REPORT Possible new candidates for the position of Speaker of the House of Commons presented their manifestos to fellow Members of Parliament and the media in London, 15 June 2009. The position became available following the forced resignation of Speaker Michael Martin in the wake of the parliamentary expenses scandal.

pers and . As this is an editors’ code, the editors have signed up for it and are therefore ready and able to stick to it. This code is administered by the independ- ent Press Complaints Commission, which has a majority of lay commissioners drawn from public life and a minority of editors from the industry. It is financed by the newspaper industry itself. Despite all the barriers that must be surmounted, I am an optimist. I believe that the public’s appetite for news is undiminished and it is in satis- fying this appetite that the future of the media and its journalists lies.

“One of the most significant threats to ects are more discussed than imple- We need to be constantly on the watch for media freedom, to the public’s right to mented. attempts to get between the public and the know, is not the result of legislation or media. So while I think our system of self- regulation but of recession and eco- Meanwhile local communities, towns and regulation is just about acceptable in a nomic decline. The crisis of advertising cities are under-reported and the public democracy – I would end by repeating and circulation decline in the print service role of the local and regional media, what I said at the beginning. media particularly, of advertising and to hold those in power to account and to audience decline in commercial broad- represent those over whom power is exer- Better regulation is less regulation. Set the casting and of enforced cuts in the BBC, cised, is left wanting. news media free and the future will be all contribute to what has been called more assured. the democratic deficit.” Adding to the concern is the emergence of a number of council-funded newspapers, The regional and local press has experi- supported by council tax revenue and pur- enced this worst, with newspaper closures porting to fill the gap left by traditional local and reductions in editorial staffs as a con- newspaper coverage. MPs and editors have sequence of declining revenues. called for an investigation into these coun- cil newspapers which they say threaten the This democratic deficit is now widely survival of independent local media and recognised, but there is little action, if that undermine democracy. The Society of Edi- is possible, to redress it. There are sugges- tors describes such newspapers as an ‘insult tions of public funding for local media; the to democracy.’ The papers mislead the pub- Press Association (PA) – Britain’s premier lic by posing as independent media, and – has initiated what it calls a also damage commercial counterparts by Public Service Reporting Project where it encroaching upon their advertising terri- would organise a pilot for court and coun- tory. In Britain we have a very effective sys- cil coverage with reports tem of self-regulation. While available freely to anyone I believe that the US editors would and could who would wish to publish public’s appetite reject such a system out of them; local websites and hand, in Britain it works new free newspapers have for news is well. emerged; new local broad- undiminished and Robin Esser is Executive Managing Editor of the casting franchises are being A committee of editors Daily Mail. He is also the Chair of the Society of Ed- set up. But the PA project is it is in satisfying drawn from across the in- itors’ Parliamentary and Legal Committee. He has finding it hard to secure this appetite that dustry devises a code which been on Fleet Street for over 50 years. funding and the other proj- the future of the sets standards for newspa- media lies. IPI REPORT 51 Tags: Protected, Rights Media Freedom in a New Media Landscape

By Damian Tambini

How we define media freedom he theme of the Congress of the In- front of the developing law on freedom of affects how we defend it. Tternational Press Institute in 2010 is ‘Media expression. In Europe, for example, the cel- Freedom in a New Media Landscape’. But ebrated Sunday Times vs. the UK (1979) Freedom of expression is a we don’t often stop to consider what we and Jersild vs. Denmark (1994) judgements universal right, while freedom mean when we use the term ‘media free- by the European Court of Human Rights, dom.’ My guess is that it would be difficult and a series of others since the 1970s, have of the press may be more to find people at the Congress prepared to set out clear safeguards that prevent gov- limited, and it remains unclear speak out against media freedom. The ernments within the European Court of question, in a globalizing world where a Human Rights system from controlling the what the rights of citizen growing majority of the population do not media. journalists are or should be. have effective protection of fundamental rights, is surely how media freedom is to be The Inter-American and African human defended. rights systems offer hope for similar progress in the future elsewhere in the But is it so simple? We must draw a clear world. It is important to remember that distinction between media freedom, which whilst there are numerous international applies to the media, and freedom of ex- declarations, treaties and communica- pression, which applies to everyone. These tions that mention media freedom, it is principles are not always one and the same. freedom of expression – rather than free- Is media freedom – and its close relative dom of the media, the press or journalism ‘press freedom’ – ultimately the freedom of per se – that tends to be protected by con- those who own, or control the press and stitutions. broadcasters? What happens when free- dom of expression and media freedom col- So journalists are fighting for freedom of lide, as for example when a politician de- expression on behalf of everyone. But there mands access to the media to express her is an ongoing debate in various countries point of view, but a media company re- regarding the extent to which journalists fuses? have special rights as journalists, or whether in fact journalistic freedom is a Perhaps even more attractive to the partic- subset of freedom of expression. ipants in the IPI Congress will be the notion of ‘journalistic freedom’. This too can only Does, and should, the law reflect a specific be a good thing, surely. Well, those of us category, journalists, to whom special priv- who have spent a lot of time with journal- ileges – and perhaps responsibilities – ists may think we might want to think should be given? What happens when about some limits. there is a conflict between media freedom and the freedom of journalists? Should But on a serious note, journalists and journalists be given specific legal protec- media companies have been at the fore- tion from their owners?

52 IPI REPORT Left: Silenced. A journalist protests against the nationwide violence directed at journalists in Mexico City, 7 August 2010

public advantage, the press can enter into no close or binding alliances with the statesmen of the day, nor can it sur- render its permanent interests to the convenience of the ephemeral power of any government.”

The professionalization of journalism and the development of media freedoms have A previous generation of thinkers on these Interestingly, the UN Special Rapporteur gone hand in hand. Judges tend to be more issues, in the 1970s, tried to develop a no- for freedom of expression, Frank de la Rue, likely to accept that journalists have acted tion that incorporated freedom of expres- has recently taken a similar position. in the public interest and that media com- sion with freedoms of journalists and of the panies deserve protection when they have media into a ‘right to communicate.’ In so But is not theoretical debates about rights been doing ‘responsible journalism.’ doing they derived a right of access to the that will determine the future landscape of media, reasoning that if freedom of expres- media freedom and freedom of expression. A difficult one to test, and judges nearly al- sion is to mean anything in a communica- It is political will on the one hand, and the ways defer to the journalists themselves to tions system dominated by the mass media daily grind and experimentation of work- decide what is responsible, but the point is of press and broadcasting, people need to ing journalists, and the legal and political that where journalists’ actions impact on have access to those media. battles that they and others fight on the other people’s rights – to reputation, for ex- other. ample, or to privacy – judges and others are Ultimately, the attempt to merge media keen to see that journalists are acting re- freedom and freedom of expression, re- For the subtle balances that have been in- sponsibly. In this sense, media freedoms flected in work carried out by UNESCO, the stitutionalised in the laws, rules, codes and, are conditional on good behaviour. New World Information and Communica- crucially in the everyday practices of jour- tion Order, and others, failed. nalists are the product of centuries of legal So where does all this leave ‘Media Free- reasoning, professional development and dom in a New Media Age’? Whilst it is true In part, it failed because offering open ac- political street-fighting. that the current period may be one of a par- cess to scarce communications resources ticular disjuncture – new technologies fun- such as transmitters and presses was im- A definitive statement about press power damentally alter business models, and ar- practicable. More recently, authors such as was set out in a Times editorial from 1854: guably the financing of ‘responsible jour- Karol Jacubowicz and others have revisited nalism’ – it is only by understanding the this topic, arguing that rights to communi- “We cannot admit that its purpose is to past and the longer term development of cate are possible now that the Internet of- share the labours of statesmanship, or what we now call media freedom, that we fers the possibility of universal access to the that it is bound by the same limitations, can understand this present. means of mass communication. the same duties, the same liabilities as that of the ministers of the Crown. The There are two views of how we got to where Jacubowicz himself proposes that the right purpose and duties of the two powers we are. On one hand – in England we to free expression should be replaced with are constantly separate, generally inde- would call this a Whig view – there is the the right to public expression in the new pendent, sometimes diametrically op- view that media freedom is the product of media age. (See the papers gathered to- posed. The dignity and freedom of the the steady, long march of liberal enlighten- gether on the Mediapolicy.org website: press are trammelled from the moment ment values. The gradual acceptance of a http://www.mediapolicy.org/general/do- it accepts an ancillary position. To per- brilliant and simple idea: the view that, fol- we-really-need-a-right-to-public-expres- form its duties with entire independ- lowing John Stewart Mill, freedom of ex- sion/.) ence, and consequently with the utmost pression is the best way of guaranteeing

IPI REPORT 53 truth, democracy and self-expression, and out some clear boundaries in the standoff protecting journalists: It is crucial that the therefore social progress. between governments and the media. But value of media freedom is robustly de- the current crisis of the business model, fended, particularly where freedom of ex- Another view of the development of media and therefore of the fourth estate, itself pression is not protected, and where media freedom is that it has been hard fought, and leads to an uncomfortable question. Can freedom is not merely the freedom of only really gained acceptance through the we have media freedom without media media owners. development of the brute power of the power? ‘Fourth Estate’ and the sometimes brutal But at the same time, we must be prepared deployment of media power in the defence If media freedom requires ‘the brute power for a much more fundamental renegotia- of media freedom and the interests of of the press,’ this has implications for how tion of the social compact between media media owners. most effectively to work to establish media and the state in coming years. And a new freedom around the world and how to re- framework for media freedom. The truth, as ever, is probably somewhere spond to the current blurring of the cate- in between. But this is not just a theoretical gories of media, journalist and press free- exercise. Asking questions about what dom. We must draw a clear rights and responsibilities journalists have, distinction between and – both historically and politically – Should citizen journalists and others be ac- why they have these rights, is crucial at this cepted into the fold? If they are to enjoy the media freedom – which particular moment. protection of the law, how best can self-reg- applies to the media – ulation and professionalization govern This is an important question when we ask their ‘responsible’ behaviour? And in the and freedom of about how the law and other institutions established democracies, how is responsi- expression, which should treat bloggers, citizen journalists, ble journalism – upon which media free- Twitterers and the other ‘networked jour- dom depends – to be protected where the applies to everyone. nalists’ of the Internet age. business model for news is being under- mined? Should amateur bloggers get the same privileges – in terms, for example, of source Oxford Professor of Internet Studies Bill protection – as traditional journalists? Dutton has suggested that we should think Whether they enjoy the same privileges of of the Internet as a ‘Fifth Estate.’ (EDITOR’S access to information is often a question for NOTE: SEE PAGE 22) I disagree, for two rea- the sources, rather than society at large. But sons. First, the Internet has none of the de- government information is the key source. liberate, self-conscious power that the Should governments be able to control key press and the other estates have exercised. announcements as they have, or should And second, there is no real boundary be- government data and freedom of informa- tween ‘the Internet’ and the press. tion be radically opened in order to foster networked journalism? In my view, Fourth Estate power is indeed faltering, but it is not in a terminal decline. Clearly, we are at a crossroads. In the ma- The role that the media have played in so- ture democracies of Europe and North cial progress remains crucial, but we are far America at least, and in some other coun- enough in to the Internet age to be aware Damian Tambini was appointed as Senior Lecturer tries to varying extents, an accommodation that the shift we are witnessing is a funda- in the Department of Media and Communications, had been reached between state and polit- mental one. LSE, in September 2006. He is also an Associate ical power and the power of the media. The Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research notion of the fourth estate – a familiar one So this is a period in which debate and (IPPR) and at the Oxford Internet Institute. His in France and the Anglo-Saxon world – re- openness is required, about how the media research interests include media law and policy, flects the notion that the power of the are changing, and about how to foster re- and ethics and regulation in a changing media media has a pseudo-constitutional status, sponsible journalism. Debate about the fu- environment. and the law on freedom of expression set ture should not deflect us from the task of

54 IPI REPORT Tags: Global, Open, Threatened Defending Freedom of Expression on the Internet

By Susan Pointer

The Internet has equipped ith great foresight, the au- information that holds public value and in- journalists and non-journalists Wthors of Article 19 of the United Nations terest from the local or foreign to the na- Universal Declaration of Human Rights ex- tional and global, often from behind barri- alike with a platform that tended the basic right of freedom of opin- ers and walls. enables – but does not guarantee ion and expression – including the free- dom “to hold opinions without interfer- Protecting human rights and freedoms – extraordinary expression of ence and to seek, receive and impart infor- in the Internet era opinion and distribution of mation and ideas” – to “any media and re- The technology on which the Internet is gardless of frontiers”. Even back in 1948, based is inherently global and open. It has information. such a human right was considered to be no central control point or managed infor- technology and geography-neutral. mation ‘push’, but instead relies on multi- ple entry points and the ability for any one In media terms, this principle has tradi- Internet user to ‘pull’ any online content tionally played out most in the written that others have chosen to make available. media, not only with reflection of different We are only just beginning to comprehend voices and viewpoints, but also through and appreciate the value of an open and ac- committed and - all too often - necessarily cessible platform in supporting human very brave journalists working to bring rights and freedoms, transparency and

A supporter of Google in China pays his respects at the company’s headquarters, 15 January 2010. accountability: Politicians and their elec- on the world beyond our immediate envi- Furthermore, authoritarian or statist torate in direct communication, spotlights ronment, challenging us with new infor- regimes that want to monopolise or restrict thrown on corrupt governmental and insti- mation and competing opinions; also in information distribution are becoming in- tutional practices, real-time visual chal- many cases mobilising people to come to- creasingly technology-savvy and are not lenges of reported ‘facts’, citizen journalism gether - either virtually or physically - always content to sit back and watch this and so on. around shared concerns and campaigns. information revolution. Censorship and restrictions can take many forms, from the Mobile Internet technology has become a Empowered and news-hungry individuals blatant to the more discreet or indirect: fil- new tool in upholding human rights and are, it seems, actively seeking a broader tering content through firewalls; blocking exposing corruption, particularly in the plurality of news sources, and the news websites at the ISP level; introducing re- hands of those around the globe who have sources themselves are increasingly part- strictive regulations on content and on not in the past had access to mass commu- nering with new players. Take the recent hosting platforms; walled gardens; and nications. A personal phone handset has volatile post-election period in Iran where, technical barriers to prevent access to for- provided a new group of individuals with excluded themselves from Iran, some in- eign sites. tools to become electronic bearers of wit- ternational broadcasters transmitted their ness on events going on around them, e.g. news from the offices of user-generated At a more subtle level, some require li- after the military junta shut down commu- content platforms such as YouTube who censes that are not granted, insist on local nications in Burma. were receiving live video postings from legal establishment of a foreign Webser- users on the ground. vice, or apply local domestic legal require- The incredible power of online translation ments to an incoming service. Sophisti- tools also is often missed in acknowledging Encroaching threats cated information security attacks, and - innovations that have helped tear down, in But this doesn’t mean that we are all of a perhaps most insidious of all - active culti- this case, linguistic barriers to communica- sudden in some information and free ex- vation of fear of contributing information tions flows around the world. Many of us pression utopia, the aims of Article 19 of or views online, promote a self-censorship now have access to local primary sources of the UN Human Rights Declaration met. culture, which risks generations growing information in languages unfamiliar to us The freedoms that the Internet facilitates up shaped to think and operate only within and can participate actively in the conver- with respect to open communication and artificially-constructed silos. sation in our own languages. information access are not universally em- braced by those who have traditionally And this is a phenomenon that doesn’t just In this way, the Internet has offered an ad- preferred to control information and com- happen in distant countries. We are seeing ditional powerful means to have a window munication. an alarming trend of filtering and control efforts much closer to home, in those very countries that genuinely espouse the prin- ciples of a free society. Sometimes, author- ities acting with the best (and shared) in- tentions such as protecting children online or dealing with illegal content, can display a tendency to over-reach or to apply disproportionate restrictions on the Inter- net when there are more appropriate ways to deal with legitimate challenges, most re- cently in Australia. The impact of such ‘jus- tification-creep’ – if it proceeds unnoticed and unchecked – can, in time, fundamen- tally risk the open accessible Internet.

As users seek ways around political censor- ship, it is inevitable that censorship, block- ing and filtering methods will continue to evolve also.

56 IPI REPORT Censorship and What does all of this mean for Google? even though this video was restrictions can This is admittedly still at a We believe strongly in maximising access removed by the company very early stage of develop- to expression and opinion, that access to upon notification of its ex- take many forms, ment but is nonetheless an information and the ability to exchange istence (in line with the re- from the blatant attempt to bring greater ideas lies at the heart of robust knowledge, quirements of the Euro- transparency to the discus- integration of different viewpoints, better pean e-commerce Direc- to the more dis- sion about government- decision-making, transparency, accounta- tive). creet or indirect. sought and court-order re- bility, good governance and empowered in- movals of content from the dividuals. Making information universally This ruling - which we are Web. accessible and useful is what brought the appealing - sets a particularly dangerous company into being in the first place, as precedent because it implies that any em- Let’s not take the open Internet for Larry Page and Sergey Brin sought to make ployee of an online hosting platform - such granted it easier for people to find what they were as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, DailyMo- There is an expression that you only appre- looking for on the Web. tion or even blogs sections on online news- ciate what you have when it’s gone. Let papers - can be held criminally-responsible that not be the case for the Internet. This is Many of Google’s products are platforms for content that is uploaded unbeknown to a critical moment to get ahead of that for retrieving information and contribut- them by a third-party. rather unfortunate timeline based on loss ing content and views. Yes, there is Google and regret and instead to be vigilant and Search, but also Blogger, Google Earth and consciously defend this incredible means Google Maps, Google Books, Gmail, collab- Cooperative action and transparency on for upholding our right to seek, receive and orative document creation in Google Apps, censorship impart information and ideas through any YouTube etc. Three years ago, Google joined negotia- means. Our taking the open Internet for tions with Microsoft, Yahoo, human rights granted may ultimately be one of the But as a global company operating across groups, responsible investors and others biggest risks it faces. more than 150 countries, all with their own in Europe and the US to see if we could ar- cultures and cultural sensitivities, history, rive at a code of conduct for how technol- legal environment, case-law and politics, ogy companies operating in restrictive the role of being a provider of such com- regimes could best operate to promote munication tools is not always a straight- freedom of expression and the privacy of forward one. users.

Access to YouTube is banned in Turkey, for These discussions resulted in the Global example, because YouTube has chosen to Network Initiative (GNI). The principles to reject an order to remove on a global basis which we have all subscribed through GNI a handful of videos that were uploaded in set out a detailed set of guidelines outlining the US to the US-based site but which how companies and groups should re- within Turkey are considered illegal spond to government censorship attempts because they are critical of Kemal Ataturk. or government requests for personally- The issue is not one of deliberate insensitiv- identifiable information of users. ity but rather a much deeper jurisdictional discussion about whether one country can At Google, we have also recently intro- apply its domestic content laws on a global duced a ‘Government requests’ tool. Like basis to content hosted on a website out- other technology and communications side of that country. companies, we regularly receive requests from government agencies or courts We also have Google employees who re- around the world to remove content from cently received suspended sentences in an our services or for information about the Susan Pointer is Google Inc.’s Director of Public Italian Court for allegedly violating privacy users. The tool is an attempt to bring a Policy and Government Relations for Europe, Mid- because of a video that was posted by a greater level of transparency on such re- dle East and Africa. user to the Google Video online platform, quests.

IPI REPORT 57 58 IPI REPORT Take-aways from Chapter One: Trends and Tips to Build the Business and Enhance the Craft

By Bill Mitchell

Consider two takes on the future of print.

Jeff Jarvis argues that it’s time for news executives to “get ahead of the curve for once” and acknowledge what he regards as print’s in- f only we could put Ushahidi to use (see Chapter Two) in mapping evitable demise. Ithe crises facing journalism around the world. “Kill the newspaper yourself,” he urges. “Pick a date in the less-dis- Short of that, the Guardian’s Alan Rusbridger summarizes key tant-than-you-think future and unplug the press. And then ask: trends with the term “mutualisation,” the growing openness and What’s a newspaper? What is its real value? And how does that collaboration among journalists and people they serve. They are value live on and grow past paper?” traits as important to the commerce of journalism as to its craft. Paul Tash leads a news organization, the St. Petersburg Times, that “Openness is shorthand for the way in which the vast majority of won one of the first Pulitzer Prizes ever awarded to a largely online information is… part of a larger network, only a tiny proportion of initiative – the paper's PolitiFact fact-checking service. which is created by journalists,” Rusbridger points out, “Informa- tion may not want to be free, but it does want to be linked. But he still believes in print.

“It’s difficult to think of any information in the modern world “A note of pessimism – even fatalism – has crept into the conver- which doesn’t acquire more meaning, power, richness, context, sation of some longtime newspaper operators…” Tash writes. “In substance and impact by being intelligently linked to other infor- this thinking, print is in a holding pattern against the future, and mation.” creative energy should be devoted to all things digital. But not, I would caution, at the expense of our established print business. Here’s the business-side consequence: Although the digital era has Like any enterprise, it also needs fresh thinking and investment.” eroded publishers’ control over information – and much of the profitability that accrued to such exclusivity – it has created the As evidence, he cites the free print tabloid his newspaper launched opportunity to provide new value. six years ago that now generates greater advertising revenues than the company’s website. Linking opens the door to new products and services that render the raw material of news ever more valuable to users and adver- Whether you find yourself persuaded by Jarvis or Tash, I sense no tisers. Collaboration – with users, competitors and others – enables disagreement between the two on Tash’s guide to the future of enhancement of value without adding big cost. news, which fits quite nicely in a mutualised world:

Mutualisation is also altering what Rusbridger characterizes as • Control costs. “the basic currency of journalism – the story.” In an open and col- • Embrace new ways. laborative world, a story comes to life long before it appears as a • Believe in the business. fully formed pyramid, its delivering value to users long after publication. Chapter Two provides examples of all three.

The views expressed in this report reflect no consensus, but nei- ther do they fall into those tired old camps of Luddite and tri- umphalist.

IPI REPORT 59 Tags: Engaged, Multiplatformed Providing Platforms for Community Involvement in Journalism as a Social Good

By Grzegorz Piechota

Whether photographing a hat morning, Wroclaw, the fourth One amateur video captured the river disaster or monitoring maternity Tlargest city in Poland, became a stronghold. breaking the embankment in the Kozanow Defenders were not soldiers, nor firefight- district of Wroclaw. One could see the wards, anyone can become an ers. They were people like us armed with crowd running away and hear them swear- ‘accidental reporter.’ Gazeta their mobile phones. ing to God. Wyborcza is providing platforms Michal: “Kozanow district is fighting. Watching streets under water I could not to channel that impulse so that Nine lorries with soldiers, four diggers, stop thinking about another flood that had hundreds of people try to make the river hit the city in 1997. That time I was a young community service journalism embankment higher.” reporter at a local newsroom of my news- is supported, in part, by the Marta: “They told us to evacuate the sick paper Gazeta Wyborcza. and old. We are so worried and now people it serves. we’ve run out of sand.” Our editorial office was under water as were Kasia: “In Kozanow water is pouring the offices of the other three local newspa- through the embankment.” pers. In the early days of the flood, I lost my Magda: “Are you sure? What’s the source car driving through the water, so I was sail- of this information?” ing across the city to collect information. Ziomek: “Confirmed: water really broke the embankment. Kozanow in panic!”. Fixed line phones were down. Mobile phones were very rare. The Internet was That morning, on 22 May 2010 – I was not still a toy for geeks. there. I followed this fight with the flooding river on the Internet blog The flood of 2010 was so different. It af- wroclawzwy boru.blox.pl. fected a much smaller part How does it feel of Wroclaw, destroyed Its editor, 29-year-old Pawel to be challenged many fewer houses and Andrzejczuk, a small busi- brought no casualties. But it ness owner, collaborated by our own was a bigger news event, as with some 300 contributors readers? professional journalists who fed his blog with over were joined by amateurs 3,000 news items and up- Not so bad, as who dared to provide inde- loaded 4 GB of photos and we have brought pendent, 24-hour live news videos. coverage on the Internet. it upon ourselves, 60 IPI REPORT in a way. Left: Flooding in Wroclaw. When these citizens struggled to make the river’s embankment higher, other residents provided independent 24-hour live news coverage on the Internet.

sition to bring independent journalism to the country and support underground Sol- idarity’s bid for the first free elections in Poland.

Today, Gazeta is the most read quality newspaper here with an average paid cir- culation of 347,000 and 4.2 million readers reached in total every week in print. Our online portal (Gazeta.pl, the fourth largest website in Poland), attracts 11.8 million users a month. That’s 66 percent of all 17.8 million Polish Internet users.

Twenty-one years after its founding, Gazeta still believes its mission is broader than just delivering honest news. Since its launch it has been a voice of “modern Poland” – sup- Everybody has a mobile phone with a cam- The amateur news feed also had its flaws. I porting democratic reforms, joining NATO era now. Becoming an “accidental reporter” had to cut through the jungle of rumors to and the European Union. It has been help- is just one click away. find revealing witness accounts, but at the ing to build an open society by providing same time I felt as a reader that I had par- platforms for debates and inspiring people Pawel’s blog directly competed with all the ticipated in something big and communal. concerned with a common good. TV news channels, radio newscasts and Such a rare feeling in our individualistic newspaper portals. In just five days it at- world of “me.” We have embraced new media as they tracted 157,000 unique users in a city of make our efforts easier and more effective. 630,000 inhabitants. That’s about one- Pawel might not be a professional news ed- Our online forums (Forum.Gazeta.pl) let third of what our established local news itor, but over the last five years he has built people discuss over 5,900 different topics portal of Gazeta for Wroclaw is attracting a strong . His Facebook ranging from politics to education and monthly. profile had more than 2,600 fans at last health-care to hobbies. Over the years, our count, almost as popular as our local users have shared over 113 million posts Fifty percent of users found Pawel’s blog Gazeta’s profile. It all paid off during the and two million photos. when Googling for “flood in Wroclaw” and flood. Finally, the trend described in Dan similar keywords. They chose a link to an Gillmor’s “We the Media” manifesto Our blogging platform (Blox.pl) has be- amateur news site instead of official reached my part of the world. come the biggest in Poland, hosting over sources, or professional media. 184,000 individual blogs. Pawel’s blog on Reader Participation Challenges Tradi- the flood in Wroclaw is one of them. When Official sources were disgraced as the tional Media water broke embankments of that city, it mayor kept repeating Kozanow was safe, So, how does it feel to be challenged by our became the most read blog on the platform. when it was not. Professional media – a bit own readers? Not so bad, as we have So, in fact, we have been sharing in all his slower than the real-time Web, more confi- brought it upon ourselves, in a way. traffic successes. dent of the official version and cautious of the unconfirmed amateurs’ accounts – My newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza, was We’ve even been sharing some revenues. turned off some audiences. founded in 1989 by anti-communist oppo- Pawel’s blog is a member of our online

IPI REPORT 61 advertising network (AdTaily.com). This So we asked mothers for help. In 1994, we ers wrote in a letter we published on network helps to turn visitors of blogs and got 2,000 letters by post. In 2006, thanks to Gazeta’s front page. niche sites into advertisers and provides the Internet, we gathered 40,000 personal funding to independent voices. It has at- accounts of childbirth. We were able to re- Computers, mobile phones and the Inter- tracted over 13,000 amateur and profes- view 423, or 96 percent of all maternity net are rarely used during lessons other sional online publishers so far. wards in Poland and produce the most than computer science. So now, together comprehensive guide on hospitals ever. I with some non-governmental organiza- Technology Should Further a Mission personally benefited from the results of tions, we want to introduce new teaching Our successes with these technologies raise this campaign when my wife Magda was ideas to the Polish schools. fundamental questions: What is our media pregnant and gave birth last year to our son is for? What do we care about? And why Adam. How about asking teachers for help? Here should people care about us? is an idea: we give them examples, access to As Adam will start school in a few years, I experts and an online platform to share ex- Here at Gazeta we care about the quality of am looking forward to the results of an- periences; then they develop multimedia health-care. Since 1994 we have been re- other campaign. Last June, we sent 25 re- lesson scenarios and tools for themselves, viewing maternity wards in Polish hospi- porters back to their schools – public and together with pupils. We start in Septem- tals; we wished to improve passioned care private all over Poland – to check whether ber, and we plan to target 7,000 schools. by proposing a set of standards and check- they embrace new technologies. ing whether they are met. We could have Have you ever been on a diet? I have, and sent 100 journalists to assess the care, but a They spent a week going to classes, doing until now I have not been very successful. single mother – who actually gave birth in homework, talking to pupils, teachers and About 17 million or 46 percent of Poles the hospital – can tell you more than re- parents. Sadly, we found our education was are overweight. In the spring of last year, porters. stuck in the “chalk age,” as one of the teach- nine employees of Gazeta – editors, adver-

62 IPI REPORT Left: New media mogul. During the Wroclaw flooding it was Pawel Andrzejczuk, a 29-year-old blogger who runs a network of 300 amateur contributors, that competed with the TV news channels, radio newscasts and newspaper portals.

tising reps and bookkeepers – announced Of these campaigns and community activ- assembling understanding communities, publicly they were going on a diet and in- ities are funded by a mix of advertising, giving them tools, teaching how to use vited readers to join them online. About sponsorships, copy-sales, brand exten- them to inspire people to bring about 21,000 people did, and now they are regis- sions, online payments and readers’ contri- change. tered in our social network of weight- butions. By solving other people’s prob- watchers (OdwazSie.pl). lems we probably have found a way to “We are not indifferent,” Gazeta’s slogan solve our own. reads. I hope we prove it. As readers followed the struggle of our em- ployees, they could access a collection of Development of the Internet – amateur free and paid online services. A few thou- news feeds, the wisdom of crowds, the sand subscribed to personally designed growth of social networks – reminds me These technologies raise diet and exercise plans priced at €10-25 per that media, or communication within a so- fundamental questions: month. Nearly 80,000 were buying books ciety in general is more about people than we published. Over 300,000 were getting just a message. What is our media for? sponsored supplements to the newspaper, What do we care about? like tables of calories or cooking recipes. There is a lesson for journalism. We must After 18 months, our readers lost 12,500 kg convey news and tell stories of importance. And why should people in total. The most successful one lost 30 kg! But the story itself must matter to the com- care about us? I wish it was me. munity it serves. Journalism is also about

As head of social campaigns at Gazeta Wyborcza in Poland, Grzegorz Piechota develops and runs editorial multimedia projects. Currently vice-pres- ident of the International Newsmedia Marketing Association in Europe, Piechota began his career at Left: Childbirth with Dignity. A poster for Gazeta Wyborcza’s campaign that Gazeta in 1996 as a reporter in one of the smallest encouraged 40,000 mothers to review local offices. maternity wards in Polish hospitals.

