:: Future of Journalism

Trust - Citizen Journalists A Cure and Catalyst For Transforming Media?

Generation-Z or Gen-Z are formed by people who have internet-enabled technologies fully diffused into their education and life. They are people who "are the news, create the news, consume the news, and provide the news".

What's trust in the context of Gen-Z? How do they experience media today?

In the opinion of John Savageau, media outlets have changed substantially, "moving from being a 5WH (who, why, what, when, where, how) style of reporting to networks such as Fox, openly stating they present a 'conservative' point of view (Huckabee, Hannity, Beck, etc)". Consequence? - "viewers who prefer a certain point of view will be presented with interpretation of news events which support their beliefs."

Can we trust citizen journalists more than professional journalists today?

(Source: Wireless.com) Citizen Journalism as a Catalyst for Transforming Media — Another incident on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) hits YouTube, and the world is once again asking the question if BART Police are using too much force, the police acted appropriately, or if BART passengers simply recorded a snapshot in time that could be interpreted at a later date. In the recent past, to find out what happened during an incident such as the most recent BART scuffle, you would be dependent on a newspaper’s beat journalist to hang around a police station. He’d get a copy of the official police report, perhaps talk with one of his friends on the force, and transcribe what he gathered.

I still believe that citizen journalists will add substantial value in the news production process. Anyone can become a news source and citizen journalists might contribute to keep society informed. But still there is a trust issue to be solved, because as long as a source can't be identified as trustworthy we need to carefully evaluate what has been said and written. Currently there is no technological solution for that challenge, but it will evolve with news3.0, the next level of journalism. Believe me!

More literature:
Walliker, Annaliese (2008).  Generation Z comes of age. http://heraldsun.com.au
Tapscott, Don (2008). Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World. McGraw-Hill. pp. 15-16. ISBN 9780071508636.
Huffington Post: Citizen Journalism (Editorial) Standards.

Phlogging - What's Next After Blogging: Journalism On the Move

Broadcasting, lifecasting, mindcasting, ... . While this world is more and more on the move, journalists will now phonecast news to the world . One of the startups currently supporting mobile journalism is ipadio.com. The software solution, a pending patent, allows journalists to broadcast from any phone (iPhone, Android, ...) in realtime. It syndicates content with social media and blogging platforms ... Shall we better call them "phlogging" (phone + blogging) platforms now?

Kevin Sites - Journalism Without Censorship P6RKWSRKUKTK

Kevin Sites is an investigative journalist. He's best known as a pioneer of solo war blogging. "Solo war blogging"? - That means, that he uses writing, photography and video to report his stories from some of the most dangerous spots on Earth.

2004 his camera caught a soldier killing a wounded Iraqi in a mosque in Falluja, Iraq. In fact this kind of footage was not his job but earned him accolades from the left ... death threats from the right. While war reporting is always difficult especially with respect to objectivity, he was called "unpatriotic" and "un-American." But he says that as a journalist, "ultimately your loyalty has to be to the truth.":

"The blog gave me a voice to directly clarify what I had seen and videotaped; my account didn't have to be filtered through someone else's writing or perspective. I was able to take responsibility for my actions while providing background that helped people achieve a fuller understanding."

Wired.com: Interview with Kevin Sites -
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.03/rave.html?pg=8

Kevin Sites is hosted on Hot Zones (Yahoo): http://news.yahoo.com/top-stories/hot-zone

Why Google is Already in Place as ... Newspaper

You remember: What is at the very core of Google? - "To make information accessible". Shall I be honest? I'm really surprised why I was unable to add all these little pieces of information which Google shares to a larger picture of opportunities. And I write "opportunity" to say that Google COULD be a newspaper if it would decide to be one. Or better: Google does not need to actively push itself into the news market since it is a market mechanism which leads thousands of journalists to use tools from the Google universe to create new income streams for themselves.

I would like to explain you my concerns in a little (fictional) szenario:

Eric was recently laid-off by a leading regional newspaper after a long working life there. He is not only a respected person in his profession but also one of those guys who would not give up only because of the circumstances. Journalism really is his passion and he also knows that it is his only chance to make his living.

During his time as employee he already started to build a Twitter community and to publish articles in his own Google Blog. He set up an RSS Feed for inclusion in Google News.  In previous years Google added the content to its news section taking it from top publishers. To the luck of Eric Google's strategy had changed recently, so that Google started to integrate selected blogs and to rank them high as well, especially if they were already part of the Google blogosphere.

Eric writes articles covering local news in his region as well as that he writes about topics in his area of expertise: technology. The restructuring of his former employer did not hit him very hard. Since he already started to earn some additional money by publishing articles of interest in his blog and running ads on his site. While he focuses on writing he knows that he can fully rely on Google for marketing the advertising space on his blog. This is true because Eric uses Google Adsense and self made display ads which he's able to sell to local vendors in his region.Twitter and Facebook help him to build the reach necessary to fuel his advertising revenue engine additonally. 

What comforts him is the fact, that besides that Google does not create content on its own, it offers any feature necessary to integrate content in its news section, to index it to be available for people searching for specific information. Google serves him with necessary traffic and by offering a revenue stream in exchange for his content creation. Eric also knows that Google will honor the demand for his articles measured by page impressions, clicks and clickthroughrates in the search and content networks of the Google universe and he knows that his content will be available on mobile devices which run Google's Android operating system and Google Chrome OS (currently only home for Chrome browser) which delivers his news to desktops as well. Google Fast Flip shows even a more visual version of Eric's blog upon request.

In Google's location based search Eric's articles receive high awareness in his region where neighbours mainly know him as expert for cool gigs as well. Some of his local friends have subscribed to receive information for local concerts from Google to keep track with what's happening around the corner. The integration of Twitter into the Googlesphere also allows to receive realtime information affecting the direct neighbourhood. So local news publishers have to close offices or go bancrupt. ... Yes I could continue adding piece to piece to the larger picture.

Let's keep is short: Google is ready to take the floor, believe me. You agree? You disagree? You would like to add your own thoughts? - Then feel encouraged to raise your voice and to comment here.

::Further proof of my thesis::

Edited 2009-11-05: Eric Schmids answering questions from Zachary M. Seward (Nieman Lab) - "Google CEO Eric Schmidt envisons the news consumer of the future" - Blogs are already part of Google News. Yes, Google has to solve the quality problem first, but I guess that's not an issue as "relevancy" is on their radar screen since the birth of the search engine. With more and more newspapers dying and more and more journalists dismissed and eager to produce news in their blogs, you can imagine what will happen ... a news (market) metamorphosis will take place.