Reactions to story from Guardian

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  Rules for journalists/bloggers/witnesses? A Guardian debate

  http://www.buzzmachine.com/2008/04/24/guardian-debate-rules-...
  222 days ago in BuzzMachine · Authority: 2,412

  Heres a debate that just went up at CommentIsFree (please go comment there; the discussions already underway): me vs. Michael Tomasky, the Guardians man in Washington, over whether, as he has said, bloggers should operate under the rules of journalism..
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  {responsabilidade do cidadão-repórter}

  http://revistaemfoco.wordpress.com/2008/07/05/responsabilida...
  151 days ago in · No authority yet

  ESSE POST É APENAS UMA “SIMULAÇÃO”. Não se trata de plágio, cópia ou coisa parecida. É apenas para marcar o espaço do texto do blog com algum conteúdo (retirado do www.derepente.com.br) “O The Guardian, importante veículo de comunicação do Reino Unido, abre uma boa discussão envolvendo cidadãos-repórteres: eles devem ter responsabilidades de jornalistas ou assumirem mesmo os direitos de cada cidadão? Primeiro, algumas ressalvas. Jornalistas-cidadãos (sic, na minha opinião) é uma das piores denominações já vistas. Jornalista agrega muitas coisas, funções, é muito abrangente. O termo deve ser mesmo cidadão-repórter, pois repórter agrega apuração, interpretação dos fatos. É um serviço específico do jornalismo. Segmentado. Voltando à questão: A idéia é sensacional. Sinceramente nunca pensei em uma pergunta que sintetize tanto o Jornalismo Colaborativo. Cidadãos-repórteres devem, antes de tudo, fugir do lugar-comum. Nada de copiar/cozinhar matérias de mídias consideradas tradicionais. O objetivo é inovar, transcender. Ninguém melhor que você sabe da sua rua, do seu bairro, da sua região. Ele deve ter, sim, responsabilidades jornalísticas. Pelo menos algumas. Saber apurar, informar, investigar. Todos ingredientes necessários para usar a mídia como prestação de serviço. Concomitantemente, terá a responsabilidade de um jornalista e, claro, exercerá o direito de cidadão.”
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  SPOTLIGHT – CROWDSOURCING

  http://jpdigitaldigest.blogspot.com/2008/05/spotlight-crowds...
  214 days ago in JP Digital Digest · Authority: 7