IPI REPORT 63 Tags: Aggregated, Crowdsourced, Distributed, Mapped, Triangulated Lessons for Journalists in the Crowdsourcing of Crisis Information

By Patrick Meier

A mapped approach to crowd- sourcing developed in Kenya has provided critical information to humanitarian workers in several ust hours after the earthquake on Ushahidi launched their first mapping JJanuary 12, 2010, the group known as platform during the post-election violence crisis situations. Journalists Ushahidi launched an interactive crisis in Kenya in early 2008. The platform has have also begun using the map of Haiti in partnership with The since been used to monitor other contested Fletcher School at Tufts University. To- elections, document human rights abuses, mapping platform, Ushahidi, to gether, they crowdsourced the collection and aid in humanitarian responses in track developments in breaking and mapping of crisis information. countries like Afghanistan, Sudan, Chile and Pakistan. news in such situations as snow Ushahidi, which means “witness” in storms, earthquakes and Swahili, is a nonprofit tech company from As the New York Times reported earlier this Africa that develops free and open source year, Ushahidi was also used by the Wash- political violence. platforms for live mapping. The mapping ington Post to track the crisis created when platform allows individuals to report infor- the American capital was hit by a massive mation using a Web form, SMS, Twitter, snow storm. Partly because reduced rev- smart phone apps, and other tools. enue has diminished their staffs, news Right: Ushahidi’s mapping service shows hot spots of conflict in Kenya during the post-election violence, early 2008.

Below right: Ushahidi’s mobile app allows users to upload information on conflict in their local areas.

Below left: Victims of widespread monsoon flooding in Pakistan clamour for aid packages in August 2010.

organizations are turning increasingly to corwdsourcing as a journalistic tool. But it’s also partly because there are so many more people in the crowd than there are re- porters in a newsroom. The larger numbers result in a “distributed cognition” that, when aggregated, adds up to more knowl- edge than could be generated by a smaller group of people – reporters or otherwise.

As important as crowdsourcing may be to journalism in the long term, some of its more immediate and dramatic impact has been felt in the area of humanitarian relief. in many situations, the options were either An examination of what’s happened so far to crowdsource information or have no in- in that area can be instructive for news or- formation at all. ganizations. In addition, the humanitarian community Soon after the Ushahidi group launched continues to face challenges in communi- the mapping platform for Haiti, several cating with disaster-affected populations. hundred volunteers from the Haitian Dias- While the UN and other groups have made pora, The Fletcher School, Tufts University, important progress in disseminating im- the Geneva Institute of Graduate Studies, portant information to local communities Lewis & Clark College and hundreds of oth- in times of crisis, this is largely one-way ers around the world sifted through main- communication. The Ushahidi platform in stream and social media sites to map rele- Haiti was combined with the 4636 SMS maps to help us identify needs and target re- vant information on the live map of Haiti. short-code to provide near real-time two- sources… And on Monday, a seven-year-old Just days after launching the crisis map, a way communication with the disaster af- girl and two women were pulled from the dedicated short-code” was set up to crowd- fected population. This means that when rubble of a collapsed supermarket by an source information on the needs of the dis- volunteers at The Fletcher School were re- American search-and-rescue team after aster affected population in and outside of ceiving some one thousand text messages they sent a text message calling for help.” Port-au-Prince. This project, which came to a day from the ground, they could reply to There are reports that the Marine Corps and be known as Mission 4636, allowed anyone these if more information was needed, US Coast Guard used the Ushahidi-Haiti in Haiti to send a free SMS to the number such as precise location information. map operationally to respond to urgent 4636 with his or her location and most ur- needs being communicated via SMS. gent need. Crowdsourcing was then used to According to the US Federal Emergency geolocate and translate incoming text mes- Management Agency (FEMA) and others, Crowdsourcing represents a promising but sages from Haitian Creole into English so this map became the most comprehensive still largely untested approach for collecting that emergency responders and the wider and up-to-date source of information on crisis information. Jeff Howe coined the humanitarian community could under- Haiti available to the humanitarian commu- term “crowdsourcing” in 2006 and defined stand and act on them. Dur- nity – even though the infor- the approach as “the act of taking a job tra- ing the first week after the Crowdsourcing mation on the map was not ditionally performed by a designated agent earthquake, it was not possi- statistically representative. and outsourcing it to an undefined, gener- ble for the humanitarian represents a US Secretary of State Hillary ally large group of people in the form of an community to set up any promising but Clinton also applauded the open call.” Crowdsourcing has already been systematic representative use of the these and other applied in several sectors and for various sampling mechanism to still largely tools in a public speech 10 purposes including data crunching, transla- carry out rapid needs assess- untested days after the quake noting tion, geolocation and transcription. But the ments of the disaster af- that, “the technology com- application of crowdsourcing for crisis in- fected population. In this as approach for munity has set up interactive formation is particularly new and presents collecting crisis information. IPI REPORT 65 US helicopters drop aid into areas in Port au Prince made inaccessible by the earth- quake on 12 January 2010

66 IPI REPORT Partly because reduced revenue has diminished their staffs, news organizations are both important opportunities and real chal- whether a problem exists or turning increasingly sources across different lenges. Crowdsourcing, as a method ology to not. Lastly, non-probability media has happened. Fu- collect information, is simply an example of sampling, or crowdsourcing, to crowdsourcing ture versions will also non-probability sampling, a well-known may actually be the only ap- as a journalistic make use of Flickr and and established sampling method in statis- proach available—a com- YouTube to compare, for tics. In probability sampling, every unit in mon constraint in many tool. example whether pic- the population being sampled has a known medical studies and in hu- tures or videos of the probability (greater than zero) of being se- manitarian crises like the 2010 earthquake same event were captured. lected. This approach makes it possible to in Haiti and the massive floods in Pakistan. produce unbiased estimates of population This prompted Anand Giridharadas to ask totals, by weighting sampled units accord- One of the main challenges in crowdsourc- in a New York Times article whether the tri- ing to their probability selection. Non-prob- ing crisis information is assessing the valid- angulated crisis map would become the ability sampling, in contrast, describes an ity and reliability of the information being new first draft of history. While many chal- approach in which some units of the popu- crowdsourced. There are a number of par- lenges still remain, the example of Haiti, lation have no chance of being selected or tial solutions to this challenge. For exam- which was unplanned and ad-hoc, is per- where the probability of selection cannot be ple, “bounded crowdsourcing” can be used haps the first sign that the humanitarian accurately determined. An example is con- instead whereby a known and/or trusted space is about to be radically transformed venience sampling. network of individuals – e.g. field person- in the coming months and years. By the nel – source relevant information. In addi- same token, crowdsourcing and the near The obvious drawback of non-probability tion, the explosion in user-generated con- real-time validation of crowdsourced crisis sampling is that the sample may not be rep- tent means that it is increasingly possible to information may have a similar impact on resentative of the population. Probability triangulate and cross-validate crowd- the future of news. sampling, also known as representative sourced. For example, if three different text sampling, also poses some important con- messages from three different numbers at straints, however. The approach often re- three different times describe the same in- quires considerable time and extensive re- cident, then one can assume that three dif- sources, which makes the use of this ferent witnesses are reporting this incident. method difficult in response to fast-paced, The rise of integrated mobile technologies real-time operations. To this end, probabil- means that such witnesses are increasing ity sampling is far more conducive to retro- dramatically around the world. This means spective studies. Furthermore, non-re- that the chances that several witnesses will sponse effects can easily turn any probabil- document the same event in any given ity design into non-probability sampling. Of time and place is increasing. This docu- course, the advantage of probability sam- mentation is not restricted to text-based in- pling is that the resulting sample is repre- formation like blogs, Twitter and SMS. Wit- sentative of the population being surveyed. nesses are increasingly sharing pictures and video footage in near-real time. Non-probability sampling has some im- portant advantages over representative This explains why the Ushahidi group has sampling, however. First, non-probability developed another free and open source sampling is typically a much quicker way platform called Swift River. The tool pulls Patrick Meier is director of Crisis Mapping and to collect and analyze data in a range of set- in user-specified content from Twitter, Strategic Partnerships at Ushahidi and co-founded tings with diverse populations. The ap- SMS, online news, social media, etc. and the International Network of Crisis Mappers and the proach is also a far more cost-efficient seeks to compare how many times a spe- International Conference on Crisis Mapping. He is a means of greatly increasing sample size in cific event is reported on and by whom. If PhD candidate at the Fletcher School of Law & real-time, thus enabling more frequent and multiple witnesses report on the same Diplomacy, the Co-Director of the Harvard Human- up-to-date measurement. In addition, the event, then chances are that the event re- itarian Initiative’s Program on Crisis Mapping and method is also used in exploratory re- ally did take place. So Swift River produces Early Warning and is a visiting fellow at Stanford search, e.g. for hypothesis generation, espe- probability scores that suggest how likely it University’s Program on Liberation Technologies. cially when attempting to determine is that an event being reported by diverse

IPI REPORT 67 Tags: Accelerated, Distributed, Petitioned Social Media as a First Draft of Journalism and a Rallying Cry for Democracy

By Endy M. Bayuni

Social media use has changed he Twitter message flashing on the mittedly poor quality but uncensored with how people share information in Tscreen of my handset shortly after 7:30 a.m. gory bodies of victims, were soon posted on one Friday in July 2009 was unequivocal: Twitter and Facebook, the two most popu- Indonesia, with professional “RT @DanielTumiwa Bom @ marriot and lar social media among Indonesians. journalists facing challenges ritz Carlton kuningan jakarta.” Someone had re-tweeted a message posted by a man Here are some more messages taken from from citizen journalists who can who was inside one of the two adjacent ho- @DanielTumiwa, who must have thumbed provide news more quickly, even tels that was bombed that morning. News them in haste, but they were pretty accu- of the simultaneous blast that killed 14 rate and descriptive. if it is sometimes unverified or people was first broken by ordinary citi- incorrect. zens with no training in journalism, but • “2 boms go off inside Ritz Carlton and with a passion that matched the best. Marriott coffee shops! Not kidding. Am here.” The bad news for journalists is that in the • “Left location. Shocked. Lots of blood. increasingly wired world, they have lost the Breakfast meetings at coffee shops while virtual monopoly they once enjoyed in dis- bombs went off.” seminating news and information. The • “Thanks for all the concern. Back home. good news is that professional journalists Safe. Shocked. Blood… smoke… glass… have come to rely on the social media to everywhere… prayers to the victims….” help keep abreast of the very latest news. And even better news is that journalism It was more than half an hour later before can improve upon those raw, early reports local TV stations, whose crews struggled of social media by scrutinizing them with through the Jakarta morning rush-hour such traditional journalistic values as accu- traffic to reach the two bombed hotels, racy and fairness. began their live broadcasts from the scene. Prior to this, the stations had put out news For the next hours that day, Twitterland flashes, with the protective line “uncon- was buzzing with news of the blasts, cour- firmed reports” until they were able to ver- tesy of Daniel Tumiwa and others like him ify the news themselves on the ground. who were tweeting and re-tweeting infor- Most likely they had picked up the story mation in packets of 140 characters or less. from the Internet. Thanks to them, news of the latest deadly terrorist attack in the Indonesian capital There have been many other times since was known worldwide, not through the or- then that Twitter and Facebook became the dinary media like television and radio and first media to break important news in In- not by journalists in the traditional sense of donesia. As far as speed is concerned, and the word. Images and short video clips, ad- anyone in this business knows that speed is

68 IPI REPORT Below: Forensic experts go through the ruins of the coffee shop at the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in July 2009. Journalism can improve upon those raw, early reports of social media by one of the most important elements after with constant updates by scrutinizing them ish an organization deval- accuracy, citizen journalists are beating the minute if not by the ued by its own behavior. professional journalists at our own game. second. with such traditional For citizen journalists, journalistic values and some of the people And the public is responding. There are some down- who follow them, speed sides to this, however. The as accuracy and may come before accu- With cell phones becoming affordable to nation learned about the fairness. racy. most people, and with Internet connection death of its most famous costs coming down dramatically in the past composer, Gesang, one week before it hap- In this increasingly more wired world, pro- year, more and more Indonesians have pened, and also the passing of former first fessional journalists have to share the field come to use social media like Twitter and lady Ainun Habibie a few days too early. (and the audience) with amateurs and Facebook as their prime sources of news their values. Each group has its place and and information. Some overzealous Twitterers, wanting to be its role in keeping the public informed. first to break the news, couldn’t resist the Anyone with mobile and Internet access Even journalists find them indispensable temptation and tweeted the news before can be a journalist, or do the work that professional tools. Gesang and Habibie were dead. Foolishly, journalists do any time they update their some TV stations, caught in the competi- Twitter or Facebook accounts, for these are I learned of the death of Indonesia’s former tion of reporting the news first, picked up disseminated to a large audience online. president Abdurrahman Wahid in Decem- both false stories and broadcast them. Everybody is a journalist. ber 2009 from Twitter only a few minutes after he drew his last breath. The speed was Credibility should distinguish the work of Citizen journalists in Indonesia have unbeatable. No TV or radio station – you professionals, who are trained to put accu- shown that they can be just as effective, if can forget my own newspaper – could have racy ahead of speed. Mistakes can be fatal to not more so, at influencing public opinion. matched the speed with which the news their integrity and to the credibility of the The wide space that the Internet is provid- was disseminated, tweeted and re-tweeted, media they work for. The market will pun- ing has been widely used for an open pub- lic debate on just about anything in In- donesia as people take advantage of the guarantees of free speech. Sometimes out of these debates, a movement emerges and people rally behind certain causes.

For example, there was a petition that gar- nered more than one million signatures on Facebook demanding President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono release two deputies of the anti-corruption commission who were detained by the police as they were investigating high-profile cases. The presi- dent responded by setting up an independ- ent team of inquiry, which sure enough, recommended the release of the two deputies two weeks later.

Another Facebook petition demanded the release of a young mother who was ar- rested by the police after an email she had written to a friend, complaining about the services of a private hospital near Jakarta, was posted in various discussion groups. The Omni International hospital filed libel

IPI REPORT 69 Below: Volunteers campaign to collect coins for Prita Mulyasari. A massive move- ment started by Indonesian Facebookers raised almost $90,000 nationwide to help Prita pay the penalty.

charges against Prita Mulyasari, who had There have been many other Facebook nalism is one of the oldest professions in written the email, and since the crime car- movements since then, albeit on smaller the world, and for now at least, it is irre- ries a maximum jail penalty of six years scales. But in the social media, anyone, placeable. With so many more players under Indonesia’s new cybercrime law, the poor and rich, powerful and strong, can competing, however, the only way to sur- police were obliged to put her under arrest find their voice. They also find that Face- vive is to improve skills and professional- pending the investigation and trial. book, and other platforms like it, can be ism, and to practice good journalism. more effective in airing grievances than Under strong public pressure from Face- taking it to the streets. The next people Democracy is well served to include many book petitioners, the police released her, power movement in Indonesia, if and more players besides professional journal- but when the civil law trial proceeded, she when the need arises, will be conducted ists. But it is served even better if profes- was found guilty and the court ordered her through the ‘Net. sional journalists strengthen their role in to pay t300 million rupiah ($30,000) in keeping everyone else in check. The sur- damages. Facebookers were quick off the In this Internet age, there continues to be a vival of journalism depends on it. mark, and organized a collection nation- need for the kind of services that profes- wide, called Coin for Prita, to help her pay sional journalists provide: Gather, collect Citizen journalists in In- that sum. The response was massive and and sort information, verify, and package it donesia have shown that the organizers raised more than 800 mil- in a way that is easily understandable to lion rupiah. They were about to dump the the public, using text, sound and still or they can be effective at in- coins, which had been loaded in trucks, moving images. fluencing public opinion outside the Omni International gate when the hospital decided to waive its claim. The The medium may be different, from print, as people take advantage money has since been given to a founda- broadcasting to the digital, but the rules of of the guarantees of free tion named after Prita to help poor people the game and the ethics that govern the seek justice. profession are essentially the same. Jour- speech.

Endy M. Bayuni is the former Editor in Chief of The Jakarta Post. He also writes columns commenting on Indonesian national politics, political Islam, in- ternational affairs and the media scene.

70 IPI REPORT Tags: Dispersed, Specialized, United Crowdsourcing Can Turn Fragmentation into Community

By Jeff Howe

The very technologies that here is much to bemoan about the nale, but by and large Americans have appear to be atomizing Tdecline of traditional media. I’d prefer not wandered off to read Sailing magazine or to add my voice to the collective keening, its equivalent. individuals might be used to but I will offer a reminiscence: I spent my bring us together by creating a first year out of college writing for my Technology is often blamed for dispersing hometown paper, the Columbus Dispatch. the crowd, but the fact is that the process new form of social capital that At the end of the year I moved to New York was occurring long before the advent of the can connect people to new City, but before I left I wrote Columbus Internet. There’s no question that the Web, something of a Dear John letter, in the form and social media in particular, have facili- friends, new jobs, new action. of a column. It ran on the back page of the tated ever greater levels of specialized metro section, beneath my headshot. media. I receive much of my news through an iPad application called Flipboard, which It could be that one of my elementary goes out and gathers the articles my friends school teachers neglected to read it, or that are reading and displays them to me in the a colleague of my father’s swept right past form of an online magazine. This is social it on his way to read the latest on the Ohio media brought to its logical conclusion, State Buckeyes. But I doubt it. It was 1994; and it’s worth noting that in the year I’ve we were just on the cusp of the digital rev- lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts I’ve yet olution – everyone in Columbus read the to read—much less subscribe to—a local Dispatch. Writing for that paper was the paper. equivalent of carpet bombing the city with leaflets. And so when I think about the And yet, I’d like to propose a radical Balkanization of the media—the rise of thought: The very technologies that are what Cass Sunstein calls “the Daily Me”—I breaking us up might be used to bring us think of that column, and wonder how together. This past May I convened what is, many people would actually read it if I to my knowledge, the largest collective wrote it today. reading exercise in history. This summer thousands of people from all over the The mass audience has acquired an almost world read Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods.” mythological quality. Young journalists gather around the veterans to hear of the They then discussed the book using Twit- days when media giants roamed the earth, ter, a new-fangled technology that is doing and Life magazine was read by 40 million for the epigram what the octavo format did Americans. We still gather for the occa- for the romance novel. Given the size of sional Super Bowl or “American Idol” fi- this virtual gathering, you’d think that I

IPI REPORT 71 Below: #1b1t, the Twitter hashtag for the One Book One Twitter project.

Below Left: The iPad application Flipboard – social media brought to its logical conclusion

Far Right: Twitter stream #1b1t

had the benefit of institutional support and sourcing.com: “I have a dream. An idea. A Nancy Pearl called, “What If Everyone in publicity department pow wows to help or- maybe great notion. As Auggie March Seattle Read the Same Book?” ganize such a gathering. Au contraire. might say, ‘I got a scheme.’ What if every- one on Twitter read the same book at the What happens is that a lot of people with How did I do it? First, by adapting to the same time?” I called it “One Book, One absolutely nothing in common suddenly new rules, instead of trying to impose the Twitter,” and presented it as something of a have at least one thing in common. This old ones. Let me explain. In March I posted lark. As it happened, other people found builds what an academic might call social the following passage to my blog, crowd- the scheme appealing, and because I didn’t capital. Social capital is the WD-40 in our try to impose my own rules on it, my lives, the connections that result in new scheme metamorphasized into a move- jobs, new spouses, and new friends. It’s ment. why George Bailey is the richest man in town. And what social scientists call bridg- Next, I didn’t take my inspi- ing social capital allows ration from the “book club,” What we miss connections to form be- a venerable institution about the mass tween people who have rooted in the lyceums of Vic- nothing in common. Ex- torian-era America. I was in- audience event cept, perhaps, that they spired instead by a more re- is the feeling that happen to be reading the cent convention—what the same book. National Education Author- for a little while, ity calls Big Reads, and what we’re all going Bridging social capital is the innovative librarian also the quantity produced through some- 72 IPI REPORT thing together. Technology is often blamed for dispersing the crowd, but the when 36 million Ameri- machine gun bursts that are The last in my book on crowd- cans watched the finale of process was Twitter’s native form (Twitter sourcing ends with what I call a cardinal the miniseries “Roots.” occurring long constrains each entry to 140 rule: “Ask not what your community can Suddenly everyone at the characters.) If someone wrote do for you, but what you can do for your office or the plant wants to before the advent something especially witty or community.” Replace community with talk about the same thing. of the Internet. incisive, it was syndicated readers, or better, customers, and you have And it’s what, I think, we (“retweeted,” in the jargon of what could be a blueprint for a publishing miss about the mass audience event—the the technology) by others, so that it strategy. feeling that for a little while, we’re all going reached many eyes. In this way, people through something together. I hoped One with nothing in common had — for the What does all this have to do with journal- Book, One Twitter might replicate that ex- eight weeks One Book, One Twitter took ism? Plenty. We butter our bread every perience, and I’m happy to report that, for place—indeed something in common. time we reach across racial, social, and ide- those of us who participated, it did. ological lines. As our audience grows, so Finally, I cheerfully conceded any owner- grow our ad rates and eventually the size People have noted, with some disdain, that ship over the project. Who started One of our newsrooms. If there was one com- Twitter isn’t conducive to book clubs. This Book, One Twitter? Me. Who runs it? mon thread to the widely disparate, glob- ignores that One Book, One Twitter isn’t Dunno. The people reading the book, I ally dispersed participants in One Book, meant to act anything like a book club, in guess. That’s what this new world, which One Twitter, it was that they were eager to which people who know each other offer Clay Shirky aptly calls an age of organizing participate in a project that would allow lengthy, personal exegetics about a book, without organizations, looks like. And One them to connect with other people. The ap- becoming closer to people they already Book, One Twitter is what it looks like for petite is there. We only need to learn how know. In this case, thousands of people book publishers. A lot of people reading, a to serve it. who’ve never met gathered to dish out in- lot of people buying books, but doing so ac- sights, questions, and commentary in the cording to their own schedule.

Jeff Howe is a Nieman Fellow at and a contributing editor at Wired Magazine. He wrote the book “Crowdsourcing: How the Power of Crowds is Driving the Future of Business.”

IPI REPORT 73 Tags: Databased, Linked, Processed Data and Journalism Form a Powerful Combination

By Paul Bradshaw

When computer processing or the past two centuries, journalists have more accurately, and with others. All of powers journalism, there are Fdealt in the currency of information: We which opens up new opportunities and transmuted base metals into narrative new dangers. Things are going to change. new possibilities and problems gold. But information is changing. for publishers. Cultural We’ve had over 40 years to see this coming. At first, the base metals were eyewitness The growth of the spreadsheet and the movements combine with accounts and interviews. Later, we learned database from the 1960s onwards kicked technology to spread data as to melt down official reports, research pa- things off by making it much easier for or- pers, and balance sheets. And most re- ganisations - including governments - to a source of information, and cently, our alloys have been diluted by digitise information, from what they spent journalism is changing as a statements and press releases. our money on to how many people were being treated for which diseases, and result. But now journalists are having to come to where. grips with a new type of information: Data. And this is a very rich seam indeed. In the 1990s, the invention of the accelerated the data at journal- Statistics and numbers in general are noth- ists’ disposal by providing both a platform ing new to journalists. When I talk about for those spreadsheets and databases to be data I mean information that can be published and accessed by both humans processed by computers. and computer programs - and a network to distribute it. This is a crucial distinction: It is one thing for a journalist to look at a balance sheet on And now two cultural movements have paper; it is quite another to be able to dig combined to add a political dimension to through those figures on a spreadsheet, or the spread of data: The open data move- to write a programming script to analyse ment, and the linked data movement. Jour- that data, and match it to other sources of nalists should be familiar with these move- information. Computers can also more eas- ments; the arguments that they have devel- ily analyse new types of data, such as live oped in holding the powerful accountable data, large amounts of text, are a lesson in dealing with user behaviour patterns, Journalists are entrenched interests, while and network connections. having to come to their experiments with the possibilities of data journal- And that is potentially trans- grips with a new ism show the way forward. formational. Adding com- type of informa- puter processing power to The open data movement our journalistic arsenal al- tion: Data. And campaigns for important in- lows us to do more, faster, this is a very rich formation - such as govern-

74 IPI REPORT seam indeed. ment spending, scientific information and But there are dozens, possibly hundreds, of In the US, the journalist-programmer maps - to be made publicly available for the similar examples in industries from health Adrian Holovaty has pioneered the form benefit of society both democratically and and science to culture and sport. We are ex- with the data mashup ChicagoCrime.org economically. The linked data movement periencing an unprecedented release of and its open source offspring Everyblock, (championed by the inventor of the Web, data - some have named it ‘Big Data’ – and while Aron Pilhofer has innovated at the Sir Tim Berners-Lee) campaigns for that yet for the most part, media organisations interactive unit at the New York Times, and data to be made available in such a way that have been slow to react. new entrants from Talking Points Memo to it can be linked to other sets of data. That ProPublica have used data as a launchpad means, for instance, a computer can see That is about to change. for interrogating the workings of govern- that the director of a company named in a ment. particular government contract is the same The data journalist person who was paid as a consultant on a Over the last year an increasing number of To those involved, it feels like heady days. related government policy document. Ad- news organisations have started to wake In reality, it’s very early days indeed. Data vocates argue that this will also result in from their story-centric production lines journalism takes in a huge range of disci- economic and social benefits. and see the value of data. In the UK, the plines, from Computer Assisted Reporting MPs’ expenses story was seminal: When a (CAR) and programming, to visualisation Concrete results of both movements can be newspaper dictates the news agenda for six and statistics. If you are a journalist with a seen in the US and UK - most visibly with weeks, the rest of Fleet Street pays attention strength in one of those areas, you are cur- the launch of government data repositories - and at the core of this story was a million rently exceptional. This cannot last for Data.gov and Data.gov.uk in 2009 and 2010 pieces of data on a disc. Since then, every long: The industry will have to skill up, or it respectively - but also less publicised ex- serious news organisation has expanded its will have nothing left to sell. periments such as “Where Does My Money data operations. Go?”, which uses data to show how public Because while news organisations for years expenditure is distributed, and “Mapumen- the Guardian created a special online inter- made a business out of being a middleman tal,” which combines travel data, property face (mps-expenses.guardian.co.uk/) for processing content between commerce prices and public ratings of ‘scenicness’ to more than 400,000 pages of documents and consumers, and government and citi- help show at a glance which areas of a city and (as of August 2010) had enlisted more zens, the Internet has made that business might be the best place to live based on in- than 23,000 readers to review and help cat- model obsolete. It is not enough any more dividual requirements. egorize more than 221,000 of the pages. for a journalist to simply be good at writing

IPI REPORT 75 or rewriting. There are a million others out deed add data to the picture through your in the clearest way possible, not just for ed- there who can write better - large numbers own activity. The experiments of the past itorial reasons but distribution too. Info- of them working in PR, marketing, or gov- five years will come to seem crude in com- graphics are an increasingly significant ernment. While we will always need pro- parison. source of news site traffic. fessional storytellers, many journalists are simply factory line workers. A collaborative future There is a danger of ‘data ’ – I’m skeptical of the ability of established taking public statistics and visualising So on a commercial level if nothing else, publishers to adapt to such a future but, them in a spectacular way that lacks in- publishing will need to establish where the whether they do or not, innovative online- sight or context. Editors will need the sta- value lies in this new environment, and only startups will. And journalists’ training tistical literacy to guard against this, or where new efficiencies can make journal- will have to change. The profession has a they will be found out. ism viable. is one of those history of arts graduates who are highly lit- areas. With a surfeit of public data being erate but not typically numerate. That has And it is not just in editorial that innova- made available, there is a rich supply of already been the source of ongoing embar- tion will be needed. Advertising sales will raw material. The scarcity lies in the skills rassment for the profession as expert blog- need to experience the same revolution to locate and make sense of that - the pro- gers have highlighted basic errors in the that journalists have experienced, learning gramming skills to scrape it and compare it way journalists cover science, health and the language of Web metrics, behavioural with other sources, the design flair to visu- finance; it cannot continue. advertising and selling the benefits to ad- alise it, the statistical understanding to un- vertisers. pack it. We will need more journalists who can write a killer Freedom of Information re- And then there is the commercial oppor- The technological opportunity is massive. quest; more researchers with a knowledge tunity. Most publishers, after all, are in As processing power continues to grow, the of the hidden corners of the Web where business not to sell content but to sell ad- ability to interrogate, combine and present databases - the ‘invisible Web’ - reside. We vertising. And here also data has taken data continues to increase. The develop- will need programmer-journalists who can on increasing importance. The mass mar- ment of augmented reality provides a par- write a screen scraper to acquire, sort, filter ket was a hack. As the saying goes: “We ticularly attractive publishing opportunity: and store that information, and combine or knew that only half of advertising Imagine being able to see local data-based compare it with other sources. We will worked; the problem was, we didn’t stories through your mobile phone, or in- need designers who can visualise that data know which half.”

76 IPI REPORT Left: visualcomplexity.com provides inspiration for data presentation to scientists and journalists alike.

But Google and others have used the meas- A new medium and a new market demand urability of the Web to reduce the margin of new rules. The more networked and inter- error, and publishers will soon follow suit. active form of journalism that we’ve al- It makes sense to put data at the centre of ready seen emerge online is likely to be- that - while you allow users to drill into the come even more conventional as publish- data you have gathered around automotive ers move from a model that sees the story safety, the offering to advertisers is likely to as the unit of production, to a model that say “We can display different adverts based starts with data. on what information the user is interested in,” or “We can point the user to their local It is one thing for a jour- dealership based on their location.” nalist to look at a balance And as publishers of data, too, executives sheet on paper; it is quite will need to adopt the philosophies of the another to be able to dig open data and linked data movements and take advantage of the efficiencies that they through those figures on provide. The New York Times and the a spreadsheet. Guardian have both published APIs that allow others to build Web services with their content. In return they get access to otherwise unaffordable technical, mathe- matical and design expertise, and benefit from new products and new audiences, as (in the Guardian’s case) advertising is bun- dled in with the service. As these benefits become more widely recognised, other publishers will follow.

