NOT NEARLY READY FOR PRIME TIME

Microsoft's quest for internet dominance continues with unveiling of its new search engine. I haven't taken it out for much of a spin yet, but I put it up against Google and Yahoo in a search for "podcasting." Microsoft came up with 21,200 hits, Google recorded 388,000 and Yahoo found 383,000 hits.
11:46:22 PM  LINK TO THIS POST  

ALL JAY, ALL THE TIME

A couple of days back I jokingly suggested I might abandon blogging and turn this page into a permanent pointer to Jay Rosen's PressThink.

Turns out I don't have, too: he's all over the Internet. In my daily stroll through Blog World, I came across half-a-dozen sites that had posts about Jay Rosen or links to something he'd written. He's having that much of an impact on the debate over what journalism is.

At his site, Rosen has published a piece by Matt Welch with some ideas about how mainstream media can change to reflect new realities. Another thoughtful piece worth reading and, as always, the afterthoughts and comments add a lot of the conversation.

And Rosen is front and centre at Tim Porter's blog, First Draft, where Porter covers a presentation Rosen made to the Institute for Justice and Journalism's conference for its 9/11 Security and Liberty fellows.

Porter reports:

Rosen's version of the argument is that objectivity framework doesn't provide journalists with the intellectual or emotional tools to handle the complexities of modern society.

"It's not up to the challenges," he said. "It's not up to what the Bush White House is doing to the press. It's not up to the political situation. It's not up to covering the war on terror.... Objectivity is not going to answer this for you. It's not going to tell you how to respond."

Journalists don't have the resources to deal with the profound philosophical questions "because they wear an anti-intellectual crown," said Rosen.

Objectivity "worked for a long time" and "its main job was to limit liability against attack" and criticism for being unfair.

"Wake up!" Rosen said. "You're getting attacked anyway. Wake up!"

Go read the rest. Then read as much Rosen as you can track down. Think about what he's saying about where journalism is and where it could be going. Join the conversation about the state of, and possibilities, for journalism.

And then, go read Rosen's take on blogging, as reported by Leonard Witt at PJNet.org. Here's his provocative opening to get you started:

What I would like to do to make this more concrete for you, to show you where blogging is at in one corner and to completely override the wisdom of simplicity, repetition, and volume that Warren (Kinsella) just gave you which I think is totally disastrous device and constitutes treating people the way the media treats them in the guise of being an alternative.

Photo of Jay Rosen at Blogger Con 3, taken by J.D. Lasica, from Lasica's web site New Media Musings.
10:08:11 PM  LINK TO THIS POST  

OLD WORLD, MEET NEW

There's controversy in Britain over a Google news service that includes press releases in the flow of information it sends out. dotJournalism reports:

The credibility of Google's news tool has come under fire again following its use of press releases from far-right UK political group the British National Party.

Web users can sign up to receive Google news alerts on specialist subjects. The aggregator scans around 4,500 sites for selected keywords, and emails relevant stories to the user.

But the inclusion of press releases has been criticised by many journalists, who argue that such material is designed to inform a news story and should not be interpreted as news itself.

My initial knee-jerk reaction is the same as that of "many journalists" but that may just be the old journalist in me. Criticizing the inclusion of press releases in the information flow seems to me to be based at least in part on the idea that readers aren't smart enough to figure things out for themselves.

Sure, the purpose of a press release is spin, but if it's one piece of information among the flow from "4,500 sites," I suspect readers are smart enough to synthesize what they're reading and come to their own conclusions.
9:10:40 PM  LINK TO THIS POST  

UPDATED WAPO

The Washington Post has updated the front page of its Camera Works section, which makes it easier to find the sterling content at the site. As well as direct links to current and recent photo-stories and multimedia reports, the entire collection is searchable.

A lot of news organizations have multimedia sections at their web sites but there are few who do it as well as the Washington Post.
8:57:52 PM  LINK TO THIS POST