  “The failure of one citizen journalism Web business after another this year ought to be showing news publishers that a business model based on readers doing reporters’ jobs for free isn’t working.” This view was put forward by Online Journalism Review (OJR) at the end of last year in its list of five lessons to be learned from 2007. OJR declared that the future of citizen reporting lies not with traditional journalism formats, but instead with “crowdsourcing techniques”. More recently, “Long Tail” author Chris Anderson says news providers should harness the collective power of their “engaged, smart, informed, opinionated readers” in order to succeed in the digital age. But how exactly can this be done? Is anyone already doing it? And what exactly are crowdsourcing techniques? These are the questions to be addressed in this fortnight’s SPOTLIGHT post, and we’ll begin by taking a look at some definitions of crowdsourcing. “The Rise of Crowdsourcing” Jeff Howe is often credited with coining the term “crowdsourcing” in a Wired article of June 2006, entitled “The Rise of Crowdsourcing”. Since then, Howe has produced two definitions for the term, which are worth quoting here in full: “The White Paper Version: Crowdsourcing is the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call. “The Soundbyte Version: The application of Open Source principles to fields outside of software.” So crowdsourcing involves utilising the talents of a big group of people to collaborate openly together to produce a large-scale end product. Apply this specifically to a journalistic context, and the definition according to Poynter becomes: “Crowdsourcing is taking a task traditionally accomplished by a professional journalist and includes outsourcing to a large group through an open call. “Members of the public might be asked to gather information, use their expertise to examine documents, or participate in other ways.” So one could say there is a spectrum of crowdsourcing techniques: At one end, users could be asked to perform small simple tasks such as reading papers, and at the other end the public could be researching and writing traditional journalism articles. What unites these different types of projects though is the underlying assumption that the efforts of many non-specialists can prove more effective than those of an informed individual. Or as Dan Gillmor neatly sums it up for all journalists: “my readers know more than I do”. Definitions It should just be mentioned here that crowdsourcing is by no means a fixed definition and there are several other terms which are used interchangeably with it by some writers and practitioners. Examples include pro-am journalism, which emphasises the collaboration aspect between users and professionals, and open-source journalism to stress transparency and freedom. For the purposes of clarity, this post will adhere to the term crowdsourcing but will offer in its further reading section links to resources for anyone interested in knowing more about this aspect. The Spectrum As we’ve seen from Poynter’s definition, crowdsourcing can involve varying degrees of involvement from its amateur participants. So the examples we’re going to look at will follow the pattern of this spectrum, starting with projects which require the least active engagement from readers. We’ll then move on to examples where users and journalists are equally involved and also see some crowdsourcing multimedia techniques. Finally, we’ll arrive at the opposite end of the spectrum where it’s the public which sets the agenda and produces fully-formed journalism pieces. Lend Us Your Eyes At its simplest level, news groups are deploying crowdsourcing techniques to help them quickly evaluate masses of data. In essence this involves journalists obtaining reports, facts and figures, making these available to people and enlisting their help in reading them. An excellent example of this at a local level comes from the Washington Examiner, which has established its own Community Action Network (WECAN). Journalists have made databases available online and asked users to have a look through and report anything of interest. Editorial Page Editor Mark Tapscott reveals that the network made public a database containing details of education sector workers’ compensation pay schemes and subsequently received numerous leads from readers. Tapscott says the project “illustrates how the internet encourages an innovative partnering of media with the region’s residents and civic groups in expanding the resources available for independent analyses of local and regional public services”. Similarly, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle has opened a RocDocs section on its website where visitors are encouraged to examine databases containing information on local issues such as business, education and property. Both these examples are permanent online fixtures, but the crowd can also be called upon to help with one-off reading projects too. For instance, the Dallas Morning News recently got its hands on copies of numerous reports relating to the assassination of US president John F Kennedy which were found in a district attorney’s safe. The scanned and uploaded documents are now online and visitors are busy reading through and alerting Morning News journalists to anything of potential interest. And attracting the help of willing readers has also been used at a national level too, most notably in the US by independent website Talking Points Memo (TPM). The site’s Muckraker blog enlisted the help of users to read through some 3,000 pages of a government document relating to the dismissals of attorneys nationwide. Volunteers posted summaries of the sections they had read and also helped TPM gain a national perspective on the situation by submitting any extra information they had about attorneys in their area. And the Guardian has shown how readers can be found to help with stories of an international significance too. The newspaper has an online section devoted to its investigations into the sales of arms to Saudi Arabia. According to UK journalism expert Charlie Beckett, the data made available on The BAe Files site has “encouraged a network of amateur and professional investigative journalists around the world to add to the digging”. Data Collection Getting users to spare a bit of time at their desks to read a few government papers is one thing, but