Masslaw-internet-corrective
(Notes by Bill Densmore)
In this session the question posed: ""Can the Internet be a Corrective for the News Media Ills?"
Panelists:
- Russ Baker -- independent investigative journalist
- Benjamin Compaine -- NOrtheastern University professor and media researcher
- Margaret Freivogel -- Editor of The St. Louis Beacon, online news community
- Lou Ureneck -- dean, school of journalism, Boston University
FREIVOGEL: Offers the three reasons why the web is good for journalism?
- IMMEDIACY -- It's a 24/7 printing press and broadcast.
- BACKSTORY -- Once you can have it available you can make it available to people anytime they are interested in the topic.
- INTERACTIVITY -- "In the worst sense it can be a whitenoise of too many voices. In the best sense it becomes the ability to draw on the expertise of people in your community. Online you can very systematically seek out those voices."
Frievogel laments the loss of large numbers of people who are paid to go out and see what's going on and have some sense of responsiblity to care about multiple points of view . . . "that is a very big loss to our communities . . . the question is can we figure out a way to sustain that for the future?"
"We really are at a pivotal moment. We have the online world as an opportunity. "it will only happen if we have the organizations, if we create the funding to go forward." Whether it will happen, the jury's still out on that.
RUSS BAKER: Said he has practically gotten into fist fights with online journalists over whether he and they are the same. "I think you really have to ask is anyboyd a journalist, does that word actually mean anything or not. I think we have to have a more bracing discussion in the craft, if there is a craft."
Baker suggests a national discussion to figure out what journalism should be -- to figure out some standards. "I am concerned about this issue that everybody calls themselves a journalist." Everybody can't be let in, there has to be a basis for deciding."
Baker's notation of the advantages of the Internet:
- Easier to revise the story quickly and get a correction or update
- Eliminates elitism and gatekeepers
- Gives whistleblowers a new outlet.
But the big challenge: How does the public support the best material?
URENECK: Biggest problem is the disintegration of the business model. That's what has created most of the news media ills. "The philanthropic model is a good one. But it is not a replacement for what we have been doing in the past."
What bothers him the most is the problem of accuracy on the web. He quotes Winston Churchill: "A lie is halfway around the world before truth has a chance to put on its boots."
The Newspaper Association of America has just done a study. News organizations will be at least one third smaller than they are now in order to stay in business. "So that is one third less journalism. That is a bit hole in what we've come to expect."
Q-and-A
During the question-and-answer period, issues were raised by the following people:
- Jim Youll, jim@youll.org / 617-606-5990. He is working on a tech startup.
Bill Densmore asks people to look at two URLS: http://www.infovalet.org / http://www.newsout.org