I hope that this will lead to a more collab- orative form of journalism. The biggest resource a publication has is its audience. Until now publishers have simply pack- aged up that resource for advertisers. But now that the audience is able to access the same information and tools as jour- nalists, to interact with publishers and with each other, they are valuable in dif- ferent ways. Paul Bradshaw publishes the Online Journalism At the same time, the value of the news- Blog and is the founder of the investigative journal- room has diminished: Its size has shrunk, ism crowdsourcing site “Help Me Investigate.” He is its competitive advantage reduced; and no described by UK Press Gazette as one of the coun- single journalist has the depth and breadth try’s “most influential journalism bloggers” and by of skills needed across statistics, CAR, pro- The Telegraph’s Shane Richmond as “The UK’s gramming and design that data journalism Jeff Jarvis.” requires. 78 IPI REPORT Tags: Immersed, Mobile The Tablet Innovates News Presentation as Color Did in 1970s

By Mario Garcia

Tablets like the iPad allow ne after another, newspapers iPad editions are brother/sister to the newspapers to innovate Oworldwide are making their entrance into newspaper, allowing for intuitive methods the world of tablets, which in the second of reading and perusing, and also duplicat- storytelling and presentations half of 2010 is more likely to involve devel- ing and reinforcing a newspaper’s brand. It so they can attract new audience oping an application for the iPad than for is as if a page of your newspaper jumped any other product. With more than 3 mil- from the coffee table and into the black and satisfy traditionalists lion of those small and efficient iPads al- frame of the iPad and it can now play a interested in immersion reading. ready sold, Apple seems confident that its video or sing a song. small and multi-talented new product will continue to be a favorite among people of The iPad has a widespread appeal, from the all ages who want to be informed, play, be very young to the oldest and most tradi- entertained or simply write an email to a tional readers, allowing newspapers to start friend. attracting new and elusive audiences to their brand, while allowing those precious Publishers and editors, too, share that con- traditional readers who love their newspa- fidence, and I have to admit that I have not pers to start sampling them in a new plat- seen this level of excitement, optimism and form. zest for innovation since the arrival of color presses in the late 1970s. The iPad is likely to bring about a renais- sance of the best that journalism has to The excitement is justified, as the iPad – offer, as it will encourage the publishing of and probably the many other tablets that long-form journalism. This is not to say are surely going to make their entrance that long stories are back, or that mediocre into the market in the next few months – is ones should be encouraged. However, I be- truly a game changer for newspapers. lieve that the tablets offer an opportunity to relax with a story – the way books al- Tablets allow for an immersive experi- ways have – and when we add to that the ence many multimedia possibilities, then I can Online editions hijacked newspapers into a see why enterprise journalism will find the format of scrolling up and down, depriving tablet to be its best ally. them of their most familiar elements, such as recognizable typefaces and the overall Tablets are a platform to relax with, offering look and feel that are brand giveaways. But the experience we associate with reading

IPI REPORT 79 printed newspapers, magazines, and books. Economics of the tablet are untested both at the creative and revenue levels is As we become more aware of the need to It is still too early to tell whether – or to virtually untapped. Create partnerships disconnect, the tablets offer us the oppor- what extent – the tablet will be the finan- and think of advertising/content synergies. tunity to do so. cial saviour that many in the industry are hoping it will be. However, early returns But, most importantly, create content that Photographically, the tablets are a magnif- tell us that advertisers like the new plat- users will value. Dig into your archives for icent platform. We know that photo gal- form, especially the fact that sponsorship material that has potential value as an app. leries are the most popular features of any gives them top display for their products You will be surprised how much people multimedia offerings online – more popu- and laces the contents of the advertising are interested in – and are willing to pay lar than videos. On tablets, photos shine. more closely with editorial content, a long for – the historical and pictorial records held wish of advertisers. that sit in so many newspaper “morgues” This, of course, will raise the bar for the worldwide. quality of photos we get, as well as the type When Rolex sponsors a newspaper’s iPad of stories that we write around them. With edition, it feels as if the diamonds on the Early challenges include proper active fingers touching every possible de- face of that watch shine a little more staffing tail of a photo, those inquiring minds that brightly, and when United Airlines accom- Remember, tablets are in their infancy move them will want “mini stories” to go panies the evening update of the tablet and we are the creators of their future for where their fingers stop. If your newspa- edition, it reaches higher altitudes. The journalism. Our models will have the his- per has coasted along with a mediocre publishers are hoping their bottom lines toric opportunity of being the first tem- photo department, it is time to start shop- will be uplifted, too. plates, with potentially iconic longevity, ping for new equipment, hiring star pho- and that entitles us to experiment, to tographers, and training editors to forget Revenue potential is one of the center- learn as we go, and to make the inevitable the boring, simplistic captions and start pieces of any tablet planning discussion, so mistakes that all learning processes in- writing “mini stories” that enhance details develop strategies and form partnerships. volve. of a photograph. The advertising potential for the tablet,

80 IPI REPORT Far left: A renaissance for journalism? Tablets offer the relaxed reading experience associated with prin- ted newspapers, magazines and books.

Left: The iPad has widespread appeal from the very young, to the oldest and most traditional readers.

If a newspaper has coasted along with a mediocre photo department, it is time to start shopping for new equipment and hire star photographers.

enhanced and respected print edition is the mother’s milk of the tablet.

The most solid and robust newspaper brands in the world will create a strong quartet of platforms: Mobile phones, on- line, print, and tablet, each with its distinct characteristics, catering to the specific needs of a highly demanding, sophisticated audience that has an insatiable appetite for the information they want, when they want it, how they want it. Feed that ap- petite and all will eat well.

The tablet is not a newspaper, it is not a readers, extend your brand, and give your magazine, it is definitely not an online team the laboratory it needs to take those edition, and it is not television, although it first baby steps. is a little of all of these. It must be given its own identity. Your keys to early success tap into that which your newspaper does best: Make it To do that, tablet editors are essential. They local, personal, essential, exclusive, and are, indeed, the next source of creativity in simple. Don’t be afraid to experiment. the newsroom. The ideal tablet editor is a person well versed in traditional journal- Print edition remains critical element in ism, but also tech savvy, with an inclination multi-platform success to consume information digitally, and most A challenge that remains at the top of the of all, a great storyteller. list: Make your print edition relevant. Use the grand opportunity that the planning of Storytelling has found its next best ally in a tablet edition offers to look at your print the tablet. We will see a need for excellent edition carefully and thoroughly. narratives and photos, with the enhance- ments of audio, video and interactivity. Indeed, print is eternal, and there is likely to be a printed edition of most newspapers But, remember, you can’t simply transfer for years to come. the entire contents of your newspaper Mario Garcia is CEO and Founder of Garcia Media, into a tablet edition. Instead, find that one However, it is part of the responsibility which has worked with more than 500 news organ- unique, value-driven element of your of every innovative tablet team to identify izations from its offices in Tampa, Buenos Aires and publication that should open the door to creative ways to take print to its next Hamburg. the tablet. That first app will engage your stage of evolution. Remember, a stronger,

IPI REPORT 81 Tags: Blogged, Globalized, Networked From Adversaries to Allies: Professional and Citizen Journalists Need Each Other

By Solana Larsen

Global Voices Online creates an hen wildfires in Russia’s software from Kenya called Ushahidi to international community of local Wwestern region began to spread uncontrol- facilitate communication between those lably at the end of July 2010, Russian blog- who needed help and those who were bloggers who cover the world gers began discussing what they could do able to provide help. Another blogger, from their own backyards to to help. On Livejournal, which is the most Alexey Sidorenko, installed the software popular blogging platform in Russia, peo- and launched the website the very next then be used by the wider global ple were documenting tragic losses of life day. A team of bloggers adopted the proj- media. and property, and also self-organizing to ect, and in little more than a week Russ- assist victims. ian-fires.ru received more than 80,000 unique visitors. On Facebook, Sidorenko As the fires kept multiplying and their joked that he had wanted to be a fire- epicenters constantly shifted, one blogger, fighter as a kid. “It turns out, the Internet Gregory Asmolov, suggested that it would made me some kind of a virtual fire- be a good idea to use an online mapping fighter,” he wrote.

A volunteer from Moscow, who refused to be identified, tries to extinguish a forest fire, which came close to a village of Kovrigino, some 74 km (about 46 miles) east of Moscow early Friday, 13 August 2010. Left: Numerous citizen media projects that set out to address an information deficit in their own countries end up becoming ‘a story’ themselves. Left is a screenshot of Russian-fires.ru created to enable wildfire survivors to find and receive help from other citizens.

Below left: globalvoicesonline.org

we are more likely to have a story from Trinidad and Tobago, Armenia, or Pakistan than from anywhere in Europe or the United States, this is no small feat.

What often happens is that journalists or television producers will be on the lookout for an alternative angle to an ongoing for- eign news story and will do a story on “what bloggers are saying.” In other cases, a project like the Russian wildfires website, ing. But they often arise in reaction to gaps or say, a website to monitor irregularities in mainstream media coverage of a certain during the Brazilian election, will demon- event or perspective. In the five years since strate there’s enough material for a story of Global Voices Online began, it has has al- its own. ways emphasized parts of the world that are usually ignored by international media. In Madagascar, young bloggers who cov- ered a government coup and riots in the The site was founded by two fellows at the streets said they were compelled to risk Berkman Center for Internet and Society at their safety to tell these stories, because Harvard University, Ethan Zuckerman and local mainstream media were deeply biased Rebecca MacKinnon, as an effort to expand by pressure from both government and op- global media attention and cross-cultural position. Before international journalists Somewhat unintentionally, many bloggers dialogue by (among other things) connect- began to call for interviews, Malagasy citi- similarly become “virtual journalists” or ing bloggers in the developing world with zens of the diaspora were finding these even “virtual ambassadors” for their coun- mainstream media journalists. blogs through search engines and thanking tries when their websites or blogs become them for updates. Once the streets had hubs for international information gather- The international news agency Reuters was calmed, the bloggers convened a public ing in moments of crisis. an early partner, and MacKinnon was a for- meeting to gather their thoughts. They were mer CNN bureau chief in Beijing and Tokyo surprised to see several journalists in atten- In Iran, Madagascar, Uganda, Puerto Rico, who later turned to online media. Global dance. It turned out there was a degree of and many other countries, bloggers are Voices, which I help manage, has become a competitive resentment and envy. A few often surprised and delighted when jour- vast international community of “citizen months later, the bloggers began offering nalists contact them for interviews. It’s an journalists,” with more than 300 bloggers new media training to journalists. opportunity for them to help communicate who report and translate stories daily. what is happening in their country. Very This is just one example of how citizen few people think of their own blogging or Every month a few hundred thousand vis- journalists have worked together benefi- crowd-sourcing projects in terms of jour- itors pass through our multiple language cially with mainstream media even though nalism, but the media often label it “citizen websites. Many more have seen our au- journalism” anyway. thors’ work referenced in mainstream The most successful media. citizen media projects Journalists often imagine it as an (inferior) imitation of their own craft, performed by When we surveyed more than 100 Global arise in reaction to unknowning amateurs. But it, in fact, often Voices authors earlier this year, 44 percent gaps in mainstream involves communities of intelligent and said they had seen links or mentions of committed people. their stories in media from the United media coverage of a States or Europe, and nearly the same de- certain event or The most successful citizen media projects gree of attention from local and national are rarely styled after traditional news writ- media in their own countries. Considering perspective.

IPI REPORT 83 they began as counter-voices. Citizen jour- In the past few years, I’ve attended more The idea that professional nalists and traditional media help each than a dozen media and journalism con- journalists should some- other. Only rarely have online citizen ferences. I often “defend” citizen journal- media projects gained notoriety without ism to those who argue that it’s useless, or how have a monopoly on local or international media coverage or only good in dictatorships and poor coun- public communications cooperation. tries. Countless times, I’ve seen journalists assume a defensive position. At one recent is strange to me. Russian-fires.ru depended on mainstream conference in Berlin the co-editor-in-chief media and larger blogs to spread the word of the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper Bloggers or citizen journalists often work as about its website. For the same reason, Ju- in Germany, Werner D’Inka, challenged members of virtual or online communities lian Assange from WikiLeaks kept tens of me directly, asking whether I would, “want who identify a need and a collaborative thousands of leaked US military docu- to live in a house built by a citizen archi- method for meeting that need. ments about Afghanistan a secret for weeks tect?” He said journalism is not “just story- until he had secured an agreement for si- telling” and asked whether I thought his Professional journalism is crucially impor- multaneous media coverage by the New five years studying journalism had been a tant to our societies and democracies. York Times, the Guardian (UK) and Der waste of time if “anyone” could be a citizen Wonderful new communication forms are Spiegel on 25 July 2010. journalist. sprouting up online to enhance it, by diver- sifying sources and the stories people WikiLeaks could have published the docu- I too have studied and taught journalism share. ments on the Web directly, but even with at a university. And I know that journal- an international story of potentially mas- ists (in their spare time at least) are citi- Journalists should embrace citizen media, sive significance, one would have to be zens too. The idea that professional jour- as many already do, and not be so con- naive to assume that the same newspapers nalists should somehow have a monopoly cerned with how to fit it into media cate- would have devoted such resources to cov- on public communications is strange to gories of the past. Innovation and collabo- ering a story that was not exclusively me. ration with citizens will long serve journal- theirs. ism and the public interest. In the case of Global Voices, the majority of Stories keep asking whether WikiLeaks is “a our contributors each speak three languages new model of citizen journalism.” In an in- and have post-graduate degrees. They may terview in a Wall Street Journal blog, not all be journalists, but they are still seri- Jonathan Zittrain, a co-founder of the Berk- ous people. If they had nothing of value to man Center at Harvard, says WikiLeaks is share, they would not be able to mobilize “just a new intermediary.” There have al- virtual communities of supporters. ways been leaked documents, and newspa- per stories about them. The difference now Successful citizen media requires a com- is that technology makes it easier to move munity of support from inception to imple- the data, and also that whistle-blowers mentation. Alexey Sidorenko said he have new alternatives to mainstream would never have launched Russian- media. fires.ru if it weren’t for his involvement with Global Voices and the fact that he at- Again, this is an example of a kind of “jour- tended the Global Voices Summit in Chile nalism” that is not centered on writing in May. news articles, but is inspiring people to re- consider where the boundaries of journal- “I know for sure I would never otherwise ism begin and end, and who should be have known to use the Ushahidi software,” trusted or expected to perform the role he said. “First of all, I didn’t know the tech- best. Rather than waiting for professional nology. Second, I couldn’t have imagined it media to communicate something, citizens would be a success. And finally, it was in Solana Larsen is the managing editor of Global will often simply take matters into their Chile that the developers of the software Voices and the former editor of OpenDemocracy.net own hands. became ‘real’ people to me.”

84 IPI REPORT Tags: Deepened, Focused, Specialized How Niche Journalism Works for POLITICO

By Bill Nichols

US political website and news - n June 25, 2009, there was a bit everything. We cover politics, lobbying, paper POLITICO thrives by Omore than the usual ruckus in the Congress and the White House and execu- POLITICO newsroom just across the Po- tive branch. Outside that, from Tiger limiting its focus and offering tomac River from Washington, DC: Woods to Britney Spears, from Lindsay exclusive saturation coverage Michael Jackson was dead and POLITICO’s Lohan to World Cup results and back again, managing editor wasn’t quite sure what to we are perfectly comfortable knowing our within its niche, modeling a do. readers will seek that coverage somewhere growing media trend away from else. Said managing editor would be me – a vet- being “all things to all readers” eran of over 20 years as a reporter at USA Niche journalism, as this selective form of and toward being “one indispen- Today, a general interest news dynamo specialized coverage has become known, is where Jackson’s death would have in- one of several phoenix-like trends gather- sable thing to many readers.” stantly wiped the news budget clean and ing strength out of the ashes of the old prompted an immediate frenzy of news- media order. These are some reasons it gathering activity. But as I don’t work at makes sense for us – and likely will make USA Today any more, fellow POLITICO ed- sense for many of our colleagues going for- itors quickly convened to offer counseling. ward. Dreams of a “Goodbye Jacko!” headline on the Web were dashed, as was a pictorial ret- It’s pointless – and economically insane – rospective of Bubbles the Chimp. to provide news that readers can get 1,000 different places. Finally, a group of young Web producers took pity on me and put together a slide There is an immediate caveat to this show featuring MJ with presidents and po- thought; there will be general interest news litical leaders over the years. And at last, I sites that survive into the future. There will settled down. always be a New York Times, a CNN, a BBC, a Spiegel Online and hopefully even a USA I exaggerate; but only a little. And my almost Today. comic level of distress that June day vividly illustrates one of the founding principles of But there will be precious few such sites be- POLITICO and a concept we believe will be- cause the rest of us don’t have the resources come a foundation for a majority of news or- to blanket the globe and field a staff that ganizations as we move into the media’s un- can be competitive across news/sports/ charted future. business/entertainment lines.

Rule No. 1 for us is bracingly simple, yet And beyond the question of staffing, there’s revolutionary in practice: We don’t cover an equally pertinent editorial question to

IPI REPORT 85 be answered about trying to build a general Readers no longer want to consume news more detail on topics that appeal to them, interest news site: can you do that and dif- as a single entrée – they want a buffet of be it sports, financial news, foreign news ferentiate your work, your brand? That is sites that give them specialized, in-depth (and I think that’s an area of real possibility the core goal all media organizations share content on topics that they are interested in the years ahead), arts and entertain- in today’s new world order. in. ment, gossip, etc.

Producing content that is different, exclu- Another way to put this is: Why not em- Readers revel in the inversion of the old sive and revelatory in some way is one of the brace niche journalism, as readers are journalistic paradigm where we told them essential ingredients for success in today’s going to demand it anyway? The days of a what news was important and when they cluttered media landscape, and it’s self-evi- handful of newspapers and television net- should access it. Now, instead, they create dently easier if you’re doing that covering works dominating the news business and their own news accessing experience with topics that you bring you some advantage, offering readers a one-stop shopping expe- a smorgasbord of sites they can access be that geographical or intellectual. rience for information are already gone. whenever and however they choose. Successful enterprises like ESPN and CNBC, On this score, niche journalism allows you the Food Network , Global Post, Market- POLITICO, among other newcomers on the to increase your journalistic power by ac- watch and many others demonstrate that media scene, has proven a theory that knowledging your limitations. A local paper readers and viewers want to use the new should have been self-evident; if you break can’t cover the World Cup like the New York possibilities of the media and the new, al- stories, people will come to your site to read Times or the BBC, but it can completely most unlimited freedom they have to seek them. The easiest way to do that is to flood dominate local and statewide sports cover- out information to explore topics that in- the zone in covering a particular subject age. The same goes for local politics or for terest them in much greater detail. area on which you can regularly stay ahead blanketing larger topics on a national scale. of your competition. Niche journalism means going where the Our view, at POLITICO, is that readers in- readers are – and where the competition creasingly may use one site as a home page Niche journalism, by definition, requires a may be more successfully engaged. base, but will graze the Web to delve into news organization to own the limited terri-

86 IPI REPORT Far left: POLITICO Newsroom Washington, DC.

Below: POLITICO’s Jim VandeHei makes a live TV appearance from the Newsroom.

and provide the kind of depth and context that would normally get left on the cutting room floor.

Readers create their own news accessing experience with a smorgasboard of sites.

tory it covers and also allows reporting and is key to success in this new age: If it’s not editing resources to be deployed in a way exclusive, revelatory or unique in some most likely to produce news. If you don’t way, we shouldn’t be doing it. have to staff an event you know is destined for page A13 or a distant Web subpage be- We have to fight for readership each and cause it’s part of your mission as a general every day and prove to readers each and interest site, you can instead focus that re- every day that we have something insight- porter on a story that actually means some- ful to say that can’t be found in any other thing to your audience. corner of the Web.

When John Harris and Jim VandeHei Niche journalism may seem an oxymoron hatched the idea for POLITICO, one of the in a world of limitless possibility on the goals they wanted to achieve was to only Web. Similarly, it is, I suppose, an admis- do stories that were interesting, as opposed sion of at least partial defeat to acknowl- to stories that were covered out of some edge that the days when the philosophy of sense of obligation, even with the knowl- general content journalism ruled have edge that few, if any, readers were clamor- come to an end for most of us. Bill Nichols has been managing editor of POLITICO ing for them. since January 2007. He spent the previous 24 years Our experience at POLITICO, however, is at USA Today, where he covered the White House, While it can require significant self-control that niche journalism actually broadens State Department and was a senior Washington and discipline – as in “Oh my God, we don’t our journalistic possibilities by allowing us correspondent. He has covered six presidential have Lebron James going to Miami any- to break more stories, be a regular part of campaigns, 12 national conventions and emerged where on our site!” – niche journalism, al- the national conversation on politics, lob- undefeated from two presidential golfing outings most by definition, results in more sharply bying, Congress and the White House, and with Bill Clinton. focused stories that meet a standard we feel allow our writers and editors to dig deeper

IPI REPORT 87 Tags: Blogged, Commented, Engaged Building a Cabin and a Blog Create Foundation for Community

By Louis Ureneck

This cabin builder, editor and n the fall of 2009, I set about building a I was conscious of lagging behind my stu- professor learned about Icabin in the hills of western Maine. Appar- dents in the world of podcasts, blogging, ently, a lot of other people had the same and social networking. So, when the Times journalism’s future while urge. I wrote a column about it for the New said it was interested in publishing a blog building a blog and a foundation York Times, and the column triggered a cas- about my work on the cabin as I was actu- cade of letters and emails from people ally doing the work, I seized the opportu- of interested readers, who around the country who were interested in nity. I saw it as a way to learn the tools and taught him and one another, cabins and country life. techniques of blogging and multimedia production. as they participated in the At about the same time, I was feeling the construction of a second home need to learn more about Web publishing. The blog ran under the title, “From the I am a journalism professor at Boston Uni- Ground Up,” in the newspaper’s online and a virtual community. versity, and I had spent most of my life Home Section. From time to time, it was awash in newspaper ink, most recently as featured on the Times’ homepage. It began the page-one editor of the Philadelphia In- in November of 2009 and ran for 15 quirer. months – essentially the time it took me to

88 IPI REPORT build the cabin from clearing the land to My first experiences with the Web actually Times’ editors asked me to double check pounding the last nails. came early. As editor of the Portland names and facts, and sometimes they asked (Maine) Press Herald, I put the paper on- me to pursue a particular angle on the At the end of the cabin project, I not only line in 1995. It was among the first with a cabin’s construction. I was not out there on had a pleasant writer’s retreat in the White website. But I drifted back to print, and my own. The expense involved in editing Mountain National Forest with a wood while I was an active user of the Internet, I blogs may not be possible for every news stove, front porch and sleeping loft. I had was not an active contributor. organization, but as the blogger who re- learned an enormous amount about blog- ceived it, I can assure you that the result is ging, simple audio-video production, and The cabin blog changed that. Among the better work. the creation of a worldwide community of lessons I have learned: like-minded people - in my case, cabin Blogging is a two-way – actually a multi- builders and cabin dreamers. Blogging is not news writing, but accu- way – conversation, and this makes for a racy and information remain essential. much richer report. Many of the readers My work in also ben- As is a personal voice. I wanted my posts who followed my blog were far better and efited. The blog taught me a few things to be packed with useful information about more experienced builders than I. They about serial writing and managing the de- cabin building. I described building tech- spotted problems in the design and con- velopment of multiple story lines that un- niques, listed the costs of materials and in- struction and were willing to post com- folded real time. dicated the sources of products and materi- ments that offered tips and solutions. I als. Readers wanted this information. But adopted some of them. The cabin plan ac- The Times’ edition of the blog has now they also responded to my views and feel- tually changed as a result of reader input. ended, but I keep the blog going, though ings as a cabin builder. Among the most In one phase of the construction, I even with less intensity, because I enjoy the in- popular posts were those in which I talked had readers submit design plans. teraction with the community I have built about why I wanted a cabin and how my and the steady accretion, diary-like, of the brother and nephews were willing to pitch The conversations in the comments section cabin’s progress. I have moved from cabin in to build it. of the blog are not just between the blogger building to planting an apple orchard and and the audience. Several times readers building a barn. My latest cliffhanger in- Blogging benefits from editing. I was for- began conversing with each other over the volves a moose’s assault on my young tunate to be blogging for one of the world’s best ways to handle an element of the apple trees and my efforts to fend him off. great newspapers. Not only was I paid a cabin’s construction. In these instances, I It is not clear yet who will prevail. modest sum for my work, I got good editing. sat back, enjoyed the chat and learned from

IPI REPORT 89 Page 88: The cabin and the blog begin to take shape.

Page 89: The finished product - a hidden country retreat and a thriving online community.

Right and below left: Making the cabin watertight before winter.

my readers. It was a hard analogy to resist: at times, the cabin blog seemed to be the cracker barrel in the country store over which people talked and exchanged infor- mation.

Readers like to be invited in. One of best set of posts involved publishing photos and short stories about readers’ cabins.

Adding audio and video to a blog is sim- ple and even fun. I borrowed a video cam- era from the college locker. With about 10 tos of the winter landscape with Mozart project. The good people at The Viking minutes instruction from one of our tech- playing behind. I also learned to use Twitter Press in New York have given me a contract nicians, I was shooting video. It wasn’t per- along the way. Each time, I put up a new to tell the cabin’s story in even greater emo- fect, for sure. I took some kidding from my post, I sent out a tweet. tional depth, detail and texture. I am at colleagues in the Film Department, but it work on it now, and from time to time, I go was good enough to get my points across Blogging is good for writing. I got into the back to my blog to remember the journey and show key parts of the story. habit of sitting down immediately after re- that I have just completed. turning from the cabin and writing a post I shot scenes and offered commentary on of about 200 words, some times more, This assertion may set me apart from most Thoreau’s cabin at Walden Pond, and I some times less. I wrote easily and without journalists, but I am a proponent of writing taped the walk that I took with a wildlife bi- strain. The result was a conversational style in the first person. I think it is honest, direct ologist over a frozen beaver pond near the and personal touch. I usually filed twice a and usually more vivid than writing in the cabin. I also produced audio slideshows, week and always met my deadlines. I also third person. This doesn’t mean that all or which were often more appealing and “fin- found that I could juggle three story lines at even most pieces should be written that ished” than the video segments. In one, I a time – sometimes about the cabin; some- way, nor do I advocate gratuitous or indul- showed photos of the timber frame being times about the animals; sometimes about gent point-of-view writing. If the writer, constructed, with banjo music playing in the people involved in the project. speaking in the first person, asserts a con- the background. In another, I showed pho- clusion, then it needs to be backed up with The act of blogging – if taken seriously – evidence. deepens the writer’s experience of the events he or she is reporting. I was creat- My guess is that first-person writing would ing a journal of my experience, and I was close the gap between writers and readers reflecting on the experience as it moved and might even augment credibility by along. The result was a much more satisfy- being upfront and honest by declaring that ing experience than if I had just built the a piece of reporting is, in fact, something that cabin and never sat down to remember the has been put together by a real person with day’s events. eyes, a mind, emotions and principles. The objective, or clinical, voice in journalism – The final piece of this project now is the combined with a distressing willingness to writing of a book. I have gone from news- quote discredited points of view to achieve paper essay, to multi-media blog to book balance – is one of the sources of journal-

90 IPI REPORT Here are my answers to some common questions about blogging.

How can journalists work blogging In some cases, over time, blogging into their schedules without sacrific- blends with the main job and become ing the time they need to get their inseparable from it. main jobs done? Blogging takes time, for sure, but it can Doesn’t blogging invite journalists to ism’s loss of confidence among young peo- also be a way for reporters to get their focus too much on themselves as op- ple. It also is a source of much satire directed ideas written and organized ahead of posed to subjects of their coverage? journalism’s way by people such as Jon their plunge into the longer and more This is a matter of mission and self-con- Stewart. There is a long and serious tradition developed story they intend to compose. trol. By that, I mean the reporter and ed- of first-person journalism for us to draw on, This is especially true on a running story itor need to agree up front on whether in both Europe and the Americas. where there are a series of minor the blog is principally a running news episodes that precede the main news story with a series of “new leads” (as the The blog taught me event (such as legislative hearings in ad- wire services have been doing for a few things about serial vance of a vote). decades) or whether the blog is a blend of writerly voice (or opinion) and infor- writing and managing These preliminary episodes need to be mation. If it is the latter, then the rules of the development of captured and synthesized by the re- column writing more or less apply. Edi- porter for him or her to eventually find tors and reporters have learned how to multiple story lines that and convey their full significance in the manage these differences effectively in unfolded in real time. more developed piece. Blog entries can print. They can simply transfer those be a way of sorting out and making rules and agreements to the Web. sense of what is happening, as it is hap- pening. The act of writing brings coher- What are some good examples of ence to the material, which, of course, is blogs maintained by journalists in an aid to the writer. ways that supplement their coverage and grow their audiences? There also is a discipline that comes out I go to Paul Krugman’s column in the of blogging. The writer needs to tell him- New York Times for a bold and informed self something like this: I will give my- take on economic news. He has the in- self 10 minutes to get down the morn- stincts of a news reporter, I think, in that ing’s events, and I will post my blog he seems to sense the forward edge of a entry by noon. At the same time, ironi- story, and that’s where he goes his work. cally, the bar on writing quality is lower, In other words, he seems to know what typically, so the writer can get words matters. Consequently, I also turn to his down faster without the torment of try- blog for additional information and in- ing to get the polish sometimes de- sight – all in the inimitable Krugman manded. voice. I also have enormous respect for the reporting and news analysis of Floyd In time, the writing for the blog becomes Norris of the New York Times. His grasp relaxed in the way a conversation is re- of financial reporting is an inspiration to Louis Ureneck, recently chair of the Journalism laxed –- or perhaps more accurately, the reporters who aspire to expertise in their Department at Boston University, is a former blog entries shape up in the same way work. His blog offers more straight Nieman fellow at Harvard University and winner of that spoken answers might be given by analysis but also adds personal touches, the National Outdoor Book Award for his memoir, a reporter who is being interviewed including a very moving recent entry on “Backcast.” He was editor of the Portland Press Her- about an event or issue. In an interview, his battle with cancer. ald and deputy managing editor of The Philadelphia a reporter does not write out his an- Inquirer. At BU, he is also director of the graduate swers. He simply speaks them as best he program in Business and Economics Reporting. can. So it is often with a blog entry.