how about enlisting their help in the field? Well, a significant number of news groups have persuaded the audience to get out and about collecting facts and figures in order to create some rather impressive databases. “Are you being gouged?” was the dramatic title for a New York radio station’s crowdsourcing project, which asked listeners to help find out the cheapest and priciest shops for certain foodstuffs. While last November, Press Gazette reported that the Shropshire Star was asking its readers to provide details of local fuel prices. As seen above, New York’s WNYC station is a keen advocate of crowdsourcing and it also enlisted the help of the public in finding out how many gas-guzzling vehicles are on its streets. Such projects not only provide databases, they can prompt leads to news articles for both print and online newspapers. This is exactly what happened last year when the Liverpool Daily Post appealed for any information about budget airline safety issues and ended up with a splash on the subject. Leading the way with these crowdsourcing investigations in the US is publisher Gannett, which has restructured its newsrooms to better suit this way of interactive working. The company’s biggest success so far has been the Fort Myers News-Press’s investigations into a utility pipeline scheme, which received over 6,500 posts from local residents. Crowdsourcing The Multimedia Way So far we have looked at text and database content produced from crowdsourcing initiatives, but there are plenty of other tools which can reinforce the impact of a story. Independent media site ePluribus Media has used a timeline to present information submitted by residents about the events in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Mapping technology has also proved a useful tool in presenting crowdsourced information. For instance, the Cincinnati Enquirer asked users to report any problems with their polling stations during an election in 2006 and mapped the resulting information. Elections are fertile ground for crowdsourcing techniques and the New York Times is currently managing a project harnessing the photographic talents of its readers. The NYT says its Polling Place Photo Project enables the public to document local voting experiences and to “contribute to an archive of photographs that captures the richness and complexity of voting in America”. Journey’s End? As we draw nearer the opposite end of the crowdsourcing spectrum, we’re going to take a brief look at some of the big projects – both current and planned – which require a little more from their volunteers. Wired For Crowds? Assignment Zero was a joint project between Wired magazine and Jay Rosen’s New Assignment.net. The idea was to crowdsource a trend rather than an event, and they chose for their subject...crowdsourcing! Jeff Howe explains the project’s objectives: “Have a crowd of volunteers write the definitive report on how crowds of volunteers are upending established businesses, from software to encyclopedias and beyond.” The project accumulated a mass of narrative pieces, essays and interviews, and key players Rosen and Howe produced a couple of interesting articles discussing the successes and failures of the experiment. Crowd The Campaign Trail OffTheBus is another collaboration project from NewAssignment.net, this time with the Huffington Post website. The plan is to provide “ground level coverage of campaign 08,” and some 1,800 unpaid volunteers are supplying articles, audio clips, video content, blog posts and other information to the site. Its official wiki says the aim is to provide people with an idea of what’s really going on during the presidential nomination campaigns. And it’s already scored its first controversy after a volunteer publicly disclosed comments made by Democratic hopeful Barack Obama during a political fundraising event. The posting has prompted debates on the ethics of citizen reporting, with well known figures such as Jeff Jarvis and Michael Tomasky joining the discussion. Crowd Control We reach the end of the crowdsourcing spectrum with a proposal from UK online journalism lecturer and blogger Paul Bradshaw. Bradshaw’s Citizen Investigation plans, which have been shortlisted for Knight News Challenge funding, would see the crowd not only research and write the story, it would also see them decide the story to be covered in the first instance. Through a voting system, a large group of people would therefore be able to set the agenda and decide for themselves the issues they would want to work on. Resources / Further Reading Anyone interested in the history and development of crowdsourcing may want to take a look at James Surowiecki’s “The Wisdom of Crowds”, which discusses the advantages of using aggregated information from a mass group. Jeff Jarvis’s blog post about networked journalism is also worth a read, as is the blog from last year’s Networked Journalism summit. While an invaluable resource for those who want to know the origins of the term is Jeff Howe’s blog dedicated to all crowdsourcing matters. Meanwhile, the results from the Assignment Zero project about crowdsourcing contain some valuable essays about its development. Among the 12 reprinted by Wired are “Creative Crowdwriting: The Open Book”, “What Does Crowdsourcing Really Mean”, and “Open-Source Journalism: It’s A Lot Tougher Than You Think”. Practical Guides For journalists interested in the nuts and bolts of crowdsourcing, OJR has a useful guide. And American Journalism Review has a good article entitled “Crowded House” which has more examples of putting crowdsourcing ideas into practice. While an online publisher from the Spokesman-Review has provided his top tips on putting together a network of engaged readers to help with stories. Finally, OJR is currently asking journalists to give details of any good crowdsourcing projects dotting the landscape. Conclusion So that’s it for this fortnight’s SPOTLIGHT, we hope it’s been useful and, as always, please get in touch if you have any crowdsourcing examples you’d like to share. And we’ll leave the last words on the subject to the man who coined the term, Jeff Howe, who reminds all journalists: “One thing any volunteer project must inspire - be it citizen journalism, an open-source programming project or simply an AIDS drive - is passion.”
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  Cidadãos-jornalistas?

