MORE ON ETHICSThe debate on blogging and ethics keeps spreading. Armed Liