Who Will Pay the Messengers?
by Adam | November 13, 2009 | KLAMP | Comments Off
Laura Walker – General Manager – WNYC, New York
Wins the prize with the first reference to the Kindle.
Describing her subway ride in NYC where only five people were reading a paper newspaper, and three of those were the free am newspapers.
Public Media must aim to preserve local democracy.
3 Specific Areas of focus in the journalistic world
1. Local Coverage
2. Deep Coverage
Investigative Journalism (doesn’t pay and we need to make sure someone is asking those questions)
3. Represent the diverse voices in this country
Forget nostalgia. The New York Times newsroom in 1961 wasn’t all that great. You wouldn’t even know there was an African American person in this country – and the only women were on the Society Pages.
We are no longer just telling a story but we are also initiating and facilitating a conversation.
- This is a major theme that is emerging. Journalism is more of a conversation. But it is not a free flowing conversation with no restraints but rather one led and moderated by the professional journalists – especially those funded by public institutions.
But there are limits. We need to make sure that as we evolve, we maintain very high standards for journalism.
Fort Hood Example – there was a lot of WRONG information coming out from a 30-year-old Twitterer female soldier. She said that the shooter was dead and that there was a second shooter. How do the “journalists” do the fact checking necessary to ensure accuracy?
As the role of the journalist changes, so do the pay models. The pay walls are coming. And in the not-for-profit world, it is key that we come up with sustainable business models. It will help protect against funders with an agenda.
Although there is somewhat of a contradiction here in that arguing for public funding and yet recognizing that can influence the content. The key is mixed partnerships that is not all one or the other.
We have an opportunity and the responsibility to fill the void of local journalism.
We need more public funding – not just for infrastructure – but most importantly, for the CONTENT.
This movement is not going to resonate like suffrage but that doesn’t mean that we can’t talk to Congress and increase our funding.
The recipe for change – thinking big – add 500 reporters in communities across this country. We need to challenge others to come up with plans to really cover their local areas.
Comments
Connect with the Yale ISP
yaleisp.org search
Recent Posts
- Bloomberg Coverage of Scott and Smith’s BRCA/Myriad Amicus brief
- Thomson Reuters Speaker Series – Patricia Aufderheide
- Thomson Reuters Speaker Series: Susan Buckley
- Cilla Smith and Genevieve Scott File Supreme Court Amicus on Gene Patents
- Keeping up with the (U.S. v.) Joneses: Shifting Gears from Manual to Automatic
- No Tweets Available
Flickr Photos
|