IPI REPORT 91 Tags: Broadcast, Streamed, Video The Future of TV News Belongs, in Part, to Multi-Platform Video

By Steve Herrmann

The popularity of online video sking an online editor to write Short news clips online work, if they show and TV-on-demand will help Aabout the future of TV news is perhaps a something visually compelling (not an- slightly risky thing to do. We might be chors or reporters outside buildings, but reposition broadcast news for tempted to take the provocative approach action, key soundbites, rare moments). But the future. by way of reply, to spell out the bad news to keep them short. Or very short. This works our TV colleagues: ‘What future? Long- best when they’re embedded alongside or term, TV news doesn’t have one, I’m afraid. within related text stories. It works less well You need to join us in online, multimedia when videos are offered as a destination – news instead.’ people won’t necessarily go there just be- cause it’s video, you have to try and explain But I don’t happen to think the end is nigh in a label or headline why they should in- for TV news. And I’m not just saying that vest, say, 1 minute 20 seconds of their time because I work for a large broadcasting to watch (so tell them what they’ll get and company, or because my boss is a TV news exactly how much time it’ll take too). editor (actually she’s not). When the BBC News site launched embed- ded video clips a couple of years ago, it led I’m saying it because, in the UK, audiences to a doubling of traffic to video within a to the BBC’s flagship TV news bulletins are year. News and sport video clips now tend stable and the numbers of viewers of its to get more traffic overall than long-form continuous News Channel, or its breakfast news programmes on the BBC’s live and news program, for example, are actually on on-demand online TV service iPlayer. the rise. Live streams of major news events are a However, I do think TV news will have to hugely important part of on-demand, adapt to changes in the ways people are video news. Sometimes (in the BBC’s case watching news. So I’ll try to outline some of often) that means we are basically stream- those changes here, and maybe pass on a ing the live TV news coverage. A growing few of the lessons we’ve learned about how proportion of the audience for major live people watch news on digital, on-demand events on the BBC’s continuous News platforms. That means on mobile devices Channel now comes from online viewing and interactive TV, but mainly on websites, via the BBC News website. at the moment, where the proportion of users watching video on the BBC News site, Longer-form news video is not - for now for example, is usually about 10 percent of anyway - proving that compelling for news the traffic to the site overall. consumers online. It’s worth linking to

92 IPI REPORT these programs and formats even from a Minister was popular viewing on the BBC’s And any individual report could become a fast-moving news site, though, and writing mobile browser), as does news about mo- jumping-off point for related on-demand a story or providing a clip as a way into the bile technology, and clips which are quirky, content – more video, or text, or graphics program can work well. Distinctive docu- funny or just plain surprising (think run- on the same topic. mentaries and news-making programs do away bears, prophetic octopuses – or com- best; a good example was a particularly pilations of both). So think about the depth of reporting you’ll controversial edition of the BBC’s “Ques- need in order to sustain this on the big sto- tion Time” programme last year, which TV-on-demand is worth thinking hard ries. In fact, the linear broadcast could be- featured a prominent British far-right about in the context of news. Not just come a bit like a trailer for the fuller, more politician. catch-up services like TiVo and Sky+ that detailed and potentially richer treatment of let you record and time-delay your view- the story, which can be made available in the On mobile, so far, video usage is small ing, but Internet-connected TV platforms space which on-demand platforms can offer. compared with desktop PC use – for news like Project Canvas (in which the BBC is a at least. The broader commercial market shareholder). Traditional TV news skills will, in my for mobile video has been slow to pick up, view, still matter in the future. The ability with slow speeds on anything less than 3G, Exactly what the right mix will be between to recognise and gather great pictures, edit and with data charges and plans expensive news in text, short and long-form video is them skillfully, write concisely and clearly and confusing. But the market is changing something we are still experimenting with. and tell compelling stories will be as im- as smartphone penetration increases and One thing seems vital, editorially: Every portant as ever. But in addition, as TV news packages get more accessible. And applica- single TV news package needs to be a piece evolves into new forms, it will require skills tions on devices like the iPad may hasten of great storytelling because each will have like developing clear labelling and sign- the change. to stand – or fall – on its own. There will be posting, simple navigation, concise head- no bulletin to carry it. The navigation to it lines and summaries, balancing video and There are already some exceptions to low has to be simple to use and the labelling text, content that can stand alone, not as uptake of mobile news video – major crystal clear. If someone has selected to part of a linear sequence, and integration in breaking news does well, for example watch it, the report has to be clear, strong, the right places of short, sharp, unpackaged (David Cameron’s first speech as UK Prime and self-contained. clips. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodoIPI REPORT ligula eget 93 dolor. Aenean massa. Page 93: Inside the BBC News Online of- fices, BBC Television Centre, London.

Below: The BBC News Online website is the most popular in the UK, registering approximately 14 million unique users per week.

The familiar formats we currently know - the flagship bulletins, the rolling news channels - may change. New technologies do not always replace old ones, but some- times they do evolve and enhance them. I believe TV news is about to get much richer and more diverse as it becomes news in video, across many platforms.

Every TV news package needs to be a piece of great storytelling because each will have to stand – or fall – on its own.

Major video news stories on the BBC News website - story title number of plays and date originally posted:

Major news video stories AV Plays Date

Election 2010: Live 5,250,585 07/05/2010 (Hung Parliament)

Election 2010: 2,511,114 11/05/2010 Live (Cameron)

Shoes hurled at George Bush 1,362,500 15/12/2008

BNP Candidate, Asian men clash 1,223,529 06/05/2010

Sri Lankan cricketers under fire 1,073,286 03/03/2009 Steve Herrmann is Editor of the award-winning BBC News website (.co.uk/news), a role he has Brown ‘bigoted’ jib caught on tape 957,557 28/04/2010 held since January 2006. As Editor, he is in charge of BBC News editorial coverage online and oversees operations across the website and other on de- Obama’s victory speech 929,743 05/11/2008 mand services.

94 IPI REPORT Tags: Bullied, Exposed, Investigated New Online Tools Usher in Golden Age of Global Muckraking

By Sheila S. Coronel

Investigative reporting has n the spring of 2010, Alexander Since the 1980s, there’s been an explosion of grown outside of traditional OMalyutin caused a public outcry when he exposure journalism in countries that until revealed that the Russian interior ministry recently did not even have a free press. The media, with citizens using was buying an $800,000-bed overlaid with fall of authoritarian and socialist regimes technology to uncover and 24-Carat gold for one of its guesthouses. He has opened up spaces for accountability re- found proof of the extravagance while porting, allowing journalists in many new share information about people combing through government tender doc- democracies to become one of the most ef- in power and the organizations uments posted on the Web. fective checks on the abuse of power. that support them. In , Astrubal trolled amateur plane- In the last decade, new tools like blogging spotting websites and discovered that the software, Twitter, Google Earth and You- presidential plane had been photographed Tube have become widely and freely acces- in the airports of Europe’s shopping capi- sible. These have democratized muckrak- tals. How could that be, he asked, when the ing in ways previously unimagined. Em- president had never taken an official trip powered by the Internet, bloggers like Ma- overseas? The answer: The First Lady was lyutin, Astrubal and Mahmood Nasser Al- an avid shopper. Yousif of Mahmood’s Den are piercing the veil of official secrecy. Like the nameless Satellite images from Google Earth helped Burmese exiles who commit occasional Mahmood’s Den plot the vast expanses of acts of journalism, they show that the land that had been awarded to members of watchdog function is now no longer the the royal family in . Google Earth sole preserve of the professional press. also enabled Burmese exiles to locate Naypyidaw, the secret capital built by the In Europe and North America, there’s been country’s ruling junta. They uploaded the much wringing of hands about the uncer- images onto YouTube, a short clip that tain future of investigative reporting. This showed the palatial homes of junta mem- is especially true in the US where, since bers and the gigantic swimming pool built Watergate, newspapers have been the by the dictator Than Shwe. Few Burmese keepers of the investigative flame. With have Internet access, so the video was many newspapers at death’s door, there’s copied on discs and smuggled into the worry about whether they can keep the country. flame alive.

Is this the dawning of a Golden Age of But elsewhere, democracy and technol- global muckraking? ogy are prying open previously closed

IPI REPORT 95 Right: Toolkit of the next generation of global .

Muckrakers will plod on even in the most inhos- pitable environments because wherever power is abused, the compulsion to expose wrongdoing remains strong.

societies and providing citizens with in- In an increasingly global and networked profit and nonprofit entities, professionals formation that would not have been world, watchdog reporting will cease to be and amateurs, across media platforms and available to them in the not-too-distant the monopoly of professional news organ- across borders will be commonplace. past. From Bahrain to Burma, from Russia izations. It will be a much more open field, Crowdsourcing will be the norm, with au- to China to Zimbabwe, the new muckrak- which journalists will share with individu- diences initiating and taking part in inves- ers are using blogs, mobile phones and so- als, research and advocacy groups, grass- tigations. cial media to expose the predations of roots communities, and a whole slew of those in power. Web-based entities like WikiLeaks, for Like elsewhere in journalism, investigative which a category and a name have yet to be reporting will divide into niches. Commu- The truth is that, in most of the world, there invented. nities of interest will form around various has not been much watchdog reporting areas of watchdog reporting. These could until recently. In these places, therefore, the As commercial media search for a business be consumer concerns or national security concern is not so much the business model model, professional, high-quality inves- or something more specific, like watchdog that would sustain investigative newsgath- tigative reporting will increasingly be sub- sites to monitor the whaling industry or the ering. It’s whether journalists and citizens sidized by foundations and the public, and safety of bridges. who expose wrongdoing can stay alive or in some countries, even by taxpayers. out of prison. Muckraking journalists and Freed from market pressures, nonprofit in- The future of investigative news will be citizens have been sued, jailed, beaten up vestigative reporting centers will be doing local, as communities drill down on local and killed. groundbreaking reporting. There are al- concerns. Web-based local watchdogs will ready a few dozen of them in Eastern Eu- set up small newsrooms specializing in ac- In Russia, contract killers have gunned rope, Africa, Latin America and Asia. countability reporting and funded by a mix down investigative journalists in their of commercial revenues and community homes or on busy city streets. In Mexico, Technology will enable news organizations support. journalists have been murdered by drug to produce increasingly sophisticated in- cartels; in the Philippines, the assassins vestigations using large amounts of data But the future will also be global. There will have been rogue cops and soldiers linked to and presented in amazing new ways, espe- be much more transnational reporting on local bosses. As watchdogs breach the cially as governments, companies and in- such issues as crime, corruption, the envi- bounds of what’s possible to publish, the ternational organizations make more and ronment, and the flow of goods, money backlash will surely be fierce. more data publicly available. and people across borders. Journalists and citizens will be collaborating across borders Yet, a return to the Dark Ages no longer The future of investigative news will be col- like never before, using the tools of the net- seems possible. The openings we see today laborative. Strapped for resources, news worked information age. are here to stay and provide us a glimpse organizations will be forced to cooperate, of a possible future for accountability rather than compete. Joint investigations Such collaborations are already taking reporting. involving several news organizations, for place; in Europe, Africa and the Arab world,

96 IPI REPORT Left: Alexey Dymovsky, a Russian police officer who decried corruption among colleagues in his video blog, was fired and threatened with a lawsuit by the Russian Interior Ministry in November, 2009.

possible. Moreover, technology makes it easier to mobilize protest.

Like all journalism, the landscape of watch- dog reporting is being radically altered. It will be a contested and uneven landscape. Powerful governments and individuals will try to muzzle watchdogs. Vested interests recently formed regional investigative strong. But so will the determination to may fund pseudo-watchdogs to counter reporting centers are bringing journalists quash exposés. If not violence, watchdogs those who would hold them accountable. together to work on cross-border projects. will be subjected to legal bullying. In China, Some places will have a thriving commu- An international consortium of investiga- dozens of reporters and bloggers have al- nity of muckrakers; others will be bereft. tive journalists has created reporting teams ready been jailed for a range of offenses, in- Some voices will be lost in the wilderness to probe issues like tobacco smuggling and cluding libel and exposing state secrets. of cyberspace. But many watchdogs will asbestos use. have impact, becoming influential voices In the geography of threats, cyberspace is in their communities and around the Watchdog reporting will also likely take on the new frontier. Already, the Internet has world. new, unorthodox forms. In China, journal- encouraged libel tourism, the practice of ists are resorting to microblogs, posting suing journalists in overseas jurisdictions sentence fragments, photos or videos on- where laws are more onerous, on the line, often through mobile phones, in order grounds that what’s published locally has a to break controversial stories and evade global audience online. censorship. The great battles between secrecy and In the US, advocacy groups are developing transparency will be fought on the ‘Net. As mobile phone apps that enable users to watchdogs expose individual and institu- have easy access to data, such as Google- tional wrongdoing, there could be a back- mapped government-funded projects or lash against openness, with governments hazardous ingredients in everyday prod- clamping down while invoking the need to ucts. Various ways of providing informa- protect privacy, public safety or national tion will likely emerge, sometimes in unex- security. There could be some public sup- pected places, like video games. Innovation port for a crackdown if muckrakers report and experimentation will characterize this irresponsibly, but it would be difficult to new era. sustain such support once citizens have tasted the benefits of openness. But the future also bodes more intense clashes between watchdogs and wrong- The emerging terrain is one suited to guer- doers. rilla warfare. The Internet provides many Sheila S. Coronel is Toni Stabile Professor of safe havens. And as the Chinese have Professional Practice in Investigative Journalism at Yet muckrakers will likely plod on even in shown, savvy netizens find ways to outwit Columbia University’s . Previ- the most inhospitable environments. government restrictions. With the ubiquity ously, she was the founding director of the Philip- Wherever power is abused, the compulsion of mobile phones, proxy servers and other pine Center for Investigative Journalism in Manila. to expose wrongdoing will likely remain devices, a total clampdown is no longer

IPI REPORT 97 Tags: Funded, Independent, Public Government Support Obliges Australian Broadcasting Corporation to Innovate and Diversify

By Mark Scott

The history of the Australian he ABC has been Australia’s national of both the public and politicians as a pub- Broadcasting Corporation Tpublic broadcaster for almost 80 years. lic good, the ABC’s experience is, therefore, unique. shows the public broadcaster Both its creation and its funding reflect the role can enable innovation. way in which public policy was shaped in In 1956, when television belatedly arrived Australia during the 20th Century. Britain in Australia, the mixed model was again and the United States provided two domi- chosen. ABC Television began broadcasting nant and different influences. A distinctly alongside two commercial television serv- Australian solution was often found by de- ices whose owners had existing print and termining what Australia had in common radio interests. with these nations and the ways in which it was unique. Direct funding from the federal govern- ment, with no need to demonstrate profit, This led to the development of a vigorous confers both opportunities and obligations mixed economic model, where both public on the ABC. and commercial services provide a range of services in health and education, for in- Unlike commercial broadcasters that are stance, and broadcasting as well. obliged to link content costs to advertising revenue, often to produce returns quickly, By contrast with the BBC, which for three the ABC is able to wait longer, for instance, decades enjoyed what John Reith candidly for talent and programs to develop and called “the brute force of monopoly,” Aus- grow. There is a corresponding expectation tralians had, from the beginning, a choice that the ABC, free from this pressure, must of public and commercial broadcasters. therefore actively innovate, experiment and lead the way. ABC Radio was created by an Act of the Federal Parliament in 1932. While it was, at Its funding arrangement also sets it apart first, funded by licence fees collected by the from public broadcasters in the UK and Government, from 1948 on it has been USA, and grants the ABC certain advan- funded – along with other public goods – tages over the BBC in establishing goodwill directly from the annual federal budget. with the public. The shift to direct funding Due to this long identification in the minds in 1948 freed the ABC from a system in

98 IPI REPORT Left and below: The control room and studios of ABC News24, Australia’s 24-hour, free-to-air news channel which was launched this year.

freedom from government than commer- cial influence – which is understandable given the United States’ history and the dif- ferent view of the role for government in daily life that prevails there.

The accent on independence from govern- ment has been expressed by limiting the levels of public funding made available to public broadcasters, and making them re- liant on far smaller alternative sources. Without the income to produce program- ming capable of completing for mass at- tention, public broadcasters in the United States have been unable to acquire critical mass and exist as a marginalized, rather than mainstream presence in national life.

Yearly polling indicates that the ABC has continually proven worthy of public sup- port, with an average of 9 in 10 Australians believing it does a good job. The ABC has retained this relevance in Australian life (reflected in its continued funding) in a va- riety of ways.

It has safeguarded its credibility and the trust placed in it by remaining clearly inde- pendent of government, and is both more trusted and more popular than politicians.

As well, by adhering to the ABC Charter which demands that it broadcast a mix of specialist content and content of wide appeal, the ABC has attained critical mass, playing a part in the life of every Aus- tralian. This range of content enables it to which its income was subject to the usual pete with commercial rivals in almost appeal to a broad constituency – from tra- vagaries of consumer sentiment or resent- every aspect of broadcasting. What the ABC ditional media consumers to those more ment that went with the licence fee. does have in common with the BBC, interested in innovation, from children though, is that two areas of independence through to older Australians, to people in The BBC remains funded as it always has – from government and commercial influ- the countryside and those in the cities. been, by a licence fee which is now deter- ence – have become of primary impor- mined during the 10 year Charter renewal tance in valuing, validating and distin- In doing so, the existence of the ABC has process. As a consequence of the fee – guishing . been assimilated into a commonly held ex- payable by every household with a televi- pectation about the Australian quality of sion - the BBC has felt obliged, while not By contrast, in the United States, public life, and a distinguishing aspect of the na- being exposed to the same risks, to com- broadcasters have put more emphasis on tional culture.

IPI REPORT 99 Below: The ABC News website provided indepth analysis and coverage of the Australian federal elections in August, 2010 which resulted in a hung parliament.

Finally, by focusing on continual innova- not even measured by the Australian Bu- provided it with news resources unparal- tion, the ABC has not just kept up with but reau of Statistics. leled in commercial media. anticipated public demand for new serv- ices. Innovation also has strategic impor- In recent years, the ABC has been swift to No one employs more journalists. No tance to every long established public insti- move into mobile, podcasting and vodcast- other media organisation in Australia has tution, in that any perception that the or- ing, digital television, radio and social a more broadly based infrastructure of ganisation is part of the past rather than the media for the same reasons it moved newsrooms at local, national and interna- future must inevitably lead to declining swiftly with radio, television and online, tional levels. public support and therefore, funding. when they were once “new” media. These are new ways of making content and serv- And by combining some significant As a public broadcaster, the ABC has con- ices available that the public would come reforms in work practices with new tech- tinued to position itself not just where the to expect of the public broadcaster. nologies, the Corporation has been able public is now, but where the public is head- to resource a new digital TV news chan- ing. And this future proofing has become A burst of fresh innovation has been made nel with no additional government part of the institutional DNA. possible in the digital age. Again, the revenue. opportunities that have arisen also often When the ABC started in radio, just six per- carry with them obligations. Given the opportunity now available, it is cent of Australians had licences. When tel- quite clear that it is the ABC’s responsibility evision began, just two percent of Aus- News and current affairs is a prime exam- - as the national public broadcaster - to tralians had TVs. When the ABC estab- ple. There has been a substantial, long term provide such a service. News and informa- lished itself ABC Online, Internet use was public investment in the ABC, which has tion are essential to a more meaningful

100 IPI REPORT An average of nine in 10 Australians believe the ABC democratic life, and should therefore be It is one of many similar does a good job. available for all. challenges faced by pub- Meanwhile, the ABC’s experi- lic broadcasters around It is more trusted ence – its continuing rele- While there is an existing news channel, a the world. Responses to and more popular vance in the lives of all Aus- pay television service SkyNews, it is re- those challenges, though, tralians, the diversity of its stricted to the three out of 10 Australian must be localised rather than politicians. programming, its liberty from households that can afford it. ABC News24 than universal, affected as pressures faced by commer- is available everywhere, and free. they are by different historical prece- cial broadcasters, the BBC and public dents, degrees and methods of funding broadcasters in the USA – has been made As well, two distinct, related trends within and varied political and economic cli- possible by its unique method of public Australian media in recent years underline mates in which public broadcasters now funding. how essential public broadcasting is in in- operate. forming the democratic process with freely It continues to prove not just the necessity and universally available news and current What is clear however, is that in every of public broadcasting in the digital age, affairs programming. media market, audiences have never had a but its vitality and viability. wider choice of content, nor has the com- In commercial media, current affairs pro- petition for attention faced by both public gramming – through which those in power and commercial broadcasters been more are held accountable – has been unable to intense. The competition is not simply lim- compete with less expensive and more ited to choices of media consumption, but popular programming. The gap between increasingly to choices about use of time, the cost of the programming and audiences alternative activities and spaces such as so- sizes has meant advertising revenue make cial networking. it neither profitable nor sustainable. This disruptive effect, where fragmenta- This has led to the decline, if not disap- tion of audiences leads to reduced adver- pearance, of authentic current affairs pro- tising revenue is making it increasingly grams from the free-to-air television serv- difficult for the market alone to satisfy all ices. This trend has been accelerated by needs. The provision of particular kinds of the disappearance of the “media mogul” content which constitute a public good – model of ownership in Australia – owners such as news, and expressions of indige- who were prepared to wear the losses such nous, local and national cultures – will be programming incurred to win political in- difficult to sustain. fluence. In such a market, the expectation that As a result, this responsibility has devolved public broadcasters should provide these exclusively to publicly funded broadcast- genres will increase. Without the immedi- Mark Scott is Managing Director of the Australian ers. The ABC redresses this imbalance in ate pressure to maximise audiences, there Broadcasting Corporation. Under his leadership, the free-to-air television market. will also be an expectation that public the ABC has dramatically expanded its services and broadcasters will take greater creative its reach and now operates on an annual budget of The debate about the future of quality risks and introduce young, innovative, over AU$1 billion ($910.3 million). journalism and how to fund it continues. fresh talent to audiences.

IPI REPORT 101 Tags: Experimented, Independent, Supported Nonprofit Ownership is No Panacea; New Models Needed for New Times

By Karen B. Dunlap

The St. Petersburg Times elson Poynter’s most quoted The St. Petersburg Times was his father’s exemplifies independent Nmaxim said ownership of a publication or newspaper when Poynter began working broadcast property is “a sacred trust and a there. The younger Poynter bought the ownership by a nonprofit great privilege.” But in the 1960s, Poynter’s newspaper in 1947 and guided it to eco- school. Buffered from some thoughts moved from ownership to succes- nomic and editorial strength. A change in sion. He wondered how to keep his news- the law in 1969 said a church, hospital or challenges but exposed to paper independent and locally owned long school could own a newspaper. Poynter others, the Florida-based after he was gone. Poynter rejected the gave the Times to a school that he created models for media ownership of his time, and called it the Modern Media Institute. organization offers lessons in including publicly owned companies and Trustees re-named the school in his honor business ownership models. chain ownership, and he had doubts about after his death. long-term family ownership. Events in 2009 confirm the wisdom of His lawyers explored various options and Poynter’s great experiment. During an eco- after years of searching he made a choice: nomic downturn and while some media He gave away his newspaper. companies collapsed, the St. Petersburg

102 IPI REPORT Far left: Tom Huang, visiting Poynter Fellow in ethics and writing.

Left: Nelson Poynter, Former Editor of the St. Petersburg Times and Founder of the Poynter Institute.

in his will when he died in 1938. The news- paper’s history says this plan influenced Nelson Poynter.

The Guardian maintains one of the most respected legacies in The Scott Trust cre- ated in 1936 by John Scott. Following the death of his father and brother between 1932 and 1936, John Scott found himself the sole owner of the Guardian. He de- vised a plan that required him to give the newspaper away to a trust that would “se- The nonprofit model of- Other experiments and models: Others cure the financial and editorial independ- fers much to recommend have created ownership models with some ence of the Guardian in perpetuity.” of the same protections Poynter’s provides. as a form of media owner- Foundation support: A slew of recent ship, but the structures Schools: The Nackey S. Loeb School in New startup news operations in the US rely on Hampshire is most like the Poynter model. grants from foundations. ProPublica leads also present challenges. In 1999, Mrs. Loeb founded the nonprofit the group. Launched in 2008, it is largely communications school that now bears her funded by a three-year, $30 million grant Times observed its 125th anniversary and name. She was the granddaughter of pub- from the Sandler Foundation. Established won two Pulitzer prizes: one for traditional, lisher E.W. Scripps and the widow of news operations, including the CBS net- long-form feature writing, the other for an William Loeb, president and publisher of work’s “60 Minutes,” carry its investigative innovative online truth-gauge of political the (Manchester) Union Leader and New stories, and in April 2010 the organization statements. Paul Tash, CEO and chairman, Hampshire Sunday News. After her death won a Pulitzer Prize for a piece of theirs has said the ownership promotes the news- in 2000 her two daughters donated her published in the New York Times Maga- paper’s commitment to journalistic excel- controlling stock to the school. zine. The Knight Foundation and others lence. also fund new news channels but few see Trusts: Owners of several newspapers de- foundation support as a long-term finan- In 2010, the Poynter Institute observes its vised forms of trusts for sustainability. The cial solution. Most startups seek contribu- 35th year. The Institute offers seminars and Toronto Star’s publisher, Joseph E. Atkin- tions but gain far less than the amount conferences for professional journalists son, willed his newspaper to a charitable needed for a solid operation. Grants and and media leaders, journalism teachers foundation he’d established in 1942 to be contributions also raise questions about and students and also other citizens inter- run by trustees familiar with his policies the influence of major funders. ested in news. It is a nonprofit owner of a and beliefs. Canadian law interfered with for-profit news organization. Dividends his plan and after conflict and compromise Government intervention: Some look to a from the Times Publishing Company pro- “his trustees were given court permission change in US tax laws to allow newspapers vide the majority of support for the school, to buy the paper in 1958, after promising to to become nonprofits based on their edu- along with tuition, grants and contribu- uphold its longstanding traditions,” accord- cational value. Senator Benjamin Cardin of tions. The school and the newspaper oper- ing to the newspaper’s statement of history. Maryland introduced legislation in 2009, ate separately but with important connec- The Day newspaper of New London, Con- but it has not moved forward. Questions tions. The CEO of Times Publishing Com- necticut operates with a split-trust that include whether such a change would re- pany is also chair of the board of the Poyn- sends most of the dividends back to the quire newspapers to eliminate editorial ter Institute. Nelson Poynter believed in news operation and a portion to a commu- pages and whether it would open a door for vesting leadership in one individual who nity foundation. Publisher Theodore Bo- the government to interfere with news then selects his or her successor. denwein created The Day Trust, which was media independence.

IPI REPORT 103 Below: Front page of the St. Petersburg Times, 30 May 1975.

Reasons to think twice about the non- Maintaining the system that he created Government might provide some tenta- profit route: The nonprofit model offers calls for extraordinary levels of mutual tive relief, but concern about political much to recommend as a form of media trust. The leaders of each organization pressure will prevent significant support. ownership, but the structures also present must believe they are served by their own There will remain, then, a role for for- challenges. Here are the some of the major success and the success of the other. The profit models, even though they are taking ones. school relies on the news organization for a beating now as audiences and technolo- dividends and the newspaper benefits gies change. The rebirth of a profit model You may have to give away your publica- from the ownership structure. offers the possibility of a strong, steady in- tion. Tash and his predecessors have been come stream.To the degree that commer- regularly approached by news executives Legal ground must be tread carefully. In cial models more readily draw broad audi- lusting after Poynter’s model until they are some cases precise wording in a will deter- ences, this could help keep the masses told they would have to transfer ownership mined whether an ownership agreement turning to news media. of their newspapers to a school. Even own- was upheld. Changes in law undermined ers who are willing to take that step face other efforts. The Poynter model calls for And that leads back to Nelson Poynter’s heirs (or stockholders) who might have clear regard to the law, including living up model, one that combines the mission other ideas. to the precise legal requirements involved focus of a nonprofit and the marketplace in maintaining both a school and nonprofit focus of a for-profit. Future owners would The model still requires revenue. This is status. do well in drawing on the best of business the most important point in light of current models and, like Mr. Poynter, create new financial challenges. The nonprofit owner Nonprofit ownership is an important form models that fit the times. removes the burden of market pressure, for news media ownership, but it is not a but the for-profit news operation still re- panacea. Generally the model seems to in- quires significant revenue to report and de- spire a keener sense of journalistic mission liver the news and provide dividends to the and a pride of history. It allows for less owner. The core problem of a business focus on quarterly returns and market ebb model for news remains. and flow. But owners still face tough chal- lenges in generating revenue and finding It calls for trust. Nelson Poynter called new financial methods. ownership of news media “a sacred trust.” Future ownership models for news: We will see more nonprofit models in the near future. A few grants can jump-start a busi- ness. The reduction of news staffs in the US means a lot of journalists are looking for a space to practice their craft, and many will choose the nonprofit route. Owners will continue to turn to donors and founda- tions, as philanthropy remains strong.

Change will come in new forms of news services that we can’t imagine now. Citi- zens will want to know what’s happening around them and what’s going on around Karen B. Dunlap is the president of the Poynter the world. More and more citizens will as- Institute. Portions of this piece first appeared in “A sist in reporting, and along the way they Study of Nonprofit Ownership of News Media” by will focus on ownership and be willing to Karen Brown Dunlap; “News in the Public Interest: provide direct support. That will help A Free and Subsidized Press,” The Breaux Sympo- some nonprofits find paths to sustainabil- sium of Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, ity, but many others will run out of funds 20 March 2004. and stop operating.

104 IPI REPORT Take-aways from Chapter Two: Time to ‘Skill Up’ on 10 Promising Paths

By Bill Mitchell

• Citizen journalism: Sure, journalists have a lot to teach readers who want to commit acts of journalism. But Solana Larsen re- counts how bloggers in Madagasgar taught local reporters a thing f your newsroom is anything like places I’ve worked, your col- or two about getting the news out fast in a crisis. Ileagues will be bracing themselves for an onslaught of new work once they spot you reading this report, circling and underlining • Innovation: Addressing the potential for the tablet platform, ideas you believe require their immediate attention. Mario Garcia reports: “I have not seen this level of excitement, op- timism and zest for innovation since the arrival of color presses in Here’s one that I hope makes your list: the late 1970s.”