  http://infoinclusoes.blogspot.com/2008/05/cidados-jornalista...
  216 days ago in INFOINCLUSÕES - contributos para uma literacia mediática · Authority: 3

  Vai por aqui uma grande discussão sobre os chamados "cidadãos-jornalistas". Eu limito-me a perguntar: e os jornalistas não são cidadãos?
• 

  Links - 31st April 2008

  http://curiouslypersistent.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/links-31...
  216 days ago in Curiously Persistent · Authority: 14

  Quite a lot of links this week (I had a quiet weekend) but the highest quality update so far. Some really excellent articles in here - well worth a bookmark! Blog-related: Clay Shirkey’s widely blogged-about speech on social surplus NB: I have left comments on several blogs about this. I agree with his underlying point - there is a social surplus and creating great things like Wikipedia take up relatively small chunks. But social surplus is something that I think we are running short of already, and there does need to be a balance between active and passive entertainment. TV and gin are friends, not the enemy! A great, thought-provoking speech though - required reading for those yet to see it How Newton’s law works with brands (David E Bowman) NB: I love this theory encapsulating mass and proximity - simple and beautiful The full Heroes media experience (Fast Company) NB: When the makers of Heroes say there is a 360 experience, they aren’t kidding. Transmedia in all its glory How can we measure innovation? (Freakonomics) Pre-experience design (Russell Davies) NB: Extremely thoughtful post on the importance of the entire brand experience - the product as the service and so forth And Russell Davies again on the importance of design in advertising NB: I love the phrase Beating people over the head with crap is less and less viable. That will make for a smaller industry but hopefully a better one. Nigel Hollis and Hayes Roth answer questions on branding (Financial Times) Shops should pay more attention to the fitting rooms (New Statesman) NB: Another example of customer service being overlooked Thoughtful piece on Yahoo! becoming more open (Groundswell) Excellent, mind-bending essay on Schrodinger’s puzzle and the ever-changing digital sphere (Zero Influence) Record labels want a music tax - and it could work (Slate) NB: Though this would be the “thin end of the wedge”, to use a phrase I have heard a lot recently (after having never heard it before) Bertlesmann succeeding where others are failing (CNN) Wieden+Kennedy’s philosophy in illustrated format Does the new Cadbury advert show that creatives cannot direct? (Brand Republic) There are now more and more writers but less and less readers (New York Times) NB: This parallels (although direct causation may be tenuous) rising levels of content creation and interaction at the expense of passive consumption online White paper on content marketing strategies (Junta 42) On a similar theme, attention-deficit advertising (Business Week) NB: Linking on from the product as a service to the advertising as a service. If a company can provide something useful and brand it, it is win-win. Research shows people are willing to accept advertising if they are opting in to receive something useful A Miller sponsored blog is causing Budweiser’s ire (Wall Street Journal) NB: All is fair and love and business, but I personally find this a bit low and unnecessary Jeff Jarvis vs. Michael Tomasky on citizen journalism (Comment Is Free) Mechanisms for brand marketing integration (Branding Strategy Insider) Were Mesopotamians the first brand addicts? (New Scientist) Wiley have put a load of science books online for free perusal ebay fraud (The Register) 17 creativity-sparking websites (Lifedev) P&G are allowing their (potential) consumers a say in where they advertise NB: I don’t see the benefit of this - which niche but mobilised group can shout loudest? 10 worst job interview questions (Business Pundit) Starbucks coffee at home NB: Brilliant new website, again linking back to providing something useful for consumers. Apparently, the Africa Fatula is the coffee blend for me Random World’s biggest useless things NB: This really struck a chord with me. One that I can’t really describe. Both melancholic and uplifting. How something essentially meaningless can reward people with pride and achievement. An analogy to blogging?? How to touch up pictures (Wired) Fascinating blog of a person who is spending 12 months learning where all of his food came from, and how it is produced 7 sandwiches trying to make it in New York (New York Times) Free Tibet flags are being made in China (BBC) Did this man live to the age of 256? (Wikipedia) Extremely intricate Lego creations (otbeach) Many graphs showing the frequency in spam over time (xtdnet) Supermemo - the memory-improving tool recently featured in Wired Ways to trick out your desktop (Lifehacker) Guerrilla gardeners (Guardian) 15 great Kurt Vonnegut quotes (AV Club) Microsoft create an armband to control our fingers (New Scientist) Profile on Christopher Hitchens (Prospect) The “Amen break” drumbeat and the golden ratio (Constructing the Universe) Is anti-virus software overrated? (Lifehacker) NB: I had a tremendous amount of hassle trying (and failing) to change virus-scan software last year. Seems anti-virus companies are monotheistic Among these excellent posts and articles, those I would recommend most highly are: Blog-related: Clay Shirkey’s widely blogged-about speech on social surplus, How Newton’s law works with brands, Pre-experience design, White paper on content marketing strategies, Wieden+Kennedy’s philosophy in illustrated format and Starbucks coffee at home Random: World’s biggest useless things, Guerrilla gardeners, 15 great Kurt Vonnegut quotes and The “Amen break” drumbeat and the golden ratio Phew! sk
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  When everyone is a reporter - even donors

