Blogging, Journalism & Credibility
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BLOGGING, JOURNALISM & CREDIBILITY: Battleground and Common Ground A conference January 21-22, 2005 at Harvard University Sponsored by: The Berkman Center for Internet & Society (Harvard Law School) The Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics & Public Policy (Harvard Kennedy School of Government) and Office of Information Technology Policy, American Library Association. Report written and compiled by: Rebecca MacKinnon 1 Contents: 1. Executive Summary…………………………………………………………….. 3 2. The Idea…………………………………………………………………………. 6 3. The Blogosphere’s Reaction and Pre-Conference Debates………………….. 7 4. The Conference………………………………………………………………... 11 5. SESSION 1: Jay Rosen: “Bloggers vs. Journalists” is over……………….... 11 6. SESSION 2 (lunch): Judith Donath: Online social behavior and the implications for news………………………………………………………….. 19 7. SESSION 3: Bill Mitchell on the ethics of journalism and blogging………. 21 8. SESSION 4: Jeff Jarvis: The business model…………………………………25 9. SESSION 5 (dinner): David Weinberger speech……………………………..28 10. SESSION 6 (Saturday morning): Brendan Greeley: podcasting, credibility and non-text media……………………………………………………………..30 11. SESSION 7: Gillmor and Wales: Looking to the future……………………. 32 12. SESSION 8: Wrap-up………………………………………………………….38 13. SESSION 9: Open Session……………………………………………………. 40 14. Aftermath……………………………………………………………………….42 15. Final Feedback………………………………………………………………….46 16. Appendices a. Papers i. Rosen…………………………………………………………….49 ii. Mitchell & Steele………………………………………………..63 b. Schedule…………………………………………………………………82 c. List of Attendees………………………………………………………. 84 d. Useful links…………………………………..………………………… 96 2 Executive Summary "Blogging, Journalism, and Credibility: Battleground and Common Ground" was a conference held in late January at Harvard, at which a group of 50 journalists, bloggers, news executives, media scholars, and librarians sat down to try and make sense of the new emerging media environment. Since the conference, the resignation of CNN's Eason Jordan and the Jeff Gannon White House incident have shown how powerful weblogs can be as a new form of citizens' media. We are entering a new era in which professionals have lost control over information – not just the reporting of it, but also the framing of what's important for the public to know. To what extent have blogs chipped away at the credibility of mainstream media? Is credibility a zero-sum game – in which credibility gained by blogs is lost by mainstream media and vice versa? Conference participants believed the answer, ultimately, is no. Bloggers and professional journalists alike share a common goal: a better informed public and a stronger democracy. So now what? By the end of a day and a half of discussion, the following "take-aways" emerged: • The new emerging media ecosystem has room for citizens' media like blogs as well as professional news organizations. There will be tensions, but they'll complement and feed off each other, often working together. (See Session 1 and Jay Rosen's essay in Appendix A1) • The acts of "blogging" and "journalism" are different, although they do intersect. While some blogging is journalism, much of it isn’t and doesn’t aim to be. Both serve different and valuable functions within the new evolving media ecosystem. (This theme recurred and was reinforced in all sessions.) • Ethics and credibility are key, but extremely hard to define. There are no clear answers about how credibility is won, lost, or retained – for mainstream media or bloggers. It's impossible and undesirable for anybody to set "ethical standards" for bloggers, but it's also clear that certain principles will make a blogger or journalist more likely to achieve high credibility. Transparency is key but isn't enough. Credibility also depends on a relationship of trust that is cultivated between the media organization or blog and the people it aims to serve. (See Session 3 and Bill Mitchell's paper in Appendix A2) • Many media organizations now see blogging – or the use of some form of participatory citizens’ media – as a way to build loyalty, trust, and preserve credibility. They are still experimenting with ways to do that. Examples include: o Relationships between local newspapers and local blogger communities One example is the close relationship between the Greensboro News & Record and community blogging site, "Greensboro 101" (See Session 1) 3 o News organizations such as MSNBC are starting their own blogs within their own websites, some written by their own journalists and some by guest bloggers. (See sessions 3 and 4) o Some news organizations such as Minnesota Public Radio are working to build databases and communication systems in order to tap the expertise of audience members who do not blog, but who would like to help with stories. • New experiments in citizens' journalism are emerging. They include: o Wikinews: an all-volunteer, distributed effort to build a new site. (See Session 7) o Dan Gillmor's grassroots journalism project: an effort – still under development – to harness the best of citizens' efforts with quality editing and reporting by experienced journalists. (See Session 7) o Jeff Jarvis' hyper-local citizens' media project: a news project that uses weblogs to target very specific local niche audiences. (See Session 4) • Opening up online archives of news stories for free public access may make business sense in addition to bolstering credibility and audience loyalty. Right now, most newspapers and news agencies only make their content free on the web for a couple of weeks, and then it goes behind a paid firewall, lost to bloggers for linking. The predominant view at the conference was that by making archived content free, not only will news companies provide a tremendous social benefit and thus gain credibility, but the traffic they will receive through links to their archived material – and the ability to place advertising on that content – will likely make up for the lost archive access fees. (See Sessions 4, 7, and 8) A number of questions remained unanswered, including: • Are blogs (or wikis) the best way to distill and help people make sense of the grassroots conversation bubbling up or do we need to create new and better tools? • What will the new business model be? Nobody knows yet. It's likely to emerge organically by media path breakers. • How can we make the conversation more inclusive of socioeconomic groups that are not currently involved in blogging, have little internet access, or whose lives do not involve much internet use? • How much of this conversation is relevant only to the US, and how much is relevant to the entire world? 4 Final conclusion: Strengthening the public discourse, and strengthening democracy, is indeed the common ground shared by professional journalists, bloggers, wikipedians and others involved in the creation of grassroots media. The conference established two important things: 1) that this common ground does indeed exist, and 2) that all are eager to work together. The goal is to create a better society and better means of giving citizens both the information they need and the forums of discourse required to hold their leaders truly accountable. Now we need to figure out how to achieve that goal. This conference has helped point us in the right direction, but the journey has only just begun. Please check the conference weblog at: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/webcred for more materials and updates. 5 The Idea “Blogging, Journalism and Credibility: Battleground and Common Ground” was organized jointly by the Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and the American Library Association’s Office of Information Technology Policy.1 Alex Jones wrote in the invitation letter to attendees: Our shared motivation for convening such a conference is our conviction that the world of journalism is being transformed by blogging, and that - similarly - the blogosphere is evolving and being transformed in the process. There can be no question that the phenomenon of blogging, especially blogs focused on politics and public affairs, has changed the way information becomes front page news.” The examples of Trent Lott, the Swiftboat allegations and the disputed CBS documents come immediately to mind. In each of these cases, bloggers shaped the news, and the influence of blogging will only increase. To both journalism and blogging, credibility is essential. What are the areas of common ground shared by these very different approaches to handling news and information? Can journalists who also blog do their work without conflicting standards? Might bloggers adopt standards and a transparency that will elevate their credibility? Our purpose is to bring together a small group of smart and thoughtful people to ponder these and other related issues, which will result in a published report and - we hope - will mark the beginning of an on-going and very important dialogue. A group of 50 people were invited. Organizers strove for a mix of professional journalists and editors, bloggers whose work has had an impact on news events, journalists who also blog, academics who study the media, heads of organizations dedicated to watchdogging or improving American journalism, and several others whose perspectives we thought would be valuable. We also felt strongly that with many bloggers participating, the conference proceedings should be made fully public via live audio webcast, with a live online