Journalism With A Capital “J”
Community Journalism In Transi1on
10 April 2009

1.
The
900‐
Pound
Gorilla

Collapse of
Space, Time

The End of
Scarcity

Push BuEon
Publishing,
Shoo1ng

The Growth
of Networks

Disintermedia1on

As to Bell's talking telegraph, it
only creates interest in scien1fic
circles... its commercial values will
be limited.
‐ Elisha Gray

EPIC 2015

Money is the great power today.
Men sell their souls for it... The
money power has grown so great
that the issue of all issues is
whether the corpora1on shall rule
this country or the country shall
again rule the corpora1ons.
‐ Joseph Pulitzer, 1878

2. Trends: Shi; Happens

Opera1ng Profit Margin,
Public Newspapers
• Mid‐1980s : 22%
• 1998 : 21%
• 2005 : 19%

39%
Read A “Newspaper” Yesterday
Pew

9%
Read It Online Only
Pew

State of the News Media, 2009

State of the News Media, 2009

Despera1on Thy Name Is

I don't so much mind that
newspapers are dying ‐‐ it's
watching them commit suicide that
pisses me off.
‐ Molly Ivins, 2006

3. You Are Not Alone

Photobucket v Kodak

It’s TV, Too

Publishing is a business, but
journalism never was and is not
essen1ally a business.
‐ Henry R. Luce

4. The Market
Abhors A
Vacuum

Blogging
So`ware
Is A Tool

How We Got Here
• 1998: Monica & Bill (Drudge)
• 9.11.2001
• 2002: Trent LoE (right & le`)
• 2004: Memogate
• 2004: Asian Tsunami
• 2005: London bombings
• 2007: AEorneyGate (TPM, George Polk award)

Google Is
Not Your
Enemy

Share Links
• 4 of 5 readers come in through search and
links – Jeff Jarvis, Buzzmachine

San Diego Fire
+
Western Washington Floods

Other Examples
• OhMyNews
• WikiLeaks
• Newsvine
• The Stranger: The SLOG (Erica BarneE)

Steve Dorsey, deputy managing
editor for presenta1on and
innova1on at the Free Press, began
distribu1ng photos of the Monday
edi1ons of the Free Press and the
News at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday
night... via Twitpic, the TwiEer
photo sharing service.
Poynter

PBS:
Radio on
iPhone

Journalism is our day book, our
collec1ve diary, which records our
common life.
‐ James W. Carey, 1998

5. Tools

RSS

Blogs
• Both read and write
• Do this now : think of an idea for a blog
– Is it about how you cover your beat?
– Is it a way to share info that didn’t make it into the
paper?
– Is it subject‐oriented: reviews, lifestyle, features?
– Town Crier, Town Square or Town Expert?

More To‐Dos
• Dra` your first post: 10 things you need to
know about …
• Be sure to link to sources
• Be sure to promote via TwiEer, Delicious,
Publish2.0, Technora1
• Develop a blogroll of related content
• Comment on those blogs

+

A New Genre
• D versus @ versus RT
• Follow versus Friend (“block”)
• Favorites
• Broadcast (one‐way) versus Converse (two‐
way)
• Nibble v Full Course
• Many v Few
• TinyUrl et al

TwiEer
• Get 1ps on breaking news stories in your
community
• Share informa1on and links with the
community
• Know the topics of community interest
• Have a conversa1on with your readers
• Local model: Monica Guzman @moniguzman

It’s so much easier to ask a
ques1on to my locals on TwiEer
than to call each and every one of
them. I just wouldn’t have 1me to
call that many people.
‐ Kate Mar(n, blogger and educaLon reporter,
Skagit Valley (WA) Herald

TwiEer Tools
• TweetDeck & Sideline: The new ‘police
scanner’ or ‘wire feed’
• TwiEer Keywords: The # (hashtag)
• tr.im: TinyURL with analy1cs
• TwitPic: Publish pictures quickly
• Ping.fm: Update all networks at once
• TwiEerFeed: your blog’s wirefeed

Mul1media
• Carry voice recorder (and remember to turn it
on) and a Flip (or something like it)
• Get friendly with GarageBand (Mac) or
Audacity (Mac/PC) … iMovie (Mac) or Muvee
(PC)
• Pay aEen1on to the compe11on

Mobile/Video
• Qik
• Seesmic
• Eric Schmidt on camera phones
• Twee1ng live events

Distribu1on
• YouTube
• Flickr
• Technora1
• TwiEer

\"In journalism, there has always
been a tension between gewng it
first and gewng it right.\"
– Ellen Goodman

6. Tips

Be Transparent.
Update, Correct But
Note The Change.

TwiEer is a
not a publica1on.

Mul1media:
Don’t Auto‐Play
On Load!

You Need Data.

Final Thoughts
• The mass audience is dead
• Publishing is free (push‐buEon)
• The cost of dealing with atoms goes up
as profit goes down
• Today’s professional listens as well as
talks
• This is not a cyclical change

The illiterate of the 21st century
will not be those who cannot read
or write, but those who cannot
learn, unlearn and relearn.
‐ Alvin Toffler

7. Homework

Read / Watch
• Clay Shirky
• Howard Rheingold
• Jay Rosen
• TheReadWriteWeb
• A Fair(y) Use Tale (copyright)
• RSS (et al) In Plain English

Credits
• Mar1n quote from Journalism in the Starbucks
era
• Photos are iStockPhoto or fair use except:
– Gorilla, http://www.flickr.com/photos/mahalie/135395689/
– Crowd, http://www.flickr.com/photos/twose/887903401/
– Tools, http://www.flickr.com/photos/willemvelthoven/
100371987/
– Homework, http://www.flickr.com/photos/vonbjort/
2399552152/
– Megaphone, http://warkscol.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/
superchick_megaphone_logo_hi.jpg

CC License:
share&share alike, aEribu1on,
non‐commercial
Kathy E. Gill
hEp://faculty.washington.edu/kegill
–
@kegill, @kegill_uw
–
hEp://wiredpen.com/
–
hEp://slideshare.net/kegill
–