Saturday, December 18, 2004
RIDING WITH OUTLAWS
In my last post, Undercurrent: Nation, Region, Weblog, Home I touched on the Greensboro bloggers as one point on a global map. In my mind I compare this group to a gang--small, agile--hanging out on the fringes of The Media, looking to add members, expand territory. Maybe make a raid or two on The Local Fortress. One thing that distinguishes this gang--not the only one, but critical for my purposes--is that the town's newspaper editor is thinking about riding with the outlaws. Weird, because he's supposed to be The Local Fortress, to "have" the news franchise in town. Rosen is writing about a newspaper (part of Big Media) that's made a commitment to change. Keywords are inclusion and connection. Key concept is reaching out and letting others in. The platform is the newspaper's web site. The newspaper is the News-Record in Greensboro, which also has what appears to be an incredible community of bloggers. Based on what I've read, I'm cheering them both on. Rosen offers some ideas and invites others in his comments (I submitted a couple). More power of the people: someone says, "I have an idea, a mission, a goal. Help me." People help. What Rosen has been writing about, and what Mark Glaser wrote earlier about the media company he wants to work for, has started me working on something: trying to devise a model for journalism for the 21st century, starting at the level of the community newspaper. It's early stages. Greenboro helps bring some of what I want into focus, but a lot of it is half-formed. I have a starting point: six journalists. That's it so far. No firm idea on platform, or business model, or structure. But it starts with six journalists who get it. Something to think about on those long holiday flights. UPDATE: Going to the source, Ed Cone (one of the forces driving Greenboro) writes:
Why is this happening in GSO? For one thing, we have a strong, organic blog community -- not top-down and business-driven, but created by people who decided to write weblogs and found each other and created something thriving and coherent. That's an essential part of the equation. Another element is that our daily newspaper has gotten in the game -- but done so with respect for the local community, not just out of a desire to dominate it. Nothing we've done here can't be done elsewhere.
Cone describes an organic, growing thing: development over time. What's happening there will undoubtedly speed the possibility of it happening elsewhere. The last line in the quote above is the money quote. |
STEALING IMAGESThis blog is a bland place. Not many photos. A few pop up now and then, publicity stills, an original image or two, photos I've copied from web sites (either with permission or from sites that are copyright free) or stuff I know is public domain. So J.D. Lasica's post on the fair use of photojournalism on the web caught my eye. Lasica points to a debate going on at the Nanopublishing weblog and adds his own take:
The question is, should bloggers just grab others' images and repost them on their blogs without permission (but with credit)? Unfortunately, it depends. It depends on whether it's a newsworthy event worthy of wider dissemination, or just a really cool, artistic photo of a nature scene, a sunset or the night sky.... It depends on how the blogger is reproducing the photos. A small reproduction is OK in my book -- a full-scale photo may or may not be. That's just the digital world we live in today. Photographers don't enjoy any special rights not accorded to other creative individuals such as journalists and authors, whose works are snipped and reproduced every day, on blogs and websites around the world, millions of times. I'm not sure what it says about the power of image that while I have no trouble pulling (sometimes longish) quotes off news sites and blogs, with the aim of spreading ideas, that I hesitate so greatly to use all or part of someone's image for the same purpose. My journalism students rarely have the same problem: if an internet image is available, many will use it. When I talk about copyright and lawful usage, it's as those I'm speaking a different language. They've grown up surrounded by readily accessible images (and sound and words, although they have little trouble drawing the "right" line with words). My language, from an earlier time, doesn't connect. (An aside: I wonder about the ownership of image. Thirty or 40 photographers show up at a major event, stand shoulder to shoulder and gather images that are different primarily in angle. The degree of uniqueness of each is slight. In effect, at such "newsworthy" events, there is a single image, taken 30 or 40 times. Who owns that single image? How can every single photographer in that mob, having taken virtually the same image, claim copyright?) Lots of good argument going on at Nanopublishing and lots to think about. It makes me wish for a day when standard copyright notices are replaced by Creative Commons licences, which spell out in great deal what is allowed and what is not, and with what conditions. This seems to offer a greater clarity and control for both creator and user than does the current murky and lawyer-infested world of copyright.
(NOTE: I've just read Lawrence Lessing's excellent Free Culture, which should be required reading for all. I have both a paid-for print copy and a free PDF I downloaded from somewhere. Go search. One of the things the book prompted me to do is remove completely the copyright notice from this site and replace it with "Rip, Mix and Burn." Subject to the conditions of my Creative Commons licence, of course.) |
HERE'S THE SCOOPDerek Willis at The Scoop celebrates his (almost) seventh anniversary (I am such a newbie) with some thoughts about where he'd like to take his investigative journalism blog, and an invitation.
...I'd like to give The Scoop a broader range of topics, so I'm asking for your help. What would you like to see here that isn't here now? What CAR-related topics have not been addressed that could be? Are there design issues that need to be fixed? And, perhaps, most important, are you willing to help? As much as I'd like to spend more time with the site, I can't. What I spend now is not a lot, but it's a good amount that I can't increase. But with some volunteers, maybe we can find more stories or branch out into related topics (data analysis by non-journalism organizations, new methods and tools, everyday CAR examples). If you have an idea, great. If you have something that you'd like to work on, even better. The Scoop is a great site. Derek's daily pointers to investigative journalism pieces is a great source for story ideas and an ongoing tutorial in what can be done with computer assisted reporting and other investigative tools.
I have no particular CAR skills, so all I can offer Derek is thanks for the site (it's on my daily read list) and the work he's doing, and pass along his request for ideas and his offer of the chance to get involved. |
Last update: 12/26/04; 7:04:10 AM .
