Hey News, I’m Internet
I'm Like a Bird
December 6th, 2009
By Ross Hernandez
On Nov. 17th, MPR aired “The Future of Journalism,” a program that hoped to discuss concepts of media both new and old while exploring the possibilities of the future. Host Carrie Miller’s main question for the hour was “How will investigative journalism look in the future?” Miller’s question was directed at guests Tom Rosensteil from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism and Evan Smith of the Texas Tribune. Both guests’ stable positions in the media make their viewpoints less likely to be skewed by the need for survival or the threat of their business being made irrelevant.
Smith posits that the role of the journalist is moving farther away from the old metaphor of “gatekeeper” to the “keeper of the aviary.” What he means is that imminence of social media in today’s journalism media has made “tweeting” and forwarding top stories on social media like Facebook the primary means of news consumption.
“Custom news landscapes” is a concept the program attempts to describe without presenting biased paranoid implications. Of course today everyone has the capability to decide what he or she would like to consume in the news. Newspapers worked the same way. With digital media there is simply more information to comb through, which allows people to “hunt and gather” as Rosenstiel claims. This hunter/gatherer concept of news has made news organizations more specialized, as speculated by Smith who, despite his proximity to the recent Fort Hood shooting, decided not to send a single reporter. Instead he aggregated the breaking news as he always does on his site from CNN. Smith stood firm with his stance as a “Politics and Issues” newspaper, as he defined the Texas Tribune, and stood out of the way of the big news organizations who would undoubtedly have the means to cover the story in a more thorough way.
The concept of “custom news” is also furthering the importance of individual journalists, who have taken an absurd role as living movable monuments in the media today. Just watch the TV coverage of the 20-year anniversary of unified Germany. The anniversary and celebration was not news enough by itself, so I watched Tom Brokaw stand split screen with himself 20 years ago, while both of them talked simultaneously in the present and past tenses. Which was more important, the end of an awful era in German history or the fact that Brokaw was there to break the news? NBC had 20 years to think about it, and they sided with Brokaw. Is this the result of blog culture? The result of “personalized content?”
The problem with personalized news was addressed by a 25-year-old caller who speculated that a lot of people her age ignore the news because it is “too negative.” This begs the question—what is on this type of person’s “personalized newspaper”? Is the digital news world enabling people who are addicted to avoidance? Conceivably I could create a page of news that specializes in golden retriever puppy and duckling love and be the world’s preeminent expert on soft news. Since the “news landscape” is now customizable, points of view will become much more static while they are reinforced daily by the assurances of custom news stories we choose to read.
No longer can people assume that I’m informed enough to get into an intelligent conversation about the alleged Ampatuan clan massacre of government officials in the Philippines. Instead they’ll have to subscribe to my Twitter page and discover that I’m more interested in how Lou Dobbs is trying to reconcile with Latinos in order to allegedly run for president. And we’ll discuss the allegations, just like the good old days in our little aviary.
Everyone on “The Future of News” agrees that journalism has to change in order to accommodate a new culture with new demands on the industry. I would take this fact further and argue that the necessity of being an informed (albeit bummed out) citizen is now our responsibility, which is exciting. For us normal, concerned, and empathetic human beings the proactive nature of digital news’ “hunting and gathering” gives us the opportunity to explore different points of view that wouldn’t have permeated the editorial or even letters to the editor columns in newspapers.
Comments & Discussion
Traditional journalism is disappearing in the mainstream media. It takes the blogosphere to report on such things as the ACORN scandal. While traditional media is reporting on american singles dating.
@Tom
The problem with that is the blogosphere is full of a lot of rubbish. Without certain credentials, how can you possibly tell the validity of the information?
Even larger blogs and websites have been caught spouting utter lies.
Great post! Happy New Year. 2010 is looking great.
The news industry as we’ve known it up until now has been responsible for training up and allowing journalists to gain experience and expertise.
Without the news network pillar as a filter how will journalists pay their dues?
I am thrilled with the internet and the freedoms of expression it brings. But, as we all know, not all that’s posted can be believed or relied on.
We want professionals researching, traveling to cover events, writing the truth and keeping us updated.
Perhaps journalists can take a more entrepreneurial approach and make their way like any business person worth their salt rather than pony up for a job with a news organization that has seen better days.
Each journalist taking responsibility for their rhetoric and expressing freely might be the answer.
Might drive down advertising costs and get some real diverse communication going on.
Margaret
This is a very interesting topic because
it is hard for me to grasp the very concept
and I know it is very important to my success
My daughter graduated from the Medill School of Journalism two years ago. I had high hopes for her but she’s had a very difficult time writing the way that she believes is holding true to the great traditions of journalism. It seems today that so many reporters and writers are directed by forces with ideological agendas that sway the tenor of the reports.
I don’t think the main stream media is really doing trustworthy investigative reporting anymore. It seems the bloggers and new media journalists are the people breaking stories today.
All you need is a good BS detector and you’re in business.
You are right and i think people are just starting to realize that the responsibility is shifting onto them as individuals.
Community organizations are growing in importance in positive change.
One way journalism is changing is with the use of twitter. So many journalists are on their looking for breaking stories.
I have just watched many great documentaries about politics and it is so bad that politics now dictates what people see on the news or newspapers. I prefer now independent news site on the internet and use my brain to my own conclusions…
Very Nice Post! Thanks a lot for posting. Keep on going.