  http://bentekalsnes.wordpress.com/2008/04/30/when-everyone-i...
  216 days ago in Bente Kalsnes' blog · Authority: 24

  If your interested in journalism, citizen journalism and the future of media, here is an article you have to read (via eJour). Blogger and professor in Journalism, Jeff Jarvis and Michael Tomasky, Guardian’s USA editor, “clash” in this piece on the topic of citizen journalism/bloggers and what to expect from the new reporters. The backdrop for this discourse was the famous report from a citizen reporter and Barack Obama supporter Mayhill Fowler earlier this month when Obama described rural, white voters as “bitter” (I wrote about it here). Tomasky has argued that Fowler’s reporting raised serious ethical questions and argued that blogging, like journalism, needed rules. Jarvis, on the other hand, has stated that openness, not rules, is needed in the era of the internet. I have to admit I’m on the Jarvis side in this discussion, and think it is interesting to read how he is dealing with this new openness or challenge of disclosure: “I reveal my politics on my blog’s disclosure page, including my vote for Hillary Clinton in the primaries. I’ve blogged my expectation to see similar behaviour from bloggers and journalists alike. I went so far as to ask my readers recently whether, having revealed my preferences anyway, I should put my money where my mouth is and donate to Clinton’s campaign. Their view (like mine) was mixed. But it’s worth asking: if I’m going to be a citizen journalist, shouldn’t I act like a citizen?” Here is why he supported the reporting from the donor’s event: “I think we should be applauding and supporting Mayhill Fowler. Her reporting of Obama’s “bitter” remarks - in spite of her support of his candidacy - is an impressive act of intellectual honesty. She knew those remarks would be newsworthy. She knew they could hurt him. But she opted for openness, directly to the public, around campaign spin as well as press filters: the witness reports. I’d say she showed veteran journalists how to operate under new rules of her own that, in this case, were superior to the old rules of conspiratorial secrecy.” Another interesting question that comes out of this digital conversation at Guardian’s nice concept, Comment is free, is the fact that Fowler paid to get into the event, she was a Obama donor. In other words, she got an access other journalists didn’t have. And still, she reported on what she saw and heard. Do you see a problem with that?
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  Citizen Journalists and Responsibility

  http://www.conversationagent.com/2008/04/citizen-journal.htm...
  219 days ago in Conversation Agent · Authority: 1