“The industry will have to skill up,” argues Paul Bradshaw, who • Multimedia: Understanding what users actually appreciate and produces the Online Journalism Blog, “or it will have nothing left spend time with is critical to a successful multimedia strategy. to sell.” Steve Herrmann reports that “short video news clips online work if they show something visually compelling,” as do live streams of Bradshaw is referring to the need for newsrooms to increase their major news events. competence in handling the torrent of raw data now available about the ways governments spend our money, the ways our • Niches: “It’s pointless – and economically insane – to provide economies soar and dive, the ways we live and die. news that readers can get 1,000 different places,” argues Bill Nichols. So pick your shots. In a world where data once was scarce but now is abundant, jour- nalists need to get good at what’s scarce: “the skills to locate and • Personal journalism: First-person writing, suggests Lou Ureneck, make sense of (the data) – the programming skills to scrape it and can “close the gap between writers and readers …(by) declaring compare it with other sources, the design flair to visualize it, the that a piece of reporting is something put together by a real person statistical understanding to unpack it.” with eyes, a mind, emotions and principles.”

But his point about “skilling up” applies equally well to the areas • Investigative reporting: Digital tools “have democratized muck- that, combined with data journalism, make up the list of 10 prom- raking in ways previously unimagined,” writes Sheila S. Coronel. ising paths I’ve drawn from chapter two: • Ownership: The best funding models for journalism probably • Crowdsourcing: Poland’s biggest newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza, don’t exist yet, maintains Karen Dunlap, who says it’s time to “cre- has its roots in the popular Solidarity uprising that helped topple ate new models that fit the times.” Communism. The paper’s Grzegorz Piechota describes how the paper’s readers are fueling some of its most effective coverage of Which of these require the immediate attention of your news- the democratic, but imperfect civic society of current-day Poland. room?

• Social media: Tweets from non-journalists often put speed ahead Chapter Three offers a glimpse at what’s happening on these fronts of accuracy, notes Endy M Bayuni, reflecting values quite different in several newsrooms around the world. from those of a professional. The trick, he argues, is recognizing that each group “has its place in keeping the public informed.”

IPI REPORT 105 Tags: Developing, Literacy, Mobile Media Face Different Difficulties in Less Mature Markets

By Fernando Samaniego

In developing countries, media edia companies across the Legal limbo. In some countries, lack of a may be freer to adapt during a Mglobe are encountering the same funda- clear framework for the work of editors mental issue; that is, how to map out their means uncertainty for journalists who are time of rapid change, but they futures to adapt to the social and business thus recommended to be cautious and also face unique challenges in transformations which have shaken the in- align closely with the established powers. dustry. This lack of regulatory environment also their country’s infrastructures, discourages the creation of solid media or- economies and capacities. Developing markets pose specific prob- ganizations since investment is insecure lems, in some cases derived from their lack and only recommended for those close to of resources, notwithstanding the fact that government. in many of them circulation and advertis- ing revenues are growing fast. Language barriers. The main language barrier for media development in some The importance of tackling media short- emerging markets is illiteracy, where it can comings in developing markets is para- reach 50 percent (there are some 60 coun- mount if we wish to see them create well- tries beyond 20 percent). The situation is formed and informed citizens, the premise improving fast but the obstacle remains. of a healthy democracy. Media companies Another language barrier has to do, para- have a role to play in providing the basis for doxically, with the linguistic richness of good governance via adequate control of some regions. UNESCO believes that there public life and informed debate of crucial may be 2,000 languages used in Africa decisions, to mitigate the distorting effect of (Arabic being the largest, with just 17 per- powerful self-interest groups which may cent of speakers) and several hundred in collide with the common good. India; there are 250 in Nigeria alone.

Most difficulties can be traced back to their In places where languages are very frag- environment or to internal factors. mented it can represent a barrier to growth. On the other hand, the diversity of lan- Environmental difficulties guages is leading to the creation of new External censorship and internal “pre- newspaper editions in places like India. caution.” Even in Western Europe we wit- Moreover, language barriers may protect a ness instances of powerful individuals ex- local media industry from international erting pressure on media. Recently, Italy competitors, or at least buy time for it to de- passed a law that severely restricts police velop. After all, wouldn’t the Canadian wiretapping and would fine or jail journal- media industry be stronger if it did not have ists for publication of wiretap transcripts. If to compete with its neighbor for the atten- this can happen in Europe, we can only tion of the local market? Would Korea’s imagine the pressure suffered by media local Internet industry be so strong if the wishing to avoid threats to ownership. country were an English speaking territory?

106 IPI REPORT Page 108: Students in Uruguay learn how to use ‘hundred-dollar’ laptop computers given to them by the One Laptop Per Child Project.

Limited mobile usage (but real creativity). from the world, but in developing markets Mimetic operations of established world The poorest markets have a long way to go there are owners who vaguely understand players. Once I visited a client who had ac- in deploying basic tools such as premium the challenges of the media they own or quired a sophisticated piece of software to SMS, which is not widely available in consider them secondary to their main ob- replicate Norweigan media company Africa and often limited to promotions by jective, be it to convey a certain public Schibsted’s experience regarding the intro- the telecoms (e.g, Etisalat in Nigeria may image (if already in office), or to access duction of information sent by the users ask customers to guess the winner of a power, or to gain leverage when talking to into the workflow of the newsroom. The Champions League match, in exchange for government officials. Losing audience in problem was that the mimetic company a prize), but it’s also true that in other de- the process is just collateral damage. was far from being able to include that so- veloping markets things have been differ- phisticated piece of software into its own ent, despite limitations. Take the Philip- Lack of experienced professionals. primitive CMS. It was as useless as a Fer- pines, where phone service is overwhelm- Whether in Eastern Europe, Africa, or some rari’s steering wheel in an oxen cart. The ingly prepaid and average revenue per user countries in South America and Asia, at- project had to be scrapped at a cost to the (ARPUs) is low. That has not stopped inno- tracting and retaining seasoned profession- editor. vation there, such as the transfer of credit als remains an issue. In some cases, dis- between customers and subscription for bursing international level salaries is a Expensive and inflexible technical solu- content access by the hour or less, a flexi- problem. In others, the cultural issues tions. I have seen companies try solutions bility unheard of in more mature markets. make it hard for good professionals to re- which, apart from being too expensive, ally affect the transformation of the media. ended up creating new problems. I am re- Mobiles have managed to partially com- Language is another difficulty, even though ferring to software solutions based in West- pensate for the lack of infrastructure to English is becoming the common tongue. ern environments and depending on West- solve basic issues having to do with health While some jobs can be performed using a ern experts offering technical assistance care, farming or education. For example, basic set of words, in other cases, marketing during inconvenient hours or days of the Vodafone’s M-pesa money transfer service for instance, subtleties make a difference. week (e.g. Saudi Arabia works on Satur- in Kenya enables migrant workers to send days and Sundays). There is nothing wrong cash home. While Japan was experiencing Lack of talent. Some countries have been with being captivated by good products, its successful iMode in the very early years better than others at developing their own but the solution has to be inexpensive, of the century, many Chinese portals were skilled workforce. The case of China stands manageable locally and flexible. facing financial ruin until the establish- out since its ability to train vast amounts of ment of a similar revenue-sharing platform people, in foreign or local universities and Limited reach. Because of the limited ac- for content providers, Monternet, allowed institutions, is unique and explains many cess of many media beyond the principal them to survive and prosper. of the developments taking place there. metropolitan areas, well-meant efforts do not reach rural zones. Apart from depriving “Among the three top revenue generators Emerging countries which possess ex- large segments of the population from that in 2004, the first was mobile value-added traordinary economic resources and have input, the media just focus on the issues services, reaching as high as $763 million,” not been able to train their workforce so and problems of the large cities and ignore according to Huawei.com. In China, there is fast have attracted expats. In fact, they find the important contribution of the rural a before and after Monternet and its mobile themselves with many foreigners and few economy to the development of the coun- value-added services since it helped trans- locals at the top jobs. In some cases, the try. form the local Internet and shape new in- understandable desire to push local citi- dustries. And all of that happened in a so- zens to control the main Chicken and egg problem. called developing market. On the other areas of the business has Traditional media Because of the limited geo- hand, it’s also true that older, developed been too abrupt and impor- are in an enviable graphical reach of media in markets have taken the definitive lead in tant knowledge has been developing markets and fundamental mobile innovation since the lost. Making these transi- position in devel- because of its limited abil- launch of the iPhone. tions gradually, as we have oping markets, ity to reach larger audi- seen across corporations ences in favor of the high- Internal Difficulties present in less developed where reading end individuals, some con- Owners with a different agenda. No markets, has proven the newspapers is sumer industries cannot newspaper or mass media lives isolated best way to go. properly reach their target seen as a symbol of status. IPI REPORT 107 groups, which limits the amount of Conclusion English or French mainly because their money going into media investment and In many respects, traditional media are in needs are not met by localized content. In development and in return also limits the an enviable position in developing mar- countries where the press has not been ability of media to move “down” to a kets. Reading newspapers is seen as a sym- renovated or is not free enough, the Inter- broader audience. bol of status and their distribution and ad net represents an even greater concern. figures are growing steadily thanks to im- Poor quality of journalism. Take the In- proved financial situations and higher lit- dian case where newspapers are sold for a eracy rates. In contrast, the unstable politi- couple of rupees but cost several times that, cal situation of some markets entails diffi- and one understands the tremendous pres- culties which translate into scarcity and sure to attract ad revenues. Not infre- failure of investments. In other cases, quently, papers mix editorial content with though, the existing problems are typical of advertising, which eases short term finan- the earlier stages in the maturity of a prod- cial situations but builds hurdles for the fu- uct and media companies would do well to ture. One should not assume that the abun- solve them and move on to the next stage dance of new titles is improving the situa- before it’s too late. tion since very often they do not contribute to the flourishing of journalism. Top media managers often say, “We have time to react; our traditional media will last Overlooking growth possibilities. In for years because things in this country some markets, newspapers are a recent move much slower.” I always tell them that phenomenon and other products have they are dead wrong because their readers been quicker at capturing classifieds, for have discovered the Internet, and despite instance. Some dailies reacted by acquiring existing limitations of broadband, they are these players. Others have tried launching surfing pretty much like many Westerners their own franchises, but all too frequently and will bypass traditional media if they newspapers are not exploiting the domi- are not offered quality content. nant position traditional media have in de- veloping markets to build bridges to their In fact, in some countries, users are bypass- Fernando Samaniego is the founder of Interna- future online. And it’s a shame because ing the lack of local content by surfing in tional New Media Consulting and a specialist in some dailies already have an established other languages, which often they barely multimedia strategy in the Middle East and Spain. network of stores and outlets where they speak. According to the latest Arab Media He is based in Dubai, UAE. capture ads. Outlook, 38 percent of Arab users surf in

108 IPI REPORT Tags: Collaborated, Coordinated, Independent Old-School Storytelling Using New-School Tools

By Steve Buttry

As journalism evolves, news hen I started my journalism books and cameras. We are an organization organizations like the Wcareer in the 1970s, I learned quickly how geared to collecting stories as people share to cover a breaking news story: You hustled them in the digital age. Washington, DC-based TBD to the scene to find eyewitnesses to inter- represent the idea that the view. You knocked on doors and asked Our name comes from the acronym for “to neighbors who saw the incident. You be determined.” It reflects the nature of dig- future of digital news is checked police reports and interviewed ital news: Just as the story is continually to be determined in wider any witnesses listed there. unfolding, our model is continually un- folding and updating. We launched in Au- collaboration than ever before. That was an essential task of journalism: gust, but already had plans under way for collecting people’s stories. new projects and features in September and October. We chose our name and have At TBD, a news organization launched geared our culture to reflect the under- 9 August 2010, we still send journalists to standing that success in digital media de- the scene of a breaking news story. When mands continual improvement and deter- severe weather hit the morning of our mination. fourth day online, our reporters raced to the neighborhoods with the worst flooding From the time plans for TBD (then un- and wind damage. named) were announced in October 2009, our project has drawn curiosity, praise and At the same time, our community engage- skepticism throughout the news business. ment staff started collecting stories people Our founding brought together some big were already telling with words and pic- names in journalism: Our owner is Allbrit- tures. We posted links to neighborhood ton Communications, which already blogs with stories, photographs and videos stirred up the field of of flooding and storm damage. We aggre- with the 2007 launch of POLITICO; TBD’s gated tweets in the Washington area with general manager is Jim Brady, former exec- keywords such as “flood,” “storm” or utive editor of WashingtonPost.com and “power outage.” We developed a slide slated to become president this fall of the show of photographs people had posted. Online News Association. As we launched We asked a member of our blogger net- our site, media analysts have speculated work to appear by Skype on our cable that Allbritton was developing another newscast as a storm blew through his “game changer.” neighborhood. While it’s too early to say whether and how TBD still gathers people’s stories. But we we will change the game of local news, we use more collection tools than just note- are happy to share our game plan.

IPI REPORT 109 Left: TBD staff await the DNS change as the site goes live.

smaller (and slower) version of your web- site. TBD launched with an Android app al- ready available (and getting strong re- views) and an iPhone app submitted to Apple, awaiting approval for the App Store. Both apps are designed for mobile useful- ness. They provide weather, traffic and Metro rail information for users on the go. They also provide our news feed, cus- tomized by ZIP code, and a simple tool for submission of text or visual content.

In recognition of the fact that people’s use of news content shifts among home and of- fice computers and mobile devices, TBD apps allow easy porting of saved stories from one platform to another. If you see a story that’s too long to tackle at work, you Web operation must be strong, not de- “Do what you do best and link to the save it to read on the subway. pendent. Most Web news operations affil- rest,” as Jeff Jarvis says. The BuzzMachine iated with traditional media become a dig- blogger and author of “What Would People in Washington spend lots of time in ital version of the legacy medium. Even in Google Do?” was almost giddy over the cars, trains, buses and airports or in confer- organizations that recognize the need to TBD launch because we are linking aggres- ence rooms waiting for a meeting to start cover breaking news quickly online and to sively, even to the competition. The Wash- (or to get interesting). TBD’s mobile experi- use digital tools such as databases and mul- ington area has lots of local news sources: ence is designed to be useful and engaging timedia, the newspaper or TV station gets the mighty Washington Post, several TV for this audience. Slate’s Jack Shafer the bulk of the staff and drives coverage and radio stations, dozens of community praised the “tabloidy goodness” of TBD. and content. For many TV stations, the newspapers and hundreds of blogs. By ag- website is largely a promotional vehicle. gregating content from those sources, we Customize content. Everyone gets the become a place where you can find all the same top stories, those of interest and im- TBD is affiliated with the two Allbritton sta- day’s local news in one place, whoever portance throughout the metro area. But tions in Washington: ABC7 and the former produced it. TBD’s community news varies by the con- NewsChannel 8, a cable news station. The sumer, tailored to their neighborhood. We importance of the digital operation is re- This approach lets TBD minimize repetitive ask users for their postal codes, so we can flected in the naming: Rather than taking coverage and provide our own unique cov- give them the news and information that is the name of one of the stations (their old erage. We don’t have a beat reporter cover- most relevant to them. A user can save up sites both went away), our website ing City Hall. But we have a reporter work- to five ZIP codes, so he can easily flip back launched with a new name and NewsChan- ing full-time to fact-check statements of and forth, checking the news where he nel 8 was rebranded as TBD TV. local public figures. So we can link to the lives, works, plays and shops. Weather in- beat coverage of other news outlets and formation is zoned, and we enable users to We’re neither dependent nor independent. provide exclusive local fact- tailor commuter informa- We’re not a TV station’s website. We’re a checking. We don’t dupli- Our name tion to their particular Web operation and two TV stations work- cate others’ coverage of the comes from the route. ing closely together. We get the stations’ Metro rail system; we link to video content for the Web, but we’re not their coverage and have the acronym for “to Engage the community. just a dumping ground for TV stories. We area’s only blogger focusing be determined.” It The technology of print and have a strong, web-focused news staff to on pedestrian issues. broadcast enabled one-to- develop original content that starts online reflects the nature many communication that but is available to TV as well. Each platform Focus on mobile. Your mo- of digital news, a fostered the traditional makes the other stronger. bile presence can’t just be a forms of gathering and story continually 110 IPI REPORT unfolding. Right: TBD morning news anchor, Katherine Amenta during a newscast.

Bottom: A successful launch is best celebrated with a champagne toast.

spreading news. But digital publishing and mobile devices enable people to tell stories themselves. News organizations have spent too much time and energy focusing on what they perceived as weaknesses in these new publishers: They don’t follow journal- istic notions of objectivity; they sometimes get their facts wrong; they permit typos and encourage odd acronyms and deliber- ate misspellings; they have funny names like Blogger and Twitter.

What these arguments forget or ignore is Foursquare, YouTube and Flickr, inviting nalism I learned in the 1970s: TBD re- the value these stories have, value we have and collecting stories and visual content in porters scrambled to the scene to interview long recognized by sending out reporters to the social media. officials and people at the wedding recep- collect the stories of many of these same tion that evacuated but partied on. people. TBD collects those stories more ef- The Saturday after launch, nearly the ficiently in a variety of ways: We have re- whole TBD staff was taking it easy, relaxing But our breaking-news scramble was also cruited a network of more than 140 local after a couple of intense weeks. After I re- new-school: collecting the tweets, blogs blogs, covering individual neighborhoods turned from a dinner with my wife, I and photos of people who were already and topics such as sports, dining and trans- opened Twitter and quickly saw that an un- telling the story. portation; we host live chats and invite derground transformer fire had forced submissions of photos and videos; we ask evacuation of two downtown Washington people to help us fill the holes in our sto- hotels. In a lot of ways, our scramble to ries; we engage on Twitter, Facebook, cover the fire felt like the old-school jour-

Steve Buttry is Director of Community Engage- ment for TBD, an online news operation that launched in August 2010, covering community news in the Washington, DC, metro area. He has been an editor, reporter, writing coach, blogger and innovation coach for seven community and metro newspapers, most recently Editor of The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

IPI REPORT 111 Tags: Censored, Controlled, Expanded Competition Over News Intensifies in China, as Internet Offers Alternative Coverage

By Yuen-Ying Chan

Media in China is growing, nlike the doom and gloom of government rules and regulations that re- thanks to a healthy economy, UWestern media, Chinese media are growing strict their ability to do their work profes- and expanding, driven by state investment, sionally. technological opportunities and technological change, and a robust econ- state investment, while some are omy. While economists and political scien- Wang Keqin, China’s foremost investigative tists debate the viability of a “Chinese reporter, said China’s media have become using the Internet to circumvent model” of development, the Chinese media much more open than they were 10 years or resist censorship and govern- industry is forging ahead with a unique ago, but state control has also become mix of conflicting characteristics: Intensi- stronger and more sophisticated. He is op- ment control. fying authoritarian state control, leap-frog timistic about the future of journalism in adoption of digital technology; and fierce China in the long term, but feels pes- competition among the major players, in- simistic about the current state of affairs for cluding central , provincial reporters. “It’s not too bad and not too media groups, and Internet companies good,” he said. listed inside China and overseas. His pessimism is shared by Peter Herford, Caught in the intricate media landscape, journalism professor at Shantou University Chinese journalists, managers, producers in southeast China and formerly of CBS’s and frontline reporters are working under “60 Minutes.” “Until the government shows intense pressure to perform. Yet they enjoy signs of divorcing media from its use as [a] little institutional support or clear career tool of state control, it is hard to be opti- paths. Even CEOs at state-directed market mistic. Every Chinese reporter knows that enterprises serve at the pleasure of the Chi- his or her first obligation is to support the nese Communist Party. Communist Party and help build China,” he said. “These limits cripple the ability of In the newsrooms, editors are torn between reporters to give citizens the independent conflicting demands from two masters, the information needed to grow an effective party censors and news consumers who in- civil society.” creasingly thirst for the truth. Most re- porters are paid at piece rates according to The commercial “news” contenders the number of articles or characters they All news media in China are state owned, produce, on top of a modest stipend. Re- but commercial Internet companies have porters must also navigate the thicket of emerged as an alternative source of news.

112 IPI REPORT Under the government policy of “the party ring-tone downloads, some newsrooms at largest online community in the world. A must govern the news” the portals created the Internet companies hire as many as 400 whooping 80 percent of Internet users ac- by the Internet companies are barred from producers, aggregators and writers to de- cess the Internet via broadband, according to reporting current events and breaking sign and deliver “information” packages. a report from the state’s China Internet Net- news. To circumvent the ban, the portals work Information Center (see table below). aggregate news stories from multiple local During the World Cup, Sina produced a live newspapers that are licensed to report. talk show about the games, which was re- Internet use in China June 2010 They also produce “news” with creative for- broadcast by about 40 local TV stations and mats such as round table discussions, on- five outside media players, covering about Number of Internet 420 million camera interviews and debates. Each of the 248 million TV viewers. Another 44 million users major portals hosts blogs and micro-blogs, watched the program online, bringing in and offer multiple sites on entertainment, CNY20 million ($6.7 million) of advertizing % of population using 31.8% sports and education issues. revenue for Sina, according to a report by the Internet Morgan Stanley analysts. Even with the state restrictions, the portals Broadband users 363 million have posted formidable challenges to state Many of the best editors at newspapers Broadband coverage 98.1% news sites, attracting far more traffic and have taken charge as newsroom managers visitors. Below is a ranking of the news por- at the commercial portals. They are ready Mobile access to 277 million tals of the respective Internet companies to take on the party-state media. It is also the Internet and the two state media sites, Xinhua.com likely that companies like Tencent – and People.net.cn. QQ.com, of Tencent, China’s largest Internet company by mar- Bloggers 2.31 million ranks second in China, after top-ranked ket capitalization, and the third-largest in Baidu.com, the search engine. Both Xinhua the world – will dabble more in the news Users of social 210 million and People Daily trail far behind. business. network sites

As providers of news, the commercial por- Technology the empowering force Source: 26th report of the China Internet Network tals are in a position to challenge state news Technology is another driving force for Chi- Information Center (CNNIC), www.cnnic.net.cn. sites by virtue of their reach and revenue nese media’s growth. By the end of June size. Supported by revenues from non- 2010, the number of Chinese Internet users Over the years, the Internet has opened up news activities such as online games and reached 420 million, making China the space for expression, dialogue and report- ing for Chinese journalists and ordinary citizens. While the Chinese Internet is one Company Portal China Worldwide of the most controlled, it is also a most ac- traffic rank traffic rank tive community of writers, bloggers and citizen advocates. The Internet has offered Tencent QQ.com 2 10 journalists a venue to post articles when they are censored by the printed media. In China, blogs and micro-blogs more Sina Sina.com.cn 4 18 recently have become a prime driver of news events. Many activists also use tools

Netease 163.com 6 28 All news media in China are state owned, but Xinhua News agency Xinhua.com 30 212 commercial Internet com- panies have emerged as People’s Daily People.net.cn 32 220 an alternative source of news and self-expression.

IPI REPORT 113 Left and Far Right: Thousands march against plans to build a chemical plant in Xiamen, a coastal city in Eastern China. The march was or- ganised via blogs, emails and short messages on mobile phones.

The media are explicitly barred from prob- ing into the underlying causes of the disas- ters and alleged abuses by government or business that could have led to the destruc- tion and deaths. For example, in Gansu, ex- perts have warned that a state-run lumber company has cut down hundreds of thou- sands acres of forests, making the area vul- nerable to heavy rains.

There are other banned topics: Advocacy activities by gay groups, protests and demonstrations, the attack and killing of children in a kindergarten in the Northeast province of Shandong, and Western media reports that Li Lu, student leader in the 1989 Tiananmen protests, could succeed Warren Buffet at Berkshire Hathaway. Li, to bypass the Great Fire Wall to create Twit- explanation. When the micro blog plat- who fled to the U.S shortly after the crack- ter accounts which, unlike home grown forms returned a week later, they had be- down, has since reinvented himself to be- micro blogs, are uncensored. When re- come a “beta” version. At some micro blogs, come a noted hedge-fund manager. porters or activists are detained or harassed the search function has been eliminated by the police, they quickly tweet to spread while others have imposed limits on links Commercial pressure the word. to outside the site. The portals have also re- Journalists are coming under increasing quested new users provide real names for pressure from businesses. Business and fi- Hu Yong, journalism professor and Internet registration, a move that is seen as a nancial journalism, areas where govern- researcher, said micro blogs have empow- method of control. ment control is relatively less restrictive, ered individual citizens. “ ‘Micro’ is about are beats where reporters have probed alle- every ordinary citizen. ‘Power’ is about Direct control gations of insider trading and commercial translating language into action,” he said. State control is enforced in the real world fraud. These investigations have drawn the “Through ‘micro-information’ and ‘micro- by the central and provincial propaganda wrath of their targets. conversation’ we can together exercise departments and a network of agencies. ‘micropower’ and influence the develop- Every day, sometimes numerous times per In July, Qiu Ziming, a reporter who wrote a ment of conscience in Chinese society.” day, propaganda authorities send orders to series of articles alleging insider trading by editors and producers around the country a local company, had to flee after police is- Alarmed by the quick rise of social media, about banned topics. sued a warrant charging him with “fabri- officials have blocked social networking cating and disseminating false informa- services such as Twitter, Facebook and In August, officials put the lid on covering tion” that damaged the company’s reputa- lately Foursquare, as well as YouTube. The natural disasters around the country, in- tion. government is perfecting control policies cluding the deadly mudslide that buried and mechanisms even as officials openly and killed more than 1,000 people in the The same month, Fang Xuanchang, an edi- endorsed the Internet’s role in China’s eco- Northwestern Chinese province of Gansu; tor at Caijing magazine, was attacked by nomic and social development. a flood in northeast China that caused 50 two men wielding metal clubs near his deaths and an out-of-control fire, also in home. A noted science writer, Xuanchang In June, more than 100 blogs by leading northeast China. Dozens were killed. For often exposes fraudulent health products commentators were removed by each of these incidents, local and regional manufactured by domestic companies. Sohu.com. The government is also watch- media were told not to send reporters to the ing the micro-blogs warily, getting ready to scene but only to use government press re- Journalists in China are inspired by the crack down. In July, micro blogs at the leases or dispatches by Xinhua, the state- many story opportunities offered by a commercial sites were shut down with no news agency. country in the midst of constant and rapid

114 IPI REPORT Chinese Government Eyes Huge Investments in Media at Home and Abroad

In early August, a little known Chinese private equity fund made around the world as it announced the purchase of News Corp’s major stake in three television channels in China. Founded in 2009, the fund, known as China Media Capital (CMC), counted among its founders the China Devel- opment Bank, created directly under the State Council of the Chinese gov- ernment. The other founder is Shang- change. But they also are working against Chinese Communist Party has made clear hai Media Group, a media powerhouse huge odds. While many are soldiering on, that it will not relinquish control of the under the Propaganda Department of some got corrupted and became “whore- news media. But both commercialization the Shanghai city government. CMC, spondents,” a new term coined by critics to and the empowering forces of technology which raised 2 billion yuan ($294 mil- describe reporters who take bribes from demand greater openness. Somehow, the lion) in its first round of financing a news sources in exchange for covering up government will have to resolve the con- month before the News Corp pur- industry malfeasance. tradictions inherent in its grand strategy of chase, is China’s first buyout fund gaining credibility worldwide while sup- specifically focused on the media in- The news industry is also plagued by the pressing dissent and critical thinking at dustry. Other similar funds targeting proliferation of “red envelopes,” with which home. media ventures are in the wings, news makers pay reporters for their cover- launched by the cash-rich central gov- age of news stories, to interview some busi- ernment or provincial governments, nessmen and not others, or just to suppress and provincial media conglomerates. news. In early 2010, the Nanfang Media Many younger reporters have dropped out Group in southern China made a quiet of journalism to work in bid for , then on the block, for the companies they have covered. There but was rebuffed. Nanfang’s partner in are others like Zhai Minglei, a blogger and the attempt was another media con- writer, who quit a paper in Guangzhou to glomerate in Szechuan. Both groups protest the self-censorship at his newspa- are related to their respective provin- per. He now publishes his own reporting on cial governments. The bid and acquisi- a site know as ibao, which means one tion are signals that the Chinese gov- man’s newspaper. ernment is ready to expand interna- tionally and will be looking for dis- Thanks to the Internet, camaraderie among tressed media properties. Another journalists is growing. Six days after a war- fund, the Chinese Cultural Heritage In- rant was issued for a reporter’s arrest, vestment Fund (CCHIF), is backed by sparking an outcry in the Chinese blogos- Bank of China and China Television phere, it was withdrawn with an unprece- International. Spearheaded by the dented apology from the police. When two Ministry of Finance, CCHIF claimed of its reporters were detained by police in a that it will raise 20 billion yuan ($3 bil- remote province, Nanfang Metropolitan lion) . These numbers lend credence to Daily, a news tabloid, reported details of the Yuen-Ying Chan is the founder and director of a 2009 report in the Hong Kong South police action on its website. Three hours the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at Hong China Morning Post that the Chinese later, the reporters were released. Kong University. She is also a Nieman fellow, and government has set aside $6.6 billion winner of the George Polk award for excellence in to support state media’s expansion For now, the future for Chinese journalists journalism. overseas. remains both promising and perilous. The

IPI REPORT 115 Tags: Independent, Innovative, Subscription Independent Malaysian News Site Shores Up its Pay Wall with Innovation

By Premesh Chandran

Free startups and social he question of who will pay for jour- broadcast operation. The Internet was then media undercut a break-even Tnalism continues to haunt media compa- very much in its 1.0 incarnation. Absent nies as they watch the erosion of advertis- were terms such as User-generated con- subscription site in Malaysia. ing revenues in tandem with print circula- tent, blogging and social media. But Malaysiakini.com is pursuing tions. With every new technology gadget and digital channel, the Darwinian pres- Malaysiakini also had a domestic advan- four strategies aimed at winning sure to evolve gets stronger, ever surely ac- tage. Strict government regulations meant financial security for the companied by the thesis that only the that traditional media was generally fittest will survive. owned or aligned to the government, and independent news it provides. hence toed the ruling party’s line on most If only the path forward was better lit and issues. the fog of change settled. Instead, the in- dustry wades through murky discussions, However, the government saw the Internet fluctuating between the promise of growth as a vehicle of growth and agreed with for- in online advertising and the ultimatum of eign investors that the Internet would be asking readers to pay for content. It is free of censorship and controls. This pro- hardly a choice for a proud industry that vided a window of opportunity for has checked the powerful, walked with the Malaysiakini to establish itself as the coun- weak and given society the pulse of the na- try’s first free and independent media, al- tion, all while being reasonably rewarding beit online. for shareholders. In the wake of the controlled print media, As the fork in the road grows closer, some Malaysiakini grew exponentially, reaching signposts and signals would be helpful to 100,000 unique visitors within eight media owners, journalists and the audi- months of its launch. Malaysiakini quickly ence. Maps of pioneers are a precious became the site to go to for political news, guide, defining dead ends and pointing to and was termed “probably Malaysia’s most possible options ahead. important political journal”. The then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohammad Malaysiakini’s Journey would label Malaysiakini “a pain in the Malaysiakini.com is one of those pioneers. neck”. Launched in 1999, the daily news site had the benefit of being a completely online ef- Despite becoming one of the most visited fort, undistracted by a legacy print or sites in Malaysia, advertising revenue did

116 IPI REPORT Below: Malaysiakini.com

not grow for several reasons. Advertising tions. It was clear that Malaysiakini would card and managed to get support for a con- did not migrate quickly online, and much have to develop a revenue base or fold. venience store chain to retail it. of the digital ad market was dominated, in the early days, by companies linked to the The second major challenge was to build a Launch government – hardly ideal sponsors for the reliable and secure subscription manage- After nearly a year of preparations, site. Malaysiakini’s political reporting did ment engine. Most such systems on the Malaysiakini launched its subscription not help, as businesses stayed away from market then were priced at above a million service in early 2002 at the rate of RM 100 any appearance of supporting the radically dollars, built for major companies. Malaysi- ($30) per year. independent site. akini started to build its own system, now called Manage4me.com. Apart from sub- Subscribers trickled in at a much slower With little advertising revenue in sight, scription management and online pay- rate than anticipated. An early mistake we Malaysiakini was forced to consider alter- ment, the system also supports aggregation made was giving away too much of the natives, including subscriptions. The clos- of subscription content across channels. content for free. We allowed non-sub- est business analogy was the co-existence scribers to read up to five of a of free to air and paid (cable or satellite) TV. The third challenge was developing anony- story. Subscriptions improved once we re- Examining the model, it was clear that the mous payment methods. As Malaysiakini duced the free content, but we only man- audience would pay for some content, if it was a politically sensitive site, our sub- aged to attract 1000 subscribers in our first was compelling and part of their daily diet scribers demanded a system that would not year. of information or entertainment, even if require their identity to be revealed, even something similar was on offer for free. via a payment such as credit cards. As expected, the subscribers were generally Malaysiakini developed its own pre-paid from the higher income category, with a Malaysiakini believed that its unique con- tent would attract a subscription base. We hoped that 10 percent of our 100,000 daily unique visitors would subscribe.

