THIS IS NOT GOOD

A new Gallup poll in the States shows a big drop in faith in the media. In fact, a graph that accompanies Jeff Jarvis's report on the poll shows that, for the first time since May 1972, the number of people who trust the media "not very much" or "not at all" is higher than the number that has a "great deal" or "fair amount" of trust. Ouch.

Jarvis calls it a wake-up call for the media.

...a bigger story, of course, is the future and fate of journalism and news media. Trust and credibility are the only real assets of this business and Gallup says they are eroding, though we didn't need Gallup to tell us that, eh?

So journalism must reform its relationship with the people formerly known as the audience (aka us). It must face us eye-to-eye and become transparent to rebuild trust. It must recognize that the internet allows people to go to the source sometimes -- they report, they decide -- and to talk back. It must admit the problems and failings it has. It must involve the citizens in that rebirth as equal partners, or they may as well not bother.

I'm not entirely convinced that transparency and "involving citizens as equal partners" are the full answer to the ills that have settled over the media (although they will help). A big part of any change, I think, relies on the willingness of media to engage itself with the audience, instead of merely throwing "news" at it, no matter how professionally prepared and prettily packaged.

Adding a few blogs to a media web site, inviting its critics inside the media tent, collaborating with audience to create deeper news is all well and good. But as long as newspaper editors stay in their offices and reporters swoop down onto the streets only when there's "big news," the disconnect is going to remain.

10:04:30 PM    

TRY TWO MINUTES...

A new study suggests that "Internet withdrawal" can dramatically affect an individual's social live and emotional well-being. According to OnlineJournalism.com:

The Internet Deprivation Study found that Internet withdrawal dramatically affected people's social lives and emotional well-being, reports Internet Week. Five days was the median time study participants managed to go without the Web and almost 50% of the participants couldn't last without the Internet for more than two weeks.

Not surprisingly, the study suggests one of the feelings that strikes those going through IW is "diconnectedness." Should have seen that one coming.

9:08:30 PM    

AND FOR CHRISTMAS, I WANT...

From the blog Typeface, Joel Schettler's Web log of all things readerly for fellow bibliophiles:

Brian Harrison, working in Oxford, has completed editing work on the Oxford Dictionary of Biography--all 60 million words of it.

"This is a work which makes superlatives superfluous," writes Geoffrey Wheatcroft in the New York Times. "Running 11 feet along the shelf and weighing in at a healthy defensive end's 280 pounds, the D.N.B.'s 60 volumes contain 60,000 pages and some 60 million words. More than 10,000 contributors have written a total of 54,922 essays on the worthies (as well as the worthless) who make up the fabric of British history.

Editing 60 million words? Sixty volumes? Yikes.

8:57:02 PM