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This story was taken from www.inq7.net
http://news.inq7.net/infotech/index.php?index=1&story_id=69930
iBlog, iPodcast: Citizen journalism using tech
First posted 06:21pm (Mla time) Mar 20, 2006
By Leo Magno
INQ7.net
| (Third of four parts) We have discussed why new media citizen journalists -- bloggers and podcasters in particular -- are getting influential, if we are to define influence as being noticed and listened to by government, mainstream media and the public. We have also discussed the pitfalls of referring to this trend as a new form of journalism. We have also heard from mainstream media and from new media publishers who, they said, do not even consider themselves journalists. Theoretically then, bloggers and podcasters should not be harassed or censored if they are seen merely as flies that refuse to go away. But why do charges of sedition and active censorship still occur? Why are blogs and podcasts being monitored by government? Why is there a seeming insecurity on the part of traditional media? Why should new media grassroots journalism be considered a threat? Blogs and podcasts are disruptive technologies. They arrive at the party, offer something new, start playing a new song and dance to a new beat, they tear the piñata down and before you know it the tables have been overturned and the party will never be the same again. That party is traditional media -- television, radio and print. Any new addition to a set with the potential to disrupt established norms would naturally be seen as a threat. Traditional media is pushed out of its comfort zone of having the final say on matters of news and opinion. Traditional media may even feel that with grassroots journalism they may become disenfranchised. Perhaps blogs, podcasts and new media in general are seen as threats because of changing information assimilation behaviors of the audience. As New York-based future media analyst and new media consultant Andrew Zolli said: "Why is newspaper readership declining? Why are people not going to movies? It's because people are making their own media, and the low cost of participation is allowing them to become co-equal participants. Do you think they need to ask permission from journalists?" This, Zolli said, is why initially there will be animosity between new media and old media. "What is changing for them and for journalists is that the line between being an editor and a writer is blurring," he said. "The bad thing about it is that it's becoming too politicized. A turf war is happening between traditional journalists and the new online journalists." "Fewer people are buying newspapers and watching TV, I am conscious of that fact. They're going somewhere else," said Joshua Gliddon, Australian reporter and blogger for The Bulletin, a weekly news magazine published in "I think us journalists have to address three things today," he said. "One is that we no longer set the agenda. Bloggers are setting the agenda. We're putting the reportage in the hands of the people. The scary part is that traditional media just don't get it despite the fact that the shift is happening and it's already here. "Two is that in the world of blogs and podcasts, people want to hear more human voices. They want to hear real voices. There's a lack of trust that's widening between the people and traditional media. "Three is that us journalists, if we're gonna adapt to this change, we need to be transparent. There is a lack of transparency and we need to admit our mistakes. If we don't, someone else online will point them out through their blogs, and those mistakes will remain forever." So here we are seeing a watchdog function for citizen journalists. Whereas the media used to have that sole function, citizens themselves are becoming watchdogs not just of government but of media as well. They are becoming watchdogs of the watchdogs. "Blogs and podcasts not only pull media consumers away from the traditional media, in some cases they are also rather critical of the traditional media," said Meinardus. "Slipping into the role of the watchdog of newspapers, radio programs and television, is just one of the innovations. I find even more important that blogs and podcasts target specific audiences the traditional media do not reach. They fill niches which the traditional media simply cannot deal with. The new term being used for this is 'narrowcasting' as opposed to 'broadcasting.'" "Blogging is a powerful tool of freedom of expression that has enthused millions of ordinary people," said Julien Pain, head of the Internet Freedom Desk of Reporters Without Borders. "Passive consumers of information have become energetic participants in a new kind of journalism -- what The programs of various organizations like the Committee to Protect Bloggers, the Reporters Without Borders and the Poynter Institute may stand witness to the growing influence of grassroots journalism and the effort of individual citizens to join the public sphere via new media. For instance, the Committee to Protect Bloggers has been acting as a clearing house for information on incarcerated members of the blogging community. In cooperation with the Committee to Protect Journalists, it is monitoring global free speech rights violations and is listing down the harassment of bloggers by authoritarian governments, whether or not they are journalists. The Reporters Without Borders is helping spread the word about expression suppression worldwide. It has set up a dedicated Internet Freedom Desk and is issuing a Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents to help the cause of free speech online. It has even institutionalized the "Freedom Blog Awards," which The Poynter Institute has actively been conducting trainings on how to incorporate new media channels like blogging and podcasting into the mainstream. The idea is to harness views from the grassroots and lift that up to mainstream media for a wider, more established audience base. Given that these journalists' organizations are now protecting new media expression, we are seeing the two worlds of grassroots expression and traditional media crossing paths. These organizations are giving due recognition to bloggers and podcasters. "I expect mainstream media to become more personal and less corporate in reaction to the blogging and podcasting trends," said Steve Outing, senior editor at the Poynter Institute. "Also, more professional journalists who blog for traditional media companies are being allowed to publish without pre-publication editing. So blogging and podcasting have loosened things up considerably already." So perhaps, instead of being seen as a threat, citizen journalists and grassroots journalism should be viewed as partners in elevating ideas to those who hold power. Perhaps this is precisely why