We also believed that if and when more news sites decided to adopt a paid model, there would be a market for aggregated ac- cess, closer to the paid-TV model whereby a user gets multiple “channels” for a single fee.

Preparations for a Pay Wall In order to prepare for launch, Malaysi- akini faced three major challenges. The first barrier was internal, to convince our staff that this was the right approach. Close to the entire staff dismissed the idea, arguing that Malaysiakini would lose most of its au- dience.

The management argued that there was lit- tle other option to generate revenue. With- out advertising, the only other channel was to rely on donation. If we were to rely on donors, donor fatigue would eventually set in. Also, donor drives are extremely uncer- tain, hence Malaysiakini could hardly plan and strategise based on donor contribu-

IPI REPORT 117 Malaysiakini is keen to trade access with other subscription sites. We penchant for news and politics. Demo- believe in the mantra that payment for specific applications, such as graphically, over 70 percent were from everybody will pay the iPad, provide new opportunities for within Malaysia, from the 30-45 age group. revenue. Surprisingly, there were a high number of something but would retirees. Although this group had great like to access other inter- Since the Web is also accessible via these trouble using the Internet and making pay- devices, however, it’s difficult to protect ments, perhaps the extra time of their esting sites occasionally. content offered through a paid app without hands gave them more incentive to sub- also charging a fee on the Web. scribe. more likely to share links on Facebook and Twitter that their non-subscriber friends Fourthly, it is clear that new media eco- In the early years, readership and subscrip- can read. Malaysiakini’s stories continued nomics do not support large scale tradi- tion was tied to political events in Malaysia. to get shared in private over email, but in- tional media organizations. The new media The 2004 general elections saw the number tegrating with social media has become a organisation has to be lean, flat and inno- of subscribers jump close to 3000. 2004 was key challenge. vative in its structure and revenue streams. also the first year that Malaysiakini broke Media organization 2.0 is an organization even, with subscription contributing over Saving the Subscription Model that has a distinctive editorial strategy and 70 percent of income, the balance coming The challenge going forward is to preserve is geared to continuous adaption to new from grants. and increase the number of subscribers. technologies. It is looking ahead at tech- Malaysiakini has a few strategies in mind. nologies 3.0, just as it builds its current dis- The subsequent election in 2008 witnessed tribution and content strategies. An adap- a doubling of subscribers as the political Firstly, Malaysiakini is developing a tech- tive media organisation is amphibian by opposition won in five states, signaling the nology that allows users to share stories nature, prepared to thrive in the murky wa- first major breakthrough toward a two- with friends. A unique link will allow users ters ahead. party system since independence. In dis- to click on links and access the full story cussing the political tsunami, prime minis- without being blocked by the pay wall. The ter Abdullah Badawi said that his biggest number of friends visiting will be limited, mistake was “underestimating the Inter- but the subscriber can pay more to be al- net”. lowed to share with a larger number of friends. In a sense, a subscription now in- Since 2008, subscription numbers have cludes limited sharing rights. This strategy plateaued. It was obvious that the Internet will allow Malaysiakini to grow its pres- had become a major influencer and as a re- ences within social media as well as attract sult many more online media sites were new subscribers. launched, providing so-called independent news. With major investors, these sites were Secondly, Malaysiakini is keen to trade ac- able to offer content for free. What used to cess with other subscription sites. We be- be a ‘blue ocean’ was now a bloody red lieve a simple technology can be created to ocean. Nevertheless, given their lack of rev- allow Malaysiakini subscribers occasional enues, it may be a matter of time before in- access to other sites along a micropay- vestors’ funds run dry, and some will close. ments model. We believe in the mantra that everybody will pay something but Twitter’s ability to spread breaking news would like to access other interesting sites fast was also a major blow to Malaysiakini’s occasionally. Sites can trade “views” just as Premesh Chandran is the co-founder and CEO of positioning. Twitter provided newsmakers, mobile phone companies trade “minutes” Malaysiakini.com, the leading online media in especially politicians with a direct route to under roaming agreements. Malaysia, reaching over 300,000 readers per day in the audience, reducing their reliance on four languages (English, Malay, Chinese, Tamil). He news media. Thirdly, the move towards multiple plat- is also the founder and program advisor to Malaysi- forms such as smart phones and tablets akini’s nonprofit training organisation, the South- As a subscription site, Malaysiakini has also will also generate new revenue opportuni- east Asian Centre for E-media. been cut off from social media. Users are ties for news sites. Platforms that integrate

118 IPI REPORT Tags: Contributed, Trained Citizen Journalism Project Offers Case Study in Collaboration

By Steven Lang

Cell phone journalism offers t Grocott’s Mail we are inter- For example, in June, Luvo Gcule (a citizen access to untold stories in this Aested in citizen journalism because it journalist) was walking down a dusty road broadens our coverage of issues and events in one of the most impoverished suburbs of South African city. The Iindaba that are of immediate relevance to our tar- Grahamstown when he heard a woman Ziyafika project – run by a get readership. Through citizen journalism wailing. He rushed over to the woman’s we have more sources of information and corrugated iron shack and found her stand- journalism school and news we also have greater depth in our articles ing there spattered with blood and a knife organization partnership – on issues that we would normally cover in her hand, at her feet a man was lying in only superficially. a pool of blood. A neighbor called the am- demonstrates how trained bulance services, but no medical help ar- informers can reflect their We have had some significant successes rived. Gcule called the police, who eventu- based on cell phone journalism. For exam- ally arrived to arrest the woman and con- communities. ple, pupils who had gone through our firmed that her boyfriend was dead. While training course alerted us to a problem in waiting for the police to arrive, Gcule used one of their high schools where teachers his cell phone to take photographs of the would not come to class, but would instead woman and her deceased partner. He also go drinking at a local tavern. spoke to the woman, who told him that they had both been drinking heavily and The pupils texted information to us that we that she stabbed her boyfriend when he could not have received from any other wanted to go out to continue drinking with source. We then published some of these his friends. messages in our newspaper, provoking the school authorities to ban pupils from using We had a full confession from the woman cell phones and preventing them from and dramatic photographs of the murder speaking to the media when we sent a re- scene, thanks to a citizen journalist. With- porter. But they were too late because we out his first-hand account, the newspaper already had the story. would probably have carried a two-line re- port from the police. As our citizen journalists are receiving recognition within the community, we have Grocott’s Mail has also benefitted from un- found that local residents are more likely to tutored citizen journalists who do not want alert recently qualified citizen journalists to have their names publicized, but who that they know and trust rather than regu- feel that it is worthwhile putting news out lar newsroom staff who are not so familiar. for public consumption.

IPI REPORT 119 Left: Shireen Badat, the Editor of Upstart, is shown here with a group of pupils from a local high school. She has taken on the Upstart project in an effort to constructively channel energies of high school pupils.

At our newspaper we believe it is impor- fied. Following the article’s publication in ment rate estimated at over 50 percent, the tant to maintain close contact with the Grocott’s Mail, the municipality took disci- town also has some of the most impover- community we serve. Citizen journalism – plinary action against at least one of the ished schools in the province. and innovative use of new media technol- three offenders. ogy - is helping what was essentially an old Iindaba Ziyafika, which means the ‘news is media organisation to achieve this goal. We Citizen Journalism Training coming’ in isiXhosa – is the title of the proj- have found that by developing a citizen Iindaba Ziyafika is a citizen journalism ect defined by two major thrusts: journalism component to our newspaper training project run by the Rhodes School we are strengthening our relationship with of Journalism in conjunction with Gro- • Firstly, the innovative use of mobile our readers. This is good for the commu- cott’s Mail. The project operates on the phones to democratise news and informa- nity and naturally good for the newspaper. premises of Grocott’s Mail, a community tion within the community of Graham- An interesting aspect of citizen journalism newspaper that celebrated 140 years of stown; is that by publishing articles about issues business in May 2010. • And secondly, to equip media producers that are important in the community, that in the town, and more broadly in the coun- same community is able to put pressure on The newspaper has been owned by the try so that they can fully utilise new media the local authorities. This works very well Rhodes School of Journalism since 2003, technology in journalism. with respect to the municipal authorities and besides providing news and informa- and even has significant influence on the tion for the community, Grocott’s Mail is In order to become media contributors, res- provincial administration. also used as a platform for experiential idents needed to learn how to do this. We journalism. therefore set up a training newsroom with There was a specific case during a recent 10 computers on the premises of Grocott’s municipal workers’ strike when a citizen The citizen journalism project, funded by Mail, where we can train prospective citi- journalist took a series of photographs of the US-based Knight Foundation, is only zen journalists and also provide a space strikers who trespassed on private property one of several experimental journalism where the students can practise what they to collect garbage. The strikers subse- projects at Grocott’s Mail. have learned. quently threw all the garbage onto the town’s main street in order to disrupt traffic Grahamstown – in the Eastern Cape One of the main objectives of Iindaba and highlight their cause. The citizen jour- Province – is renowned as an educational Ziyafika is to teach people, mainly resi- nalist then wrote an article and demanded center because it hosts Rhodes University dents from the under-privileged sections of that the municipality take action against and several prestigious private schools. It is our community, how to become citizen the strikers who had been publicly identi- less well-known that with an unemploy- journalists.

120 IPI REPORT Below: The front page of Gro- cott’s Mail, 30 April 2010. One of their citizen journalists took the photo of a car accident on his camera phone. By developing a citizen journalism component we are strengthening our relationship with our readers. This is good for the community and for the newspaper.

have to teach people how to use a phone moved them to cover issues that they book because they have never had access believe are more likely to be published and to one before. consequently to generate income for them. Some academics argue that what we are As the cell phone (a smartphone is a rare doing is not citizen journalism at all, but luxury item) is the most basic tool avail- rather a cadet training school or “journal- able to citizen journalists, we spend some ism-lite.” time explaining how to get the best results from low-end cell phones. We teach stu- Conclusion dents how to use the text facility and if they Grocott’s Mail and Grocott’s Online are have cameras we teach basic photography benefitting from the additional content skills as well. generated by the citizen journalists, who Initially we focused our training on young are acquiring marketable skills in an area people – high school pupils – because The course work includes basic journalism where unemployment is high. It is not cer- many of them already use cell phones for skills such as using the inverted pyramid to tain whether we will be able to sustain this texting and other social media. We believed structure a story and fundamental princi- project once the external funding runs out. the younger generation would be far more ples of journalism ethics. amenable to new ways of using technology. For our first training group we selected a Our plan is to identify students with the number of high school pupils who were al- best potential during their courses, and ready involved in a social upliftment pro- when the course ends, we invite them to gram called Upstart. begin participating in some of the activities of our regular newsroom. This group, chosen from various high schools in Grahamstown, produces a Money Matters monthly newspaper called Upstart for and When we made our funding proposal to about young people in the area. the Knight Foundation, we expected the new citizen journalists to be motivated by Since the beginning of 2010 we have run civic activism. We thought they would gen- four more citizen journalism courses, erate multimedia content because they mainly teaching unemployed adults free of wished to expose problems in areas that do charge. not usually receive media attention.

The course work is very practical and We have, however, found that the driving hands-on. After explaining techniques on force for citizen journalists in our area is how to conduct an interview, we bring in a the prospect of gainful employment. They guest so that the students can try out their are almost all unemployed and eager to newly acquired skills on real subjects. reach out for any prospect of a job, whether on a part-time basis as a or as a Steven Lang is the Editor of Grocott’s Mail in Gra- We teach our students how to do basic step on the way to full-time employment. hamstown. He has worked for most of his career in research and how to access sources of in- radio and television at the News Division of the formation by doing Google searches or This expectation has distanced citizen jour- South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). finding local experts. In many cases, we nalists from covering grassroots issues and

IPI REPORT 121 Tags: Commons, Disparity, Diversity Telling the Stories Left Untold by Gaps in Wealth and Bandwidth

By Ferial Haffajee

Despite a shortage of diverse ou would never know it from read- ject to the same risks and challenges of public affairs reporting Ying South African newspapers, but the losing the news. In August, Women’s wealth gap in my country has resulted in month, I sat in my paper’s news confer- that’s crucial for developing the highest Gini co-efficient in the world. ence and looked at a news diary wonder- democracies, media across This grotesque disparity has been nor- ing where the gendered stories were. The malised in a society where all the metrics of news editor asked: “Why? That’s not a Africa are displaying some of poverty wear a female face. Take HIV/Aids. story.” This was his response until he saw the enterprise and innovation Now in its death hump, Aids has robbed us my face (and his rapidly disappearing per- of a generation of mostly women. This has formance bonus) and quickly composed a it will take to deliver essential left a generation of older women – or gogos set of ideas. coverage. (grandmothers) – taking up the caring work of a generation of Aids orphans, con- I’d rather not do things by diktat, but in a servatively measured at over one million country where a new generation of journal- children and young people. ists is snared by the vacuous trap of celebrity, lifestyle and scoop journalism, it If you read our media, you would assume often feels like the only way to get the im- that the normal family structure in South portant stories of gender, race, race relations, Africa is the nuclear family. You’d be constitutionalism and other subjects impor- wrong. In fact, the most common form of tant to a young democracy onto my agenda. family in South Africa is the single female- headed household. And this universal Our owners with an eye on the media’s woman is struggling with unemployment, commercial bloodbath in the Northern relationships, the cost of school and trans- hemisphere are trying to anticipate a crisis. port costs that take up nearly 40 percent of Investment in newsrooms is generally on the wage of working women. the decline (though there are notable and welcome investments in graduate training I could go on. Sexual violence, be it rape or programmes and investigative journalism gender violence, is an ever-present horror across most of the industry) and journalism and some studies suggest that one in three is practiced as a craft of town not of country. woman will know its cruelty once or more That makes our media, generally, a hand- in her life. But even as an editor-in-chief, I maiden of urban elites, with insufficient at- struggle to get this kind of reportage into tention paid to the issues faced by the mil- my newspaper. lions of South Africans living in rural areas and on the margins of big city life. While newspapers in South Africa are not yet at Ground Zero as many in Europe and We are losing news that is vital to the craft- the United States, our journalism is sub- ing of new democracies. This includes

122 IPI REPORT Investment in newsrooms is generally on the decline, and news about the state of the journalism is to the real South Africa. If is beginning to attract advertising. (See commons – of public health we are to phrase it within www.234next.com) care, education, local gov- practiced as the topic, then it is losing ernment, the state of human a craft of town news even more quickly K24 and KTN are two new television chan- rights – and replacing it with than the relatively old form nels in Kenya producing high quality work; the preoccupations of not of country. of print. a startup in Nigeria called NN24 is gaining celebrity, wire news, of audience share. Private radio is the true lifestyle, personal finance, all the interests The focus on the urban over the rural, the growth story on our continent with two ex- of the emergent middle-class that is the quick over the complex, over cellent examples being Joy FM in Uganda darling of the advertising industry. original reportage means we fall short of and 702 in South Africa. The the role of a fourth estate that will be so African media institutions like the Nation As I contemplate the global debates of free important as we South Africans and and Standard groups, Monitor, Punch and versus paid content (awful word, I prefer Africans begin to shake off our miserable Next and the four South African media journalism) and study the various projects path and seek a place in the new world. But houses Avusa, Independent, Media24 and to save our craft, hard questions burble to the African Journalism of the Year Awards, Caxton still have substantial investment the surface of my mind. Who will pay for of which I am a judge, generally reveals to budgets. the snoopers who keep investigative jour- me a story of vitality and growth and of a nalism alive? Who will fund the long, hard cadre of people across the continent who But on the whole, the print landscape is of and expensive work of keeping teams at speak fearlessly and are relishing their job media with tiny budgets and fractured parliaments to hold the flame of democracy of keeping power on its toes. On our conti- readerships (but for notable examples like burning bright? Who will pay people to nent, there is still a happy tale to tell in the The Nation, Monitor, Punch and Next), this read books and review them for our pleas- private media because the liberalisation of journalism is losing news through other ure? Who will keep the arts editors in pay- print, radio and television means it is just risks. These include payola and factional- cheques so that we have informed com- hitting its stride. ism. In Uganda earlier this year for the mentary on culture rather than the blogs awards, at a seminar I was aghast to find that are so often based first on the reportage In Nigeria, Next is an experiment worth that most journalists earn their money of old-style journalism? Nobody knows. watching in one of the globe’s more inter- through payola. They are employed as esting (and most challenging) nations. freelancers with little or no basic pay, so With just over one in 10 South Africans Next, published by Pulitzer prize-winning they rely on handouts in brown envelopes with Internet access and Twitter still an editor Dele Olojede, started as an online site at press conferences. It’s the great elephant elite toy, I find that new media is even more and then migrated into a daily and Sunday in the room of African media and it distorts a world that bares very little resemblance newspaper. Its journalism is excellent and news (or loses it) in ways we had better face

IPI REPORT 123 Page 123 and Left: The editorial offices of City Press.

Ultimately, long-form and investigative journalism that escapes the city sophistica- tion and spin will become a nonprofit en- terprise so that it does not lose its essence and its soul and does not become the flot- sam of a necessary and inevitable revolu- tion. That will come with its own set of governance issues: Do we simply trade the profit motive for the vested interest of the philanthropist; what happens when the funds run dry; is it truly independent?

But new and multi-dimensional ways to secure the future of journalism are essen- tial if we are to ensure that as we lurch for- ward, we are not so enamoured with the growth story and with a new African mid- dle-class that we forget the essential stories of development, employment, health, wel- fare and education and indeed of democ- racy that are so vital, still. head-on. The other way in which political tles and is the word used to describe its reporting (still the biggest and most impor- journalists. tant story on our continent) is distorted is (See www.amabhungane.co.za.) through ownership by political interests. • The Taco Kuiper awards for South African As journalists, we live in revolutionary investigative journalism. Philanthropist often disturbing times and not knowing and publisher Taco Kuiper left a sizable por- what the future holds is part of the chal- tion of his estate to the awards, which fund lenge that must make us innovate to pro- good investigations with some impact. tect our craft. There are emerging examples (Accessible via www.journalism.co.za.) of how we can use the tools of new media and also ensure that African journalism re- • Richard Kavuma, the award-winning mains on its growth path. Ugandan journalist with joint funding be- tween his newspaper and the Guardian of • The Daily Maverick (wrenched from the London lives in a local village and through ashes of its print sister magazine which micro-observation documents the process floundered) is like the Huffington Post of of development. South Africa and its publishers and writers work virtually for free. • Open Society fellowships. Across the (See www.dailymaverick.co.za.) world, George Soros’ fellowships are keep- ing good journalism alive. • Amabhungane, a project of the Mail & (See www.soros.org.) Ferial Haffajee is the Editor of City Press, a na- Guardian, is an effort to train a generation tional South African Sunday newspaper. In 2004 of South African and African investigative • Emergent blogging platforms that are she became the first woman editor of a major South journalists. It is like a cross between harnessing new platforms for news and African newspaper when she took over the editor- ProPublica and the Centre for Investigative news analysis. (See www.kubatana.net ship of the Johannesburg-based Mail & Guardian. Journalism. Amabhungane are dung bee- and www.ushahidi.com.)

124 IPI REPORT Tags: Access, Perspective Telling African Stories, the African Way

By Salim Amin

Africa 24 Media enables ver the last 20 years, the media Stringent legal, political and economic en- journalists and others to Oindustry in Africa has grown by leaps and vironments have restricted most institu- bounds. More TV and radio stations, as well tions from operating freely as independent publish content online that as print media, are being introduced, while media outlets, and journalists continue to covers the Continent from a the entry of new media in the journalism face perennial harassment and violence landscape has transformed the way stories from many of the governments in Africa. local perspective, accurately are told. State ownership and control has and with context. been radical reduced. Nevertheless, the expansion of the demo- cratic space, vociferous campaigns from However, with this growth, media freedom civil society and increased international has been abused in many countries where and regional pressures on respecting journalists have been apprehended, their human rights has witnessed greater im- equipment confiscated, and in worst cases, provement from some countries within some have lost their lives in the line of duty. Sub-Saharan Africa.

Edwin Soy, Mark Kiptoo and Vincent Yator take first, second and third place in the men’s 5,000 meter event in the just concluded African Athletics Championship.

IPI REPORT 125 The entry of new media and social net- leave without having to face some of the The stories being told by A24 cover a range working sites has substantially improved more serious fallout that their African of topics from business to sports, fashion the storytelling abilities of most journalists. counterparts face as they continue to live and art to the environment, health and ed- With forums like Twitter, Facebook and in those countries. ucation, as well as current affairs and pro- YouTube, the African journalist can now files on leaders around the continent. speak, albeit vigilantly, using an alternate African stories being told by parachute platform. journalists tend to lack the background, The content A24 receives is checked and re- perspective and context that allows view- checked by our editorial team to ensure ac- But with these advancements, huge chal- ers, readers and listeners to really under- curacy and objectivity, as well as to make lenges still remain in the scramble to tell stand the stories and their significance. sure we are telling the story from an African the African story the African way. Prohibi- The “30-second soundbite” has taken perspective – often using the vast historical tive constitutional and legal frameworks, as over, especially in TV, and this has led to a archive we have at our disposal to add con- well as suspect ownership, have really very distorted and negative picture of text and background to our features. hampered the media from playing its role Africa. as independently as it should. Although We have looked at the amazing story of media journalists are guided by ethical Africa 24 Media (A24) made a ground- East African Athletics and how they have standards that need to be adhered to, some breaking entry into the African media set new standards for the world, and have governments do not have trust in this and, arena with its pilot initiative of establishing become role models for a whole generation as a result, end up enacting legislation that and providing African journalists with an of Africans. Some of our other success sto- is damaging to the media industry. online platform where they can tell their ries include the advances made in the mo- own stories, their own way. A24 is Africa’s bile phone and ICT sectors in East Africa International broadcasters like the BBC, first online delivery site for material from and the great success mobile banking has CNN and Al Jazeera still have better access journalists, African broadcasters and NGOs been in Kenya. in many African countries and continue to from around the Continent. tell Africa’s story from their perspective, With our ground-breaking documentary which is often biased. As they are not in- The launch of the online platform on the history of corruption in Kenya that vested in the countries they cover, and usu- (www.a24media.com) revolutionized the came out in July 2010, we demonstrated ally send in ‘parachute journalists’ to cover African media environment and the com- that there have been huge advances in African stories, they can sensationalize pany boasts of over 2,000 videos stories col- press freedom in a country like Kenya. As many of the stories they cover and then lected from all over Africa in just two years. early as five years ago, we would have

126 IPI REPORT Left: Mzee Kimani Maruge sits outside during recess and takes a class picture with his fellow students. He was the oldest student in history to enroll in primary school at the age of 84 years and died two years shy of sitting for his National exams.

Below: An El Molo boy poses for a picture on a motorbike.

found it almost impossible to do this docu- ble countries have their foundation firmly mentary and to show some of the examples rooted in a free press. of corruption and poor governance in Kenya. There is still a long way to go. With inde- pendent journalists fighting a losing battle However, journalists still find it difficult to on censorship every year, with increased submit their content online due to inade- violence and deaths being reported more quate Internet speed and the lack of band- often in countries like Somalia, , width in most African countries. But, with Madagascar and even South Africa and the entry of the undersea cables into the Kenya, exercising the right to information African telecommunication system, the fu- is still a challenge. African stories as told by ture seems to be getting brighter for the African journalist. A24 Media is trying to bring a little hope parachute journalists tend and opportunity in a changing media land- to lack the background, Internet and social networking sites look to scape. Our unique model is empowering be more relevant to the way African jour- African journalists across the continent, perspective and context nalists will tell their stories, while the role giving them better revenue for their con- that explains their of the mass media in developing countries tent, a wider audience and, most impor- is slowly losing its grip. Still, the more sta- tantly, ownership over their work. significance.

Salim Amin is the Chairman of A24 Media, CEO of Camerapix, and founder and Chairman of the Mo- hamed Amin Foundation. A24 is Africa’s first online delivery site for material from African journalists, broadcasters and NGOs. Amin was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in Davos.

IPI REPORT 127 Tags: Independent, Protected Peeking Behind Burma’s Bamboo Curtain

By Soe Myint

Mizzima News relies on people obody questions that reporting Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom inside and outside the country Nfrom military-ruled Burma is a difficult un- Index 2009 ranks Burma 171st out of 175 dertaking, but there are those who have countries, recognition that Burma contin- to cover Burma and provide its rallied to the call and met with success in ues to be one of the most closed societies in citizens with independent the dissemination of independent news the world. The military uses official censor- from the isolated Southeast Asian country. ship to check all publications, while utiliz- information about their ing state-controlled television and newspa- government and communities. Mizzima, derived from the Pali word for pers as propaganda weapons against those ‘middle’ or ‘moderate,’ was founded in Au- criticizing the regime. It further blocks Underground reporters and gust 1998 by three Burmese in exile in websites of independent news media or- their editors use encrypted India with an aim of restoring media free- ganizations, including those of Mizzima, dom in dictatorial Burma. Initially, severely while closely monitoring activity at the technology for security as they resource strapped, Mizzima could only af- country’s Internet cafes. The few private subvert restrictions using ford to involve itself solely in the dissemi- publications operating in the country ei- nation of news and information to an inter- ther have to publish what the junta allows broadcast, the Internet and national audience via email and fax. How- or risk punitive actions. other means to inform citizens. ever, with the passage of 12 years, Mizzima has realized its position as a widely turned- A serious challenge Mizzima faces in its to multimedia outlet on Burma and related daily operations is ensuring the safety of topics, maintaining a network of reporters reporters working inside Burma, as well as and stringers inside the country. those in exile. Burma’s military govern- ment sentences reporters to long prison With headquarters in India and branch of- terms for disseminating uncensored infor- fices in Thailand and Bangladesh, Mizzima mation. A Democratic Voice of Burma utilizes websites, TV, podcasting and print (DVB) reporter working inside the country to disseminate information on Burma to was recently sentenced to 27 years for both those inside and outside the country. sending information to her organization. The road to media freedom, however, re- mains fraught with obstacles and dangers, Because of this repression, there is growing as Mizzima News seeks to constantly de- cooperation among journalists inside the velop new means of overcoming official country and those in exile. They share in- designs aimed at silencing the press. formation, conduct joint investigations

128 IPI REPORT Mizzima’s growing network of journal- ists has been able and share proxy server numbers and web- Mizzima reporters have to successfully chal- sion or listen to Burmese site information when the junta blocks also taken advantage of overseas radio via readily communication channels. expanded opportunities lenge restrictions on available short-wave radio provided by the military the free flow of sets. Mizzima provides TV There are also a growing number of citizen government’s Global Sys- stories and programs to journalists and video journalists working tem for Mobile Commu- information and DVB TV for broadcast. to expose the truth. More young people are nications and CDMA images. using new media tools such as blogs, Twit- phones (Code-Division Even rural areas of Burma ter, Facebook, mobile phones and SMS to Multiple Access protocols used in so-called at times have access to satellite dishes write about the country’s situation. second-generation (2G) and third-genera- smuggled from China, with authorities un- Mizzima has done stories on how these tion (3G) wireless communications) to able to clamp down on this easily available new media tools are being employed to strengthen the restricted but crucial free commodity. Burmese inside the country spread information and news on Burma by flow of information. are additionally adept in using proxy Burmese both inside and outside the servers and other means to beat Internet country. Video files are sent through SEND6, Send- censorship. Space or YouSendIt. Mizzima uses a FTP Security measures taken by Mizzima to (File Transfer Protocol) for transferring Through the methods described, Mizzima’s safeguard its reporters in the field include large files from reporters inside the country growing network of reporters, new media the use of Internet technology, as well as to editors outside Burma. However, a gen- units and stringers have been able to suc- old-fashioned communication techniques erally slow Internet connection means this cessfully challenge the restrictions of the such as employing human couriers. method cannot always be relied upon. En- regime in the battle for the free flow of in- cryption as well as the frequent changing formation and images. Mizzima’s network of underground re- of accounts and passwords are additional porters rely on digital communication sys- security steps taken to try and ensure the Over the years, Mizzima has covered a tems to collect information and dissemi- safety of Mizzima personnel when making wealth of stories that have gone on to gar- nate it through multimedia outlets both in use of digital communication. ner international attention. Regional and Burmese and English, producing regular international media are known to pick-up publications, television and radio pro- When Mizzima organizes a training pro- Mizzima stories and quote the information grams, all of which are used on Mizzima’s gram outside the country for reporters who in their news. Web-based platforms. Especially since the work in Burma, attendees, mindful of secu- 2007 Saffron Revolution, digital communi- rity, are often kept separated. All partici- When Burmese people led by Buddhist cation has been a vital part of Mizzima’s pants are connected to the lecture through monks hit the streets in 2007, Mizzima in- work. the GoToMeeting program, an online fea- troduced live reporting on its websites. ture that hides the face and identity of par- Similarly, Mizzima utilized live reporting Mizzima’s external editors maintain daily ticipants. In this way, Mizzima safeguards during the junta’s Constitutional Referen- communication with reporters inside the identity and security of reporters com- dum in 2008, while also providing compre- Burma via the Internet and mobile phones. ing from Burma. Other significant obsta- hensive coverage of the devastation Additionally, reporters have access to satel- cles confronted in bringing Mizzima staff wrought by Cyclone Nargis. lite phones and BGAN (Broadband Global the training they need include a lack of Area Network) technology as alternative English language skills and budgetary re- Going forward, Mizzima plans to broadcast avenues of communication when other straints, making it financially prohibitive to live streaming TV of the anticipated general options become less viable or unsuitably provide the necessary training. election at the end of 2010. The primary dangerous. purpose of Burma’s first general election in The work of Mizzima and other exile news two decades is to further legitimize military Information is generally sent to external organizations is today widely available to rule and entrench the military’s political Mizzima editors via the Internet by means the citizens of Burma. Burmese can watch role. The National League for Democracy, such as the sharing of email accounts, foreign television broadcasts such as CNN victors in the 1990 elections but not allowed meaning that a file is saved in draft form and the BBC with the assistance of satellite to assume power, has decided not to contest and can be accessed by Mizzima personnel dishes. People can also watch 24-hour the forthcoming elections in opposition to outside Burma. Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) televi- what it considers unjust electoral laws.