  "Having a platform means that you have some responsibilities, and responsibilities are the opposite of rights." [Michael Tomasky, Editor, Guardian America] Jeff Jarvis and Michael Tomansky recently debated whether the Internet's new breed of citizen journalists should have the responsibilities of journalists or the rights of citizens. [hat tip to Robin Hamman] Jay Rosen himself participates to the conversation. I think this kind of debate is good to have to promote awareness of the issues and potential conflicts of interest we may bump into. More and more we find our roles overlap - blogger, employee, stockholder, customer, etc. Do the rules of engagement overlap? Where do we stand on ethics and responsibility? My hunch is that at this stage it is a personal question we ask ourselves. Certainly there are always consequences to how we answer it. Let's start with a definition of citizen journalist. Directly from Wikipedia: Citizen journalism, also known as public or participatory journalism, is the act of citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information," according to the seminal report We Media: How Audiences are Shaping the Future of News and Information, by Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis. They say, "The intent of this participation is to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires." Does citizen journalist equal blogger? In some instances it might. We call people who help spread the word on companies and their products Citizen Marketers and we call people who help disseminate and discuss the news Citizen Journalists. In both cases, people are the message. Here's what happens when we are the message, though - it is up to you to figure out where your responsibility falls. As Andrew Tyndall says in the comments to Jarvis' post: In an instance when one is invited to listen to something that is private and is told that it is so, surely one is bound not to repeat it, however newsworthy it might happen to be, and being a journalist — or calling oneself a journalist — is no license to violate that understanding and make such speech public. That point does not fall under “rules for bloggers.” It falls under rules for human beings. Agree/disagree? Why?
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  Brauchen Bürgerjournalisten Regeln?

  http://www.berliner-journalisten.com/blog/?p=293
  218 days ago in Berliner Journalisten - unabhängiges Medienmagazin · Authority: 4

  Brauchen Bürgerjournalisten Regeln? 29. April 2008 Der britische Guardian dokumentiert eine Diskussion zwischen einem Befürworter und einem Gegner der Reglementierung: Take Two Jeff Jarvis vs. Michael Thomasky Guardian, 24. April 2008  Editor’s note: Earlier this month Barack Obama’s election campaign was shaken by a report that Obama had described rural, white voters as “bitter”. The news was broken by a “citizen journalist”, Mayhill Fowler, and was carried on the Huffington Post’s politics blog, Off The Bus. Last week Guardian America editor Michael Tomasky argued on Cif that Fowler’s reporting raised serious ethical questions and argued that blogging, like journalism, needed rules. Cif commentator Jeff Jarvis responded on his blog Buzzmachine that openness, not rules, was demanded in the era of the internet. The answer? Bring the two men together to thrash it out, right here. weiter… Kategorie Medien | 0 Kommentare »
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  Responsabilidades do cidadão-repórter

  http://derepente.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/responsabilidades-...
  218 days ago in De Repente · Authority: 12

  Jornal inglês solta uma discussão interessante envolvendo a Colaboração O The Guardian, importante veículo de comunicação do Reino Unido, abre uma boa discussão envolvendo cidadãos-repórteres: eles devem ter responsabilidades de jornalistas ou assumirem mesmo os direitos de cada cidadão? Primeiro, algumas ressalvas. Jornalistas-cidadãos (sic, na minha opinião) é uma das piores denominações já vistas. Jornalista agrega muitas coisas, funções, é muito abrangente. O termo deve ser mesmo cidadão-repórter, pois repórter agrega apuração, interpretação dos fatos. É um serviço específico do jornalismo. Segmentado. Voltando à questão: A idéia é sensacional. Sinceramente nunca pensei em uma pergunta que sintetize tanto o Jornalismo Colaborativo. Cidadãos-repórteres devem, antes de tudo, fugir do lugar-comum. Nada de copiar/cozinhar matérias de mídias consideradas tradicionais. O objetivo é inovar, transcender. Ninguém melhor que você sabe da sua rua, do seu bairro, da sua região. Ele deve ter, sim, responsabilidades jornalísticas. Pelo menos algumas. Saber apurar, informar, investigar. Todos ingredientes necessários para usar a mídia como prestação de serviço. Concomitantemente, terá a responsabilidade de um jornalista e, claro, exercerá o direito de cidadão. Foto do Brian.

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