people who hold power perceive citizen journalism as a threat. Could we be headed toward a combination of mainstream and grassroots media, or are the two irreconcilably different? Earlier, we heard bloggers and podcasters themselves declare that they are not journalists. However, we have also heard experts say that grassroots journalism enabled by technologies like blogging and podcasting should become or are already becoming part of mainstream media. Will journalists disappear? Where is all this headed? A 2005 Pew Internet report (http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/144/report_display.asp) shows that while 27 percent of Internet users read blogs, 62 percent didn't know what a blog was. And so blogging is moving into the daily part of online information gathering. Readers do not need to know whether it is a blog or not -- people just read them as they would any other source on the Web, without worrying about technical differences. With this in mind, do blogging and podcasting have a chance of becoming viable sources of information in the future? "Yes, but that's a qualified yes," said Outing of the Poynter Institute. "Within both blogging and podcasting are a wide range of users -- from professional journalists using those new media tools, all the way down to teenagers blogging and podcasting for fun. But in between, there definitely are some non-journalists who are doing high-quality work, and some of it is quite credible. So, for readers and listeners of blogs and podcasts, it takes some analysis to figure out if they're reading or listening to a credible source. With most (not all!) traditional media, you already have some assurance of credibility because of the existing brand name." The Friedrich Naumann Foundation's Meinardus, although a liberal thinker with his own podcast, prefers to tread with caution. "Media are instruments of communication for the information and entertainment of the people," he said. "In a democracy, they play a crucial role in controlling government. Their existence, and also their freedom, is essential for liberal societies. Blogs and podcasts are new -- almost revolutionary -- media. I call them do-it-yourself media. Everybody with just a little technical infrastructure, basically not more than a PC and an Internet connection, can be his or her own publisher. This is a fundamental democratization of the media. It abolishes the so-called gatekeepers. In the traditional media, the gatekeepers, basically the editors and publishers, control what is published and what is not. This is no longer the case today." This does not mean, however, that journalists will be replaced by bloggers and podcasters, as Meinardus explained: "Editors safeguard professional standards. Many blogs and podcasts lack journalistic professionalism. I assume it will not take long and the market will sort out the blogosphere. Only the good ones with a clear message and an acceptable standard of presentation will survive and compete with traditional media." Meinardus believes that traditional media will not disappear with the coming of newer forms of media. "This is not the first time that we've heard of the approaching demise of traditional media," he said. "On more than one occasion, newspapers, radio and television have proven capable of adapting and surviving." Curt Hopkins, director of the Committee to Protect Bloggers, shared the same thoughts. "Journalism is work," said Just because one has access to new media, said Nokia vice prsidenmt for multimedia Mauro Montanaro, it does not mean that the content will be better than the ones found in traditional media. "The problem is that as barriers to entry are getting lower and more people are becoming reporters, it doesn't mean that the content is getting better," he said. "That's why we still need the professionalism in there when people start becoming reporters and cameramen on their own." So traditional media has staying power and will not disappear because of the inherent shortcomings of new media, but perhaps the mainstream could also take some tips from new media on how to revitalize reporting. The strength of personal grassroots reports is that they offer views and perspectives that often differ from the tired, old and monolithic ways of TV, radio and newspaper reporting. The traditional view is that immediacy is the most important ingredient in the news reporting concoction -- whoever breaks the news first while retaining accuracy is the winner. But maybe people are looking for a different perspective aside from quick flash reports. "I think there's 'newsflash fatigue' in the world," said media analyst Tyler Brule in an interview with CNN. "There's been a slight loss of sense of urgency now. People want to see not just breaking news but also a view of what happened the whole day. People want perspective and that's provided by people in the places where the news happens, so we have blogs and podcasts from this country or that, to give a local flavor of what truly happened. And without this perspective in TV, we might see the death of the rolling 24-hour newsflash." These, according to Brule, are being done by new media and could be integrated into mainstream media to reinvigorate news reporting. "The challenge is rethinking the game," he said. "The rolling 24-hour news channels are not limited by technology. There's also a question of targeting, but the problem is pretty much everyone is chasing the same angle. The likes of Yahoo! and Google aggregate all of these points of view and analyses coming from blogs so they offer a better overall view beyond the newsflash." This kind of integration Brule referred to may already be happening as citizen journalism slowly becomes part of the mainstream. This would result in hybrid media that includes grassroots views aside from reports from traditional journalists. This may even be changing theories on communications flow altogether. "New types of media will soon emerge," said Pain of the Reporters Without Borders. "I believe in the collaboration between mainstream media and citizen journalists. So far they compete. I hope that in the future they'll be able to work together, each one doing what he does best. We're at the beginning of a revolution for mainstream media. They have to catch the train of citizen journalism, or they'll be in serious trouble." Asked if he thought that five years from now, blogs and podcasts would become part of mainstream media, Pain replied: "I hope so. But maybe in five years bloggers won't exist anymore. Blogs are just a form taken by citizen journalism at a certain point in time. Other forms of citizen journalism will probably emerge and overtake blogging and podcasting. That's what is so great with the Internet. It's evolving very fast." (To be concluded) |
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