IPI REPORT 129 Below: Mizzima News gives its readers a rare glimpse into life in Burma.

International Freedom of Expression Ex- change (IFEX) and partner organization of the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), in 2007 Mizzima was honored with the International Press Institute’s (IPI) Free Media Pioneer Award.

Mizzima’s ultimate ambitions revolve around developing innovative ways of using digital communication to evade au- thoritarian controls, both in gathering in- formation and delivering it to those who need it most. The target audience is people inside Burma and the Burmese in the Dias- pora.

There is an established thirst for knowledge about what is happening inside authoritar- ian Burma. Mizzima is one institution play- ing a central role in providing this service while also active in the Burmese freedom and democracy movements, as it produces a new generation of Burmese media per- sonnel capable of playing an instrumental role in a post-military ruled Burma.

Since its modest birth in a small niche As Mizzima grows in capacity building, along New Delhi’s crowded streets, journalism skills and equipment, the pos- Mizzima has developed mechanisms to in- sibilities of an emerging culture of en- crease both its network and output. And, hanced media freedom at this critical junc- despite the official censorship and regular ture of Burmese history grows with it. clampdowns on independent reporting, Today, Mizzima has over 80 reporters/staff Burma also possesses some unique condi- based in India, Thailand, Bangladesh, tions and “opportunities” for the free flow China and Burma. of information. It is hoped that following Soe Myint is Editor-In-Chief of Mizzima News, the election, with some civilians involved To strengthen Burma’s free media, Mizzima which he established in August 1998. He has worked in power sharing arrangements and a actively works in association with other for the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), Radio growing civil society sector, media organi- Burmese media groups. A founding mem- Free Asia (Burmese Service) and Voice of America zations like Mizzima can exploit this new- ber of Burma News International, a net- (Burmese Department). His book, “Burma File: A found “scope” to improve networks and ac- work of Burma’s independent media or- Question of Democracy,” was published in 2003. tivities inside the country. ganizations, as well as a member of the

130 IPI REPORT Tags: Connected, Developed, Growing Media in India Poised to Grow Rapidly

By Rajesh Kalra

Media in India is on the t is never easy to gaze into the future un- ing on the wall. Realization is quickly verge of a major shift, as Iless, of course, you are Paul the Octopus dawning that the current growth is not sus- and get it right time and again. But to gaze tainable in the long run, a slow but certain literacy increases, and into the future and predict what will hap- shift to other media has begun, and the computers and connectivity pen to news is relatively simple, I think, trend will only gather pace. and it may not necessarily need Paul or his penetrate rural areas and luck. The march of technology, innovation Television is already a staple source of in- citizen journalism rises. and newer media is collaborating to give a formation for many and that number is clear idea of what the future holds for growing, aided in no uncertain terms by news. the use of satellite-based distribution net- works even as distribution through cable Let us look at India first. The country is gets more organized. This will see a further uniquely placed in the world of media and fillip though IPTV and mobile. in terms of how news is disseminated. The print media in the developed world might India has another challenge - multiplicity well be into its sunset stage, but in India it of languages. English alone will not suffice, is still growing. and for one clear reason. Only 10 percent of the population is English-literate. While The reasons are aplenty, the main being that may translate to over 100 million peo- India’s growing literacy rate. Currently, ple, which in itself is huge, there are still al- India’s literacy rate hovers around 71 per- most 900-plus million who read, write and cent, up from 12 percent when it gained in- understand other languages. dependence in 1947. This is skewed in favor of urban areas, and men in particular. The effort to target this non-English-speak- ing population, take computers to them, While most in urban areas have access to and then the Internet, has gained speed. education, it is still an aspirational thing in Most of the big names are investing consid- the rural areas. Once a person has the abil- erable sums in developing computers that ity to read and write, he wants to show the can be used in multiple Indian languages. world that he is now literate. There aren’t many better ways to do so than reading a Microsoft, for example, has embarked on a newspaper sitting in the village centre, sur- project called “Bhasha” (the Hindi word for rounded by an envious and appreciative language) to push computers in the Indian bunch. Of course, the fact that India has hinterland. It is Microsoft’s belief, along some of the cheapest newspapers available with that of a number of other IT biggies, off the shelf in the world helps. that a major reason for the huge digital di- vide in India is the unavailability of But all that notwithstanding, even the most computers in local languages. Computers hardened print supporters can see the writ- alone will not help in the absence of

IPI REPORT 131 proper connectivity. Connectivity in the languages. The Times Group’s own Hindi The print media rural areas is poor, but some serious effort language website (Navbharattimes.com), in the developed is now going into addressing that issue. The for example, has seen its traffic surge over nation has just issued WiMax licences. That 50 times in just three years. And if all goes world might be in and some homegrown solutions – which as per script, this will perhaps just be the tip its sunset stage, provide wireless connectivity in remote of the iceberg. areas using solar energy (a key resource in but in India it is still an otherwise power-efficient nation) – are Changes in India are not occurring in iso- growing. all happening simultaneously. Put to- lation but as part of a global phenome- gether, this means that India is on the non and some may prove to be revolu- threshold of a major information revolu- tionary. world was a challenge, some actually used tion, which would change the way the the opportunity to beef up their citizen country receives and shares information, We have all heard of citizen journalism journalism presence. be it news, views or anything else. and one can notice the emphasis that most media are putting on this. At a time when The results may not have been spectacular, Not surprisingly, there is huge interest in costs were forcing media to cut manpower, yet the potential cannot be underestimated. news and information websites in regional and stationing correspondents all over the The best of media houses can have no more than a few thousand correspondents to file news and information; with proper citizen journalism, that number can theoretically be in the millions. Even if you count only the number of highest quality, you can get thousands of citizen journalists.

With greater emphasis on local and hyper- local news and information, anyone who efficiently delivers such information will leapfrog over their competitors.

Of course, there would be quality con- cerns and also questions about who is au- thorized to share certain types of informa- tion, particularly pictures and videos. But all these can be addressed, and if handled well, I have little doubt citizen journalism can be the biggest tool in building not only a great content stream, but also great loy- alties.

I have also heard arguments that when ed- itors lose control and we choose to depend on what citizen journalists have to offer, we lose track of real news. There might be some basis for this apprehension, but as citizen journalists mature, things may ulti- mately look up. Perhaps big media groups could invest some time and effort into training citizen journalists. This would not only ensure that the selection of topics is relevant, but the quality can be main- tained.

132 IPI REPORT Far Left: Beijing Olympic Gold medalist shooter Abhinav Bindra in the newsroom of the Times of India, New Delhi as Guest Editor for a day in 2008.

Left: Outstation Broadcasting vans of electro- nic news channels are parked near the venue of the Trinamool Congress protest rally against Tata Motors’ Singur car factory, Singur, West Bengal.

More importantly, the digital media’s abil- ity to be measured in a relatively more ac- curate manner than other media is a dou- ble-edged sword. While you can easily see who is getting the numbers and who is not, it also means the advertiser is now not sat- isfied easily. He wants to dig deeper and is willing to pay for results and not just on the number of ads being served.

I believe advertisers will continue to use digital media, and even if content is to be offered free, quality websites will get read- ers, and as a result, advertisers.

However, the way technology is revolu- just a few months, if not weeks, which has The future of news is evolving. Those who tionizing information dissemination, we aided the shift from print to desktop to mo- consume news may finally get to have a would do well to recognize that if the ma- bile devices. As for mobiles and other greater say in what, where, when and how jority wants to know something other than handheld devices, it would seem they can they are informed. It is an exciting period. what editors want to publish, we have to now perform every function except make The media has to make the right moves, accept the majority may find a way. popcorn. Of course, they can also be used to make itself more relevant and useful for its have voice conversations. consumers. The next 10 years will see a Even without any training, some of the rapid march in India towards digital media biggest news, and even some exceptional It is interesting to see how some have taken even as print will grow then plateau. follow-ups, are breaking on Twitter. In the lead in developing content deliverable India, for example, during the Mumbai at- exclusively for these devices, including the tacks, it was thanks to tweets that most got sync systems that allow one to get feeds their initial information and even follow- tick-marked on a desktop to fly in to their ups from various vantage points. handheld devices to be then read at leisure.

In India’s capital, New Delhi, the traffic po- The iPad, its clones, and other e-readers, lice alert drivers about traffic jams through will continue to evolve to make the reading tweets. So they are informing the public di- experience easier, faster and better. Once rectly and in the process bypassing the FM the battery life is improved, the number of or TV channels. In fact, it is these channels those who rely on these devices to stay in which sometime follow tweets and report. touch will catapult into a different league.

The other major benefit of digital media is While all this is very exciting, it is also a that it allows users to customize content. cause for concern. Readers have got so used Users now have the capability to choose be- to free content online that getting them to tween short stories or deep-dive into a sub- pay for it is a challenge. Can this be sus- ject, whether they want to access com- tained on advertisement support alone? No Rajesh Kalra is the Chief Editor of Times Internet moditized stuff or opinions. one is sure. Ltd, the digital arm of India’s largest media house, The Times of India Group. He also heads the lan- The rapid pace of transformation in the Initial experience has been that the change guages initiatives of the Internet arm. field has reduced the product lifecycle to in the advertiser’s mind is slow in coming.

IPI REPORT 133 Tags: Aggregated, Derivative, Threatened Digital Publishing Empowering a New Technology in Russia, but is it Journalism?

By Andrei Soldatov

Lack of newsroom resources n 28 June 2010, the Russian Almost all the most prominent news web- has left most Russian news sites OSupreme Court issued its first-ever guid- sites in Russia were launched between ance for courts to follow on issues related to 1999 and 2001 by the oligarchs – unable to provide substantial the mass media. Experts welcomed the res- Newsru.com by Vladimir Gusinsky, independent journalism. olution, mostly because it guarantees cer- Grani.ru by Boris Berezovsky and tain degrees of freedom to the online Gazeta.ru by Mikhail Khodorkovsky. At the Instead, they’re limited to media. Under its provisions, online media same time, the think tank the Fund for Ef- aggregation of news produced cannot be liable for the readers’ statements fective Politics (FEP), headed by Gleb made on their forum pages, as long as the Pavlovsky, a pro-Kremlin spin doctor, by the country’s newspapers. site editors do not moderate comments be- launched a number of ambitious projects: The Supreme Court recently fore they’re posted. Thus, the guidelines Lenta.ru and Vesti.ru, both Internet news- stipulate that online media, which is not papers, and Strana.ru, a Russian national provided some legal protection very loyal to the Kremlin, cannot be closed news service, which was presented as a to online operations, but the down by the government simply because new kind of media. Its websites succeeded an agent-provocateur published an ex- in taking leading positions from the outset. Kremlin is relying on legislation tremist statement on their forums. and regulations to limit the In the late 1990s, there were very few peo- For optimists, this resolution was a clear ple who understood the Internet, and not freedom of journalists and sign of a positive trend to develop the surprisingly those responsible for advising bloggers alike. legal conditions for freedom of expres- oligarchs and new media editors were sion, since the online media in Russia is often recruited from the same circle. Sud- considered to be the last stand for democ- denly they found themselves in the un- racy. It is the only part of the media that usual position of being asked to invent the was able to operate freely since television rules and then play by them. came under government control and the newspaper industry fell into the hands of Their first task was to define the criteria for oligarchs loyal to the Kremlin. But the assessing the impact of the new market. true reason of the adopted soft line might These methods of assessment remain ob- be simpler. The Russian new media are scure to outsiders. A new industry was overwhelmingly dependent for their con- born to provide the online media with the tent on the few surviving independent number of customers deemed appropriate newspapers in Moscow and the regions. for its investors: Methods ranged from These sites provide a means of dissemi- close-to-pornographic banners to pro- nating the news stories produced by those gramming tools to increase hits. Not sur- papers and facilitating discussions about prisingly, the quality of the journalism was the coverage. the last thing to be considered. News aggre-

134 IPI REPORT Right: A man is arrested in January 2010 during a rally in Moscow that was held in memory of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova, who were slain in 2009.

gators quickly became the most visited sites in the country.

Not surprisingly, in the early 2000s the on- line media were not considered a threat to the Russian authorities’ control of informa- tion. The turning point was the Nord-Ost theater hostage crisis in October 2002 and the disastrous subsequent storming of the theatre. The Kremlin found itself over- whelmed by hundreds of news messages critical of the official version of events, cir- culated on the Internet and promoted by news aggregators. This time, the lack of in- house reporters was not an issue, for the hostage crisis took place in Moscow and some editors personally followed the events. This time, the online technologies The problem was that online media had no buying of media by loyal oligarchs and the enabling the flow of information turned resources to pay for investigative journal- introduction of new laws controlling the against the Kremlin. ism and reportage; instead, reporters press. turned into . And the over- To counterattack, the authorities had to whelming number of online columnists In 2006, Gazeta.ru, then the only news rely on the same technology as the news turned out to be highly critical of Russian website with a fully staffed team of re- aggregators, but strengthened by the vast domestic policy. porters, was sold to Alisher Usmanov, an resources of the state-owned media. As part oligarch and founder of Metalloinvest, of its strategy, FEP’s projects Vesti.ru and In turn, the Kremlin recruited a new gener- thought to be close to the Kremlin. Strana.ru were sold in 2002 to the All-Russ- ation of experts, headed by the young In- ian State Television and Radio Broadcast- ternet guru Konstantin Rykov. He proposed In 2007, Vladimir Putin, then the Russian ing Company (VGTRK), a state-owned cor- a new and more aggressive formula for president, signed a package of amend- poration building its online media empire. success – a combination of the same tech- ments expanding the definition of extrem- As an attempt to spin public opinion, it nology of news aggregators plus irreverent, ism. It was the second set of amendments clearly failed. Critical stories of Russian and patriotic columnists, lined up to attack lib- focusing on extremism to be adopted in foreign origin kept circulating on the Russ- erals Fox News-style, strengthened by the Russia since mid-2006. The amendments ian Internet, and even a direct counterat- direct and shameless buying of traffic. broadened the definition of extremism to tack could not help. include media criticism of state officials Some ends were achieved – the news web- and required news media to label as ‘ex- By then, the special project of Inosmi.ru sites loyal to the Kremlin were promoted to tremist’ any organisation that the govern- had been launched to translate stories high-ratings positions, and Rykov was ment has banned as such. favourable to Russian policy and to com- made a member of the State Duma. At the pete with Inopressa.ru. The project was es- same time, the new patriotic media gained Another amendment expanded the defini- tablished by Pavlovsky’s FEP and then neither the popularity of liberal news ag- tion of extremist activity to include ‘public handed over to the state-owned RIA gregators such as Newsru.com, nor the in- justification of terrorism or other terrorist Novosti. fluence that Ej.ru, created by journalists of activity’. It did not, however, define the Ezhednevny Journal, a weekly traditional term ‘justification’. Other amendments reg- Over the next two years, the online media magazine closed down in 2004, enjoyed ulate the production and distribution of market was affected by a new develop- with the elite and the intelligentsia. ‘extremist’ material, without specifying ment. In the mid-2000s, more and more what constitutes such material, and intro- print journalists were losing their jobs. For Losing to the competition, the Kremlin duce new penalties for journalists, media many, the Internet was the only area where turned to other means already proven to be outlets and printers found guilty of the it was possible to express their opinions. effective in dealing with newspapers: The offence. Penalties range from fines and

IPI REPORT 135 Russian President Dimitry Medvedev addresses the opening ceremony of the European and Asian Media Forum in Moscow, December 2009.

Almost all the most prominent news websites in Russia were launched between 1999 and 2001 by oligarchs.

pressure, but because of a lack of resources to sustain original journalism. The most popular online media do not have in- house journalists; instead they continue to reproduce stories from wire agencies and print media. The oppositional political projects remain in a minority, possibly the best guarantee for survival. Russia’s online media continues to be essentially a new technology – not a – at best a means of distributing news already pub- lished in blogs or traditional media. confiscation of production equipment, to largest in Russia, suffered an accident that the suspension of media outlets for up to caused flooding of the engine and turbine 90 days. rooms and a transformer explosion; 74 people were killed. On 20 August, local Bloggers were among the victims of the journalist Mikhail Afanasyev, editor of the new law over the next two years. Savva Ter- online journal Novy Focus, was charged entyev, a 22-year-old blogger from the with slander for distributing ‘intentionally Komi Republic, faced charges of inciting false reports’ about the disaster. Afanasyev hatred after posting a comment on a blog had been charged less than 24 hours after a in March 2008, criticising the police. In July journalist suggested on his site that officials 2009, he was found guilty and received a were shifting their efforts away from the suspended sentence of one year. search for survivors too quickly.

At the same time, the Kremlin kept trying Two weeks later, a journalist from Interfax to find new methods for dealing with the wire agency was expelled from the area of blogging community. In May 2009, the the Sayano-Shushenskaya station for his ‘Kremlin school of bloggers’ was launched, critical reporting. Instead, the popular headed by Alexei Chadayev, an associate of blogger Rustem Adagamov, aka ‘drugoi’, Pavlovsky. Their graduates are supposed to was invited to report on the relief opera- Andrei Soldatov is Co-founder and Editor, Agen- organise pro-Kremlin information cam- tion. So he did, reporting favorably for the tura.Ru, Moscow which covers developments re- paigns online. authorities. In October, Adagamov was in- lated to terrorism and the security services in Russia vited to join the Kremlin press pool, a pro- and the former Soviet Union. He is the co-author of The biggest industrial catastrophe of 2009 posal that he accepted. the book “The New Nobility: the Restoration of Rus- was a striking illustration of the new gov- sia’s Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the ernment strategy. On 17 August, Sayano- Today, the Russian online media looks vul- KGB” to be released in September 2010. Shushenskaya hydroelectric station, the nerable not only because of government

136 IPI REPORT Tags: Independent, Interactive, Investigative La Silla Vacía Models How the Internet Encourages Press Freedom in Colombia

By Juanita León

The first investigative olombia has changed a great But La Silla Vacía, the first investigative po- political blog of this South Cdeal in the last 30 years, in no small part be- litical blog in the country, demonstrates to cause of the social mobility spurred by young Colombians that in the digital era, American country, La Silla Vacía drug trafficking. The entertainment, busi- when open-source platforms bring down demonstrates how the Internet ness and political worlds have evolved and the news production costs, it is possible to democratized in ways that have surprised break that monopoly, and create an infor- lowers the barrier to entry and even the more skeptical on the Left. The mation source that is not linked to the eco- can make it easier to produce media world remains one of the last bas- nomic or political elite. tions of the old elite. journalism that informs and La Silla Vacía is an information-based, in- engages. The family of the new president owns – teractive site run by journalists. It uses new with the Spanish Planeta company – the technologies to build – with the audience – largest (and until last year the only) na- better knowledge about how power is exer- tional newspaper, El Tiempo; the local TV cised in the country. It also aggregates the channel, Citytv; and soon will most surely most interesting new voices about the po- get the license for a new private TV chan- litical present and future of Colombia. nel. The nephew of the president-elect is the director of the only big news magazine, La Silla Vacía is a startup, with seven full- Semana. And the current vice president time, paid employees. Its audience is and cousin of Juan Manuel Santos will be mainly young, professional Colombians the news director of the largest radio sta- between 25 and 45 years old, college-edu- tion, RCN. cated, and interested in public affairs. In our first year, we have been able to consol- The second national newspaper, El Espec- idate an audience that grows steadily tador, which became a daily a year ago, be- week-by-week. We now have an average of longs to the biggest economic conglomer- 370,000 unique users, 860,000 visitors, and ate, the Santodomingo Group, which owns more than a million page views a month. the other big radio station, Caracol, and one Our average time on site is five minutes 28 of the two national TV channels. seconds.

This media concentration creates a high- In many ways, La Silla Vacía represents a level entry barrier for other competitors, model of the media of the future and a making it seem ‘impossible’ to create an al- good example of how the Internet encour- ternative successful media. ages press freedom. The democratization of

IPI REPORT 137 Below: Colombia’s president, Juan Manuel Santos, looks on during his swearing-in ce- remony in Bogota, Colombia, 7 August 2010. La Silla Vacía tweeted the entire event to its followers. the distribution channels on the Web has created a more fair competition in the mar- ketplace of ideas.

Because there are few media outlets in Colombia and they are all owned by a small group of powerful families who share sim- ilar interests and views, the opportunities are scarce to air diverse opinions in main- stream media. With this project, we have demonstrated that in the 21st Century, ideas and compelling voices have as much influence as voiced on our site as when they are voiced by a traditional outlet. There is no way to shut someone up.

Take what happened to columnist Claudia Lopez. She was one the most influential columnists at El Tiempo, and the leading investigator of the parapolitics scandal. As a Semana.com columnist four years before the scandal, Lopez was the first to de- nounce links between members of the po- litical establishment and the paramilitary groups. She then moved to the newspaper, where she had a huge readership. She be- But in the digital era, social networks are Only Semana and Cambio magazines were came a nuisance for the Uribe government the media. Lopez opened up her blog in La brave enough to go against the tide, but and his coalition in Congress. While most Silla Vacía, and all her readership was able Cambio folded last year. In that context, La of her writing was against politicians, one to follow her online. Silla Vacía quickly became another impor- day she criticized El Tiempo’s coverage of tant site of reference about politics. the agricultural subsidies program Agroin- With the Internet, it is almost impossible to greso Seguro scandal, saying that it was so expel someone’s views from the public It offered not only facts but also an inter- biased that they seemed to be favoring arena, because at least for young genera- pretation of what the facts meant. When so Juan Manuel Santos’s political aspirations. tions in Colombia, their media is Facebook many things happen in a country in transi- She also said that the newspaper should and all the important information circu- tion, explanations are sorely needed. Be- make its conflict of interests explicit. lates there. And it’s just as difficult to pre- cause in Colombia there is a big story every vent some issues from being covered. day, it’s easy to miss the fact that most of Lopez voiced a criticism shared by many, them are episodes of the three or four same but her writing outraged the editor-in- The partial demobilization of paramilitary big underlying stories. And, without the re- chief of El Tiempo. He wrote an addendum forces, important victories against a dimin- strictions of time or space, the Web is the to her column, firing her. “If you think this ished guerrilla force, and a booming econ- perfect place not only to tell the whole of this newspaper, we understand that you omy have created an optimistic atmos- story but to narrate context. At La Silla, we are resigning,” he said. And all her columns phere in the last five years. The downside, make explicit the narrative threads that were deleted from the newspaper. In that after decades of violence perpetrated by pull the stories together. moment, Colombians lost a courageous guerrilla, paramilitary and government columnist. She wasn’t offered another forces, is that until recently – when the We also talk about some issues that are space by El Espectador or Semana. Hiring scandals surrounding government were taboo for mainstream media. For example, her would have broken the tacit pact too big to hide – there was an open hostility we have run several stories on tax exemp- among media owners to not step on the toward anyone that could potentially “ruin tions and tax privileges awarded to compa- other’s toes. the party.” nies, one of the topics barred from media.

138 IPI REPORT For young generations in Colombia, their media is Facebook, and all the important information circulates there.

Print media have a big tax break on paper, And lastly, the Internet provides an oppor- As Internet guru Jean Francois Fogel has so they are not so willing to criticize some- tunity for citizens to politically engage by said, what the Internet changes is that citi- thing that they benefit from. But also, pri- participating in the national conversation, zens become the promoters of the collec- vate companies are shielded from public the strongest guarantee for freedom of ex- tive conscience as content creators. “Public debate in great part because they are the pression. opinion no longer has a mood, but favorite ones that advertise. sites and connections,” he says. At La Silla In mainstream media, the information Vacía, we expect to be the favorite site of At La Silla Vacía we cover the intersection loop is closed, but online media are able to the most progressive segment of Colom- of private companies and politics. We were interject in and reflect an ongoing, open bian society. the first to tell the story of the ‘stabilization conversation. From its start, La Silla Vacía pacts’ signed by Uribe’s government with put forth the idea that citizens are not only the big companies promising them not to the recipients of information but that they raise their taxes for 25 years, and we have can also participate in the creation of the also pointed out the amount of money in- message, and in that process get more vested in tax breaks. deeply involved in the political debate.

Another issue that we have covered that is At La Silla Vacía, each user has his or her taboo in Colombia is how power is exercised own profile page, which contains a record by media. There is a ‘pact of silence’ among of all his or her contributions to the page. journalists. We can criticize everything ex- We have an audience editor, working with cept each other. At La Silla Vacía, media is users who submit stories to the page to not off-limits, which opens up the opportu- make sure that they meet the journalistic nity for media to be held accountable. standards of accuracy, verification and in- terest to readers; we have an Urtak tool for Not only have we tried to cover under-cov- users to ask and answer survey questions ered issues, but also in the way we cover in real time about political issues; and one- them we try to break barriers people have third of our story ideas come from users, to access information. At La Silla Vacía we who give us tips and information. believe in the value of unprocessed infor- mation. That’s why we use every tool to This experiment in crowdsourcing and make original documents and reporting user-generated information decentralize Juanita León is the Founder and Director of available to users. We also use open-source the information in a way that not only re- LaSillaVacia.com, the most influential political web- tools like Ustream to allow users to directly flects the center of the country, but also the site in Colombia. She was a Harvard Nieman Fellow interview our sources. And we use Twitter regions. It also opens up a path of self-ex- and is a graduate of Columbia’s Graduate School of to cover important events in real time, so pression and political engagement for Journalism. She was the launch editor of Flypme- that people get direct access to raw infor- younger Colombians, who are skeptical of dia.com, and taught ‘Guerrilla News’ at New York mation with as little mediation as possible established media and so often opt out of University’s School of Journalism. from journalists. the political debate.

IPI REPORT 139 Tags: Controlled, Independent, Uncensored Digital Technology Fuels both Oppressive Governments and Media Freedom in Arab World

By Daoud Kuttab

Technology changed the hile technology has made a airwaves, the new rulers made sure no one history of media in Arab Wconsiderable contribution to media else took them over physically or in terms throughout the globe, it has had a unique of content. countries by offering impact in the Arab world. But this impact alternatives to government has not always been positive. Newspapers, which by their nature had a narrower audience except among the liter- controlled communications. Until the mid-1990s, radio and television ate residents of major cities, still had govern- stations that Arabs were able to follow were mental controls, either directly or indirectly. mostly government owned. With the ex- External media was only allowed in the ception of international radio stations such country after a thorough read by customs as BBC, Voice of America and Monte Carlo minders who, at times, would either deny radio, hundreds of millions of Arabs were entry or physically cut out a particular arti- forced to hear and see protocol news of cle that was not pleasing to the local rulers. their presidents and kings leading and dominating newscasts. That was the situation for most Arab coun- tries, with the exception of Lebanon, Governments dominated audiovisual Kuwait and Egypt. But the information rev- media so much that representatives of olution forced a lot of change. Some of the presidents and kings had an office at the change was in the form of totally new local radio and TV stations for ease of pass- media outlets, in other cases the IT revolu- ing on information and to the state owned tion had its trickle effects within traditional and run media. Live interviews were not al- media outlets as well as helped develop an lowed for fear that something unscripted landscape that is among could be said. the main forces of change in the Arab world today. Governmental control of radio and TV had its logic in the history of governance in TV was among the first media to change many Arab countries. In the post decolo- due to the information revolution. While nization phase, many Arab countries wit- governments could control their own nessed armed revolts and military coups. media and prevent printed publication In most of these revolts, radio stations were from entry, their ability to stop the air- among the first institutions, after the pres- waves, especially with the introduction of idential palace, to be taken over by the new satellite television, was impossible. Al powers. Knowing full well the power of the Jazeera was born in this atmosphere.

140 IPI REPORT A BlackBerry user displays the SMS sent by his service provider notify- ing him of the suspension of ser- vices at a mobile shop in Dubai, UAE. Saudi and Emirati authori- ties’ battle with BlackBerry manu- facturer Research in Motion shows how rapid changes in technology are sowing unease in countries where the unfettered flow of data is seen as a threat.

The Qataris, who were looking for a way to informing their visitors of the websites of tablish alternative media outlets and in cit- be known, stumbled on a failed attempt by other Arab newspapers. By accessing these izen media initiatives. Saudi businesspeople to produce a joint ef- Arab newspapers, Web surfers were able to fort with the BBC. The failed Orbit News op- find out what was happening in their Initially the Internet was left under lock eration in Italy provided the Qataris with a countries simply by reading what Arab pa- and key in traditional newspapers as cadre of professionally trained Arabic pers outside their own borders were pub- owners were afraid of this newcomer to speaking journalists. With little critical lishing. the information world. But with time, the news to report on in tiny Qatar, the new availability of information, which pro- station was able to deliver professional Online publications soon followed and in vided a wider point of view and a much news by satellite to the entire Arab world. time provided opposition parties, ideolog- deeper version than what was being said ical groups and various others with the op- locally, caused traditional media owners The Internet provided yet another oppor- portunity to make their ideas public. With and editors to adopt and warm up to the tunity for Arab news junkies. As it hap- Internet penetration still low in most Arab Internet. pened, all 23 Arab countries were careful countries, it was important to employ the about making sure that the local press was ripple effect. Internet media advocates in Alternative and citizen media initiatives under control but could do little to stop any the Arab world began by trying to encour- were soon growing in the Arab world. other Arab media outlet from writing age Arab journalists, thinkers and writers When Mahmood Al Yousifi (mahmood.tv) about them. With cyberspace outside the to get online. used Google Earth to show the amount of control of Arab interior and information unused land owned by the ruler and un- ministers, an entirely new opportunity was Various civil society efforts helped by pur- available to homeless citizens, the Bahrain opened up. chasing computers with Internet connec- government temporarily banned Google tions and providing public space to allow Earth. One of the first efforts began in Palestine. amplifying voices to obtain information The Arabic Media Internet News online and then reproduce it using tradi- When Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas got (AMIN.org) was established in 1996 with tional media. The success of this effort hold of a cell phone video showing police the aim of publishing uncensored content. wasn’t initially evident, but its online brutality he posted it on his site (Misrdigi- Their most successful effort was a section power was soon to be seen in efforts to es- tal.blogspirit.com), forcing for the first time

IPI REPORT 141 the Egyptian government to try and con- formed calling for the minister’s resigna- vict the policeman in the posted video. tion and within hours attracted thousands of fans. A Jordanian version of twitter Tunisian blogger Sami Ben Gharbieh, with (watwet.com) was instrumental in helping the help of friends and plane-spotting web- AmmanNet to spread breaking news Web surfers were able sites such as airliner.net and planepic- through free SMS messages to thousands of to find out what was tures.net, was able to show how the presi- cell phone owners. dent’s jets made frequent visits to major happening in their coun- European capitals between 2001-2007 for The success of media entrepreneurs in tries simply by reading the Tunisian first lady’s shopping trips, as using the Internet to circumvent govern- the autocratic president of Tunisia rarely ment controls was not without a strong what Arab papers outside leaves the country. governmental response in most Arab their own borders were countries. While some countries applied These individual efforts broke a lot of strict proxy restrictions banning locally publishing. taboos but also brought governmental produced content from being seen by the wrath that has included frequent arrests country’s citizens, or carried out brutal and restrictions on bloggers, as well as a va- crackdown actions, the majority of the While technology has provided the vehicle, riety of nasty efforts against these citizen Arab regimes decided to join the revolu- the future of free media in the Arab world journalists. But these brave early bloggers tion. will require a mix of professionalism, became role models for many and paved courage and alliance-building. Journalists the way for more established and sustain- When it became clear that they couldn’t to- will have to steer clear of able alternative media operations. tally stop many alternative websites, Arab and muster the courage to take on govern- governments decided to either co-opt ex- ments and interest groups that prefer to op- One of these efforts took place in Jordan, isting sites or create their own sites camou- erate in the dark. when the first online radio station in the flaged as independent sites. In some cases, Arab world was established to counter the money was made available, as well as tan- country’s governmental radio monopolies. talizing local news and various other ef- While AmmanNet.net was established in forts to give these government sites the ap- the fall of 2000 and was focused primarily pearance of alternative media. on local news, it found that its live broad- casts on pro Palestinian demonstrations Oppressive governments also used a num- during the Second Intifada were also of in- ber of other ways to clamp down on alter- terest to Palestinian FM radio listeners. native media. Bloggers and media owners When Palestinian stations downloaded the faced various bureaucratic problems that signal from the Internet and broadcast it included travel bans, imprisonment and in terrestrially, Jordanians were able to hear some cases physical punishment. Bad the broadcast on their car and tran- mouthing bloggers and spreading false ru- sistors. The Internet was thus instrumental mors became the norm in many countries. in helping break up a governmental mo- Governments that depend on large funds nopoly and eventually opened the way for from external countries encouraged jour- the licensing of independent and private nalists and other bloggers to attack these radio stations. independent media activists by claiming that their foreign funding rendered their Facebook and Twitter gave alternative efforts unpatriotic. media activists yet another opportunity to circumvent government controls. When While the jury is still out on whether the IT Daoud Kuttab, a former Ferris Professor of Jour- the education minister in Jordan made revolution has strengthened or weakened nalism at Princeton University, is the director gen- some nasty remarks in his opposition to at- media freedom efforts, it is clear that there eral of Community Media Network, a media NGO in tempts by public servants to create a are opportunities, especially for young Arabs Jordan and Palestine. teacher’s union, a Facebook group was who are the majority of the population.

142 IPI REPORT Tags: Entrepreneurial, Independent NN24: Birth of an African Channel

By Anthony Dara

This new, 24-hour global news n the African continent, entre- world often gets distorted information channel serves Nigeria and Opreneurs must be tenacious and overtly in- about the successes, failures and dreams of genious to succeed. As professional and the continent from outside media whose viewers across Africa with complete as it may appear to viewers, NN24 journalists, even when trying hard, are ill- independent information about is just out of the starting blocks in its march informed about our history and issues. to be a global news channel from Africa. the country and its people. We can and must grow our coverage and In 2005, my ambitions for this project were depth. NN24 (Network News 24) is Nigeria’s crystallized from reading a BBC article/ed- first 24-hour, seven-day-a-week news itorial written by its then country represen- channel, the channel operates out of Lagos, tative in Nigeria, Anna Borzello. She said Nigeria and is distributed via direct to that Nigeria was so vast, multicultural, and home satellite service by DStv in Nigeria multi-layered in all aspects, that it was im- and a number of countries on the conti- possible to accurately tell stories about the nent. The chanel produces its news con- nation. She lamented the misinformation tent, gathers news and information content that crept into so many reports. This redi- from CNN Newsource and Reuters. rected my initial dream of building a gen- eral entertainment television channel. However the channel aims to produce up to 80 percent of its own content, consider- Our journey took twists and turns through ing the vast amount of unreported stories ups and downs, starts and false starts. The in Africa. And it will also establish bureaus intensity of this cannot be over emphasized in a number of African countries as means in the Nigerian business environment. I of achieving this objective. took for granted there is an electricity issue. But it was, nonetheless, a big shock that we When I first mentioned the idea to friends had to provide our own power even at a and colleagues, many told me I was a tele- rented training facility. Think of the irony vision engineer with an outlandish dream. that one of the world’s largest energy pro- But I knew the time had come for such an ducers – oil – can supply but a fraction of enterprise to be the voice of and for the internal power needed to move the Africans. The progress of Africa and her country to meet its full potential. Africa people has been pushed to the background needs new enterprises like ours, but the in almost all areas of media; there is too lack of basic infrastructure keeps most in much emphasis in global media on issues the “dream” stage of development. such as famine relief, refugee issues and the intervention of Western military to solve NN24 is built on highly skilled and trained problems, which, incidentally, are often the manpower, modern technology, sensible result of Western meddling in African af- budget and low investment risks. First of fairs. As if that is not negative enough, the all, I come from a very strong technological

IPI REPORT 143 Right: NN24 Reporter Mike Dibie

Below: NN24 News Anchor Kazode Alayande

background, having studied for a Higher content we produce is high definition (HD) Our business model is designed so that the National Diploma (HND) in Electronics and ready. We have invested heavily in training cost of operation is covered by income Telecommunications and a Bachelors of and capacity building. through advertisement and sponsorship. Science (BSc) in Broadcast Technology. I The concept is built around low margin on had the full understanding of “how-it- Every one of our young Nigerians went large volume and we pre-sold a block of works” from the outset. And with 16 years through training on how to write stories, time to an ad-buy agency to guarantee in- of work and experience in broadcasting I report, shoot and edit them. They multi- come for the first three years. This model saw a credible chance to succeed. I am also task in every facet of the job. Their employ- makes the company quite viable. This was privileged to have had the assistance of an ment contracts stipulate high standards of accomplished before the investment drive. ex-vice president of CNN as the tireless and professionalism and commitment to per- Investors in Nigeria were happy to commit innovative project manager. Kenneth Tiven formance improvement. More importantly, money to the project. came on board with me very early in this there is zero tolerance for corrupt practices project. in journalism. We pay the best wages in tel- We have a staff strength of 120 people se- evision in Nigeria as part of this commit- lected from nearly 5,000 who applied for The NN24 team is young, energetic and ment. We also have well defined, simple- jobs. It took us about twelve months go on fresh. We resisted taking experienced to-understand gift policy, a copy of which air and the unintended consequence of the hands. The basic strategy was to give the can be found on our website delays was that from day one we looked enterprise the opportunity of an uncom- (www.nn24.tv). NN24 is an affiliate partner grown up. Our output has been quite re- promised beginning devoid of old and bad of CNN, and through this partnership, staff markable, and thousands of SMS messages habits. Our approach with new technology of the company has the opportunity to at- confirm the happy disbelief of so many required that we do just that. Our opera- tend a CNN Fellowship for three weeks at Nigerians that this is really a Nigerian tions are fully digital, automated and the its USA headquarters in Atlanta. channel on the DStv distribution platform.

144 IPI REPORT Most television news in Nigeria is provided by state broadcasters, and they will not say anything negative about people in government.

Two days after going on air on the 3 May hitting with investigative reporting, cover- away from the fact and reality of the 2010, we reported the death of the late Pres- age of human rights issues, justice, develop- African situation of corruption, war, ident Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. For many TV ment and seeking answers from people in famine, bad governance as it exists every- viewers we broke the news first. We have positions of authority across all sectors – where in the world, but we will put these in 24 news bulletins every day at the top of public and private – about their actions and the right and non-demonising context as the hour. At half past the hour we produce inactions. We seek and report public opin- the case has often been. We are mindful other news programmes in sports, enter- ion on issues of the day . News in Nigeria is that Al Jazeera English and the growing tainment, documentary and business. They heavily centered in favour of who is doing number of news channels have expanded cover a lot about Nigeria and the rest of the what in government and politics. Most tel- coverage of global issues, East and West, in continent. And very importantly, all stories evision news you get in Nigeria is by state rich and poor nations. we bring to viewers, whether local or inter- broadcasters and they will not say anything national, we do so with an African perspec- negative about people in government. Con- Good things are happening in Africa. The tive. We are grouped on DST with the inter- tent is heavy on commissioning of roads, 2010 World Cup held in South Africa has national news channels, where we belong, unfurnished hospital buildings, schools, etc. been adjudged the best so far! Corruption and our viewers seem to agree. Our viewers are happy that we cover stories is being punished in Nigeria today. Only a of the ordinary people. handful of African countries now have un- Just a few months after launching in Nige- democratic leadership. Africa is on the ria, NN24 received pan-African distribution We have done things our way, it has not move and NN24 will march in step with via DStv and we are expanding distribution been business as usual. It amazes people this spirit. to the rest of the world. Work is in progress that, unlike the practice in so many media on the NN24 website and also in develop- organisations in Nigera, we refuse to take or ment is an NN24 mobile phone application give money for stories we report. Impor- for iPhones, Blackberry and Android de- tantly, the editorial team is very independ- vices. ent of the management of the business. The structure does not allow me as the Chief The initial quality must be sustained and Executive of the company to influence improved. We are in the precarious situa- what news is carried and what is not. The tion of managing the high expectations of newsroom decides and in every case it up- people who believe we have saved the in- holds the tenet of hearing all sides to be dustry, at least in Nigeria, from the low equal on all sides. standards of television both privately and publicly owned. Following launch, many of On our logo in between the 2 and 4 is a the television stations have improved their cube. The cube is equal on all sides: equal to quality, some are changing programme all and that is what we strive to do. The styles and daring to try new ways. The reg- colour of the logo, silver and red, symbol- ulators point to us as an example of how ises the silver-lining of hope and prosperity television should be done. over the dark cloud, while red is for the constant struggle of the African. Anthony Dara is the founder and Chief Executive The human angle stories are a hit with our of NN24. Born in Bwari, Nigeria and a broadcast viewers. We have been surprised that no I truly hope that NN24 after 60 years of engineer by training, Dara has worked in the news- one has complained about the lack of gov- world press freedom will become the bea- room environment and has been involved with ernment propaganda, which dominates tra- con of hope for the continent in the main- journalism for many years. ditional Nigerian media. We have been hard stream media of the world. We will not shy

IPI REPORT 145 Tags: Customized, Personalized, Shared Tracking the New York Rangers Hockey Team from Toyko: A Personal Tale of Media Consumption

By Takashi Tanemura

As important as mobile devices s a boy growing up in a coun- Fast-forward 10 years to when I started and other digital delivery Atry where my native language was almost working: News became a part of my daily non-existent, it was very difficult to get an life. At breakfast, I was getting news from mechanisms are to news idea what was going on. Before moving to television through my ears while my eyes consumers in Japan, the print New York, I remember reading the sports were on the newspaper. I was commuting sections of newspapers as a first grader in from my parents’ home, so I was on the editions of newspapers remain Japan. But in the early 70s, with no satellite train for 30-40 minutes every weekday and a highly valued source of both transmission available to print newspa- did some reading when I was not too tired. pers from overseas, subscribing to home- scanning and deep reading. town newspapers was too expensive for The first change in my news consumption the average Japanese household in New habits came when many cable operators York. spread their service with the launch of satellite broadcasting. CNN started their As I started to learn English, I remember international service and a couple of do- clipping an article from the newspaper and mestic media groups started a 24-hour writing a short summary to explain it in news channel. The penetration was low in class as homework every week. As I recall, Japan, but my residential area had a service sports were not allowed and my parents’ and we subscribed to it, making news New York Times subscription put me in a available 24/7. tougher spot than the kids who were able to clip articles from the city’s easier-to-un- Next came the Internet, of course, fol- derstand tabloids. Still, it was a very good lowed by mobile. NTT Docomo started the way for me to get started with news. mobile Web service called “i-mode” in Japan and the content providers were able By the time I moved back to Tokyo, I was to charge their content on Docomo’s 11 years old and still had a passion for New phone bills. News outlets developed serv- York sports teams. In the days before the ices tailored for small screens, and getting Internet, following them from Tokyo was news on the go became an instant hit. not easy. The only medium available for When Japanese carriers provided a fixed free was the Far East Network, part of the price Internet connection on their mobile Armed Forces Radio and Television Net- services, consumers were able to access work, so that was where I went for the US the Internet without fear of being charged sports news. a big data transmission fee. The richness

146 IPI REPORT Even in the digital era, the news- paper’s role is the same. Readers want to be on the same page as every other reader. and quality of the content improved dra- case. If not, doing nothing at all for eight to discover news you never knew to look matically. minutes isn’t so bad. for on your own. In addition, reading news that’s selected by professionals puts you in The latest twist is smart phones. They made In the four years I spent at the Nikkei Media touch with the current topics everybody is mobile computing possible and web serv- Lab, I got a look at some of the assumptions reading and talking about. That factor is ices like Twitter and Facebook became eas- about – and actual behavior of – other often overlooked in a lot of the talk about ier to update and read real time in a mobile news consumers in Japan. customization. environment. One of the general interest newspapers in Japan, Sankei Shimbun, has For starters, we assumed there would be a Our new online service, The Nikkei Online an iPhone app that enables users to browse lot of customization and personalization of Edition, has a customization function the paper’s print layout. news – just like that viral Web video, EPIC called “My NIKKEI”. It recommends news 2014, predicted with depiction of a Google- based on your reading habits as well as How have all these tools and new technol- zon future. After the video was posted (by such demographics as age, job and indus- ogy altered the way I get my news? Well, it former Poynter interns Robin Sloan and try. As essential as we believed this service has changed the way I track the New York Matt Thompson), we gathered some indus- would be, our user surveys and access logs Rangers. Online, I’m able to access most of try professionals to discuss it before we put tell another story. It has not become very the New York newspapers’ sports sections together some ongoing research to test popular in our service. We need to pro- and to read specialized publications about some of EPIC’s ideas. In addition to person- mote this feature more effectively, but our the team. My RSS feed means I don’t even alization and customization, we thought surveys indicate that our readers want to have to visit newspaper sites to check the people would take advantage of easy-to- read the same information that is in the beat writers’ blogs anymore. use Web tools to do a lot of commenting print newspapers. about the news and writing their own But the biggest change in my media con- pieces. In the three years we conducted this Along the way, we’ve learned that a news- sumption had more to do with my com- research (2005-2007) in Japan, it just didn’t paper company’s role is the same in the mute to work than any changes in technol- happen. digital era as it has always been. Readers ogy. By moving into the center of the city, want the judgment from the newspaper my time on the train dropped from 40 min- Two dimensions of news consumption ap- company so they can be on the same page utes to just eight minutes. Since the train is peared especially valued by readers and with every other reader. Our surveys usually crowded in the morning, I don’t users. In an era when you can find all sorts showed that the main purpose of subscrib- want to bother taking something from my of information online, the judgment of ex- ing to our digital service is to read the same briefcase to read. Instead, I pull my phone perienced editors about what is really im- contents from the print edition on a digital from my pocket and do my daily Sudoku, portant becomes especially valuable. device. Although we provided digital fea- assuming I’m able to put down my brief- Serendipity is also important – the chance tures like search, clipping and scrap/save,

IPI REPORT 147 Page 147: The New York Rangers in action against the Philadelphia Flyers, 11 April 2010.

Right: www.nikkei.com they were not the main reasons users sub- scribed.

From The Poynter Institute’s “Eyetracking the News” study, I learned that a newspaper reader is either a scanner or a reader. The print newspaper of today is the ultimate product that has been upgraded constantly for the last hundred years. It saves the scanners time as they get a handle of what’s going on in the world. It’s also a platform that seems to give readers the feeling that they have some time to spend with it.

How might news consumption change over the next decade?

The former chief of the Nikkei Media Lab told us that he doesn’t scan the newspaper the stories that they found interesting on himself anymore. He relies on his commu- their mobile devices during their com- nity in Mixi, the largest Japanese social mutes. With short, summarized news for- network service. If there’s an important mats developed for smart phones, the re- article in today’s Nikkei, someone men- verse pattern might also take hold – with tions it on the bulletin board and he fol- readers scanning on their mobiles and re- lows up and reads the story. He says that’s lying on print editions for more extended a time-saver for him, but I’m not sure his reading. calculations include time spent on the bulletin board. In fact, as important as new media is to the distribution of news in Japan, digital tech- The wisdom of relying on friends to scan nology has a long way to go to catch up the news for you has a lot to do with the with the role of printed newspapers. Sure, news you’re looking for – and how much I’d be out of luck tracking the Rangers if I trust you have in those friends. If you’re not had to rely on the sports section of the sure of your own capacity – or your friends’ newspaper that shows up on my doorstep – to filter your news diet, then I’d say a every morning. To tell you the truth, newspaper company saves you time by at though, there just aren’t that many Rangers least getting you the minimum informa- fans in my Toyko neighborhood. tion that you need. Although it sometimes seems that the as- Mobile devices are leading to some inter- cension of digital is not that far away, re- Takashi Tanemura works in new business devel- esting changes among our customers. To placing the prized product – the printed opment at the Digital Planning and Strategy Bureau save time, many of them scan the print newspaper – might need more time than of Nikkei, Inc. in Tokyo. edition at home in the morning and read you think.

148 IPI REPORT Take-aways from Chapter Three: 10 Waypoints Tagged to the Future of News

By Bill Mitchell

2. Partnered: As Endy Bayuni points out, “In this…wired world, professional journalists have to share the field.” That creates op- portunity for alliances that can (a) enhance the information they s I finished reading this final chapter, I found myself provide, (b) avoid pointless duplication, (c) keep costs low and (d) Avisualizing pins on a map. stay in business. Some of these partnerships will involve individ- ual readers, viewers, listeners and users anxious to volunteer their Some mark the datelines of stories recounted here. Others show efforts; others will involve deals with NGOs, universities and com- the taglines from the top of those articles, each suggesting a way- petitors. Partnerships you haven’t considered but might? point for navigating the future of news. 3. Linked: It’s the heart of the Web, of course, but its potential re- Reviewing those tags revealed no single, overriding theme. In- mains mostly unrealized by news organizations. What would it deed, our attempt to pull common threads from the essays pro- take to become the leading network of networks in your commu- duced a list of tags several score in length. No main highway, in nity? other words, but signposts for many still emerging routes for news. 4. Engaged: Many news organizations are doing a better job of en- gaging their audiences, partly by accepting the contributions of I’ve selected 10 tags, or themes, that appear to be most important time and talent volunteered in the form of crowdsourcing, user- for the target audience of this report – the women and men lead- generated content and social media. But there’s opportunity for a ing media enterprises of various shapes and sizes around the next step in engagement, getting journalism closer to its ultimate world. Some of the tags mentioned below are listed frequently in purpose of serving civic life. That’s the linkage between news and the report, others just once or twice. action: How can you do a better job helping users transform the news you provide into action required to govern themselves well? Your list of critical themes – and questions – will be different. Here’s mine: 5. Innovated: The report includes many examples of new initia- tives by media organizations around the world. As Dan Gillmor 1. Processed: It sounds awfully industrial, but as news in various points out, “You can innovate by being more efficient or thorough, forms becomes more abundant, the remaining scarcity – and not just by inventing new technologies… Innovators often con- value – lies in what journalists do with it. Most of the following nect dots where others can’t imagine the connections.” If your or- tags flow from that notion – processing the raw material of news ganization were really focused on innovation, what dots might the into services and products that hold real value to various stake- entrepreneurs in your midst help you connect? holders. 6. Independent: This word shows up frequently in the preceding The Web has enhanced the distribution of unprocessed informa- pages, reflecting a core value linked to the credibility of news. To tion, too, and Juanita León describes the value of such original the extent journalists are able to maintain their independence, data and documents in her essay about La Silla Vacía, the startup they enhance their ability to maintain their primary allegiance to news site she runs from Bogotá. Paul Bradshaw describes a model that starts with data and adds value with computer processing and the sort of sophisticated analysis that newsrooms need to “skill up” on. What’s the most important new process you and your team need to get good at?

IPI REPORT 149 rest. Six days later, Yuen-ying Chan reports that fierce objections from Chinese bloggers and journalists led police to drop the war- rant and apologize.

● Rangoon, where correspondents for Mizzima News work at their audiences. As journalism changes, it’s hardly surprising that great risk, filing reports surreptitiously to editors based in India, users wonder where journalists’ loyalties lie. How will you make Thailand and Bangladesh. Mizzima’s accounts of life inside Burma clear to your audiences just where you stand? show how digital tools can be used “to evade authoritarian con- trols, both in gathering information and delivering it to those who 7. Trusted: Users place their highest trust in content that’s recom- need it most,” reports Soe Myint. mended by people they trust. That content includes news, analysis, and advertised products, among other things. How will you help Our speculation about the future of news should be informed, and your customers learn what’s trusted by their friends and neigh- humbled, by the track record of previous prognosticators. Not all bors? How will you earn more of their trust in what you and your of our hunches have played out quite the way we expected they colleagues produce? would.

8. Investigated: Investigative reporting represents one of journal- At Grocott’s Mail, a small paper in South Africa, editor Stephen ism’s most refined processes: it requires extraordinary expertise to Lang expected that “civic activism” would motivate the citizen sift meaning from raw data and info too jumbled or concealed to journalism made possible by a grant from the Knight Foundation. make sense otherwise. Investigative reporting remains a franchise In fact, he found that “the driving force for citizen journalists in our that professional journalists are well positioned to lead, especially area is the prospect of gainful employment.” with help from their audiences. How might you collaborate with users on investigations into the most critical issues facing your In Japan, Takashi Tanemura reports that Nikkei’s media re- communities? searchers expected to find significant user interest in customized and personalized news. Instead, they were surprised to find read- 9. Trained: None of the above will happen magically. Staff mem- ers of online news mostly interested in getting the same news that bers and contributors alike need new skills. Rajesh Kalra urges their friends and neighbors were reading in print editions. training for citizen journalists “that would not only ensure that se- lection of topics is relevant, but (that) quality can be maintained.” Speaking of surprises, what surprised me most about these 42 es- How will you and your users get the training required for good and says is the impact they’ve had on my own view of journalism’s fu- profitable answers to the questions in this list? ture.

10. Sustained: Done right, all of the above will create substantial I still believe our profession faces a chaotic transition. Exactly how new value to users, advertisers and other stakeholders. What’s the people will get the news and information they need remains an linkage, in your operations, between the sort of innovation sug- open question. gested above and your bottom line? But the report has shown me how some of the chaos is giving way Making progress in these areas will not be easy, especially in coun- to clarity, revealing a global media landscape where the news tries without a strong tradition of independent media. Several of about news is not so much bleak as breaking, revealing innovative the essays describe some early progress, highlighted by a few more approaches – especially in the ten areas highlighted above -- that pins on the map: are starting to grab some traction.

● Lagos, where NN24, Nigeria’s first 24-hour news channel, is fo- We’re entering an exciting new chapter of a fast-moving, high- cusing on people as opposed to institutions, challenging local tra- stakes story. Its promise is beginning to outweigh its peril. ditions by excluding both advertisers and the station’s CEO (our author, Anthony Dara) from any decisions about news coverage.

● Shanghai, where reporter Qiu Ziming’s aggressive reporting about a major manufacturing company prompted local authori- ties, at the request of the company, to issue a warrant for Qiu’s ar-

150 IPI REPORT Image Credits

Photo material was researched by the International Press institute. Every effort has been made to identify copyright holders, in case of oversight, and upon notification to the publisher, corrections will be made in subsequent printings and online editions. All photos are from iStock unless otherwise specified. Headshots were supplied by the individual contributors.

7 Associated Press / Mark Lennihan 86 Photo Courtesy of POLITICO 9 www.newsmap.jp 87 Photo Courtesy of POLITICO 13 Guardian News & Media 2010 88 Photo Courtesy of Lou Ureneck 14 YouTube 89 Photo Courtesy of Lou Ureneck 16 Photo courtesy of Demotix 90 Top Photo Courtesy of Lou Ureneck 19 Associated Press / Al Grillo 90 Bottom Photo Courtesy of Lou Ureneck 20 Robin Hamman via Flickr 93 BBC News Online 21 Associated Press / Alex Brandon 94 www.bbc.co.uk/news 23 Associated Press Lefteris Pitarakis 96 Matt Paker via Flickr 24 Associated Press Khalid Tanveer 97 Misha Japaridze / Associated Press 27 Photo Courtesy of London Underground 99 Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2010 28 Associated Press / Mark Lennihan 100 www.abc.net.au/news 31 Associated Press / Anon 102 Poynter Institute 34 Associated Press / Marco Ugarte 103 Poynter Institute 35 Associated Press / Paul Sakuma 104 Poynter Institute 37 Associated Press / Anon 108 Associated Press / Marcelo Hernandez 39 Associated Press / Charles Rex Abrogast 110 Photo Courtesy of TBD 40 Photo Couresty of St Petersburg Times 111 All Photos Courtesy of TBD 43 BNOnews.com 114 Yazhou Zhoukan 46 Associated Press / Anon 115 Yazhou Zhoukan 47 Associated Press / Joel Ryan 117 Malaysiakini.com 48 Associated Press / Max Nash 120 Photo Courtesy of Grocott’s Mail 51 Associated Press / Alastair Grant 121 Photo Courtesy of Grocott’s Mail 53 Associated Press / Marco Ugarte 123 Photo Courtesy of City Press 55 Associated Press / Vincent Thian 124 Photo Courtesy of City Press 61 Photo Courtesy of Gazeta Wyborcza 125 Photo Courtesy of A24 Media 62 Photo Courtesy of Gazeta Wyborcza 126 Photo Courtesy of A24 Media 63 Photo Courtesy of Gazeta Wyborcza 127 Photo Courtesy of A24 Media 64 Associated Press / Shakil Adil 130 All Photos Courtesy of Mizzima News 65 www.ushahidi.com 132 The Times of India Group 2010 65 Photo Courtesy of Ushahidi 133 The Times of India Group 2010-09-06 66 Associated Press / James L. Harper J 135 Associated Press / Misha Japaridze 69 Photo Courtesy of The Jakarta Post 136 Associated Press / Mikhail Klimentyev 70 Photo Courtesy of The Jakarta Post 138 Associated Press / Fernando Llando 72 Bottom Left weheart.co.uk 141 Associated Press / Anon 72 Top Itetrekker via Flickr 144 Photo Courtesy of NN24 73 Itetrekker via Flickr 145 Photo Courtesy of NN24 76 Bestiario.org 147 Associated Press / Alastair Grant 78 Associated Press / Paul Sakuma 148 Nikkeionline.jp 80 Anthony Nelzin via Flickr 81 Anthony Nelzin via Flickr 82 Associated Press / Pavel Golovkin 83 Top www.russia-fires.ru 83 Left www.globalvoicesonline.org

IPI REPORT 151 Acknowledgements

his project would not have been possible without the enthusiasm, dedication and Tgenerosity of many people and we are grateful for their assistance. First of all we would like to thank all of the contributors who generously donated their time and expertise to write these articles for no payment, just a shared passion for jour- nalism and its future.

A special thanks to our partners at Poynter, Bill Mitchell and Julie Moos, whose infec- tious enthusiasm and hard work helped turn “Brave News Worlds” from a concept into a reality. And to IPI Conference Manager Michael Kudlak, who prepared the initial report concept and proved a calming influence during the project’s final days.

To Lindenau Productions and in particular, Peter Kitschmer, who tirelessly, patiently and meticulously laid out the report, and to Stefan Fuhrer who continues to support IPI, donating his time and creativity to the design of the report.

I would like to thank personally Louise Hallman for lending her support in search of pictures and painstaking final proofreading.

Thanks also to the Associated Press and numerous photographers on Flickr, both ama- teur and professional, for donating the use of their photos, and last but not least to the team of Druckerei Holzhausen for their all their help in printing the final report.

Lauren Dolezal Commissioning and Production Editor

152 IPI REPORT

Photo: Wien-Tourismus/Claudio Alessandri Vienna: Harmony of Old and New

One in two companies choosing a business location in Austria opts for Vienna. No wonder: international surveys confirm our city’s outstanding quality of life. The Austrian capital offers high technol- ogy and high culture, ample green space as well as safety and secu- rity in daily life. Combining this with the flair of a former imperial city, Vienna is a unique place to live and work — both comfortable and cosmopolitan. For more information, go to www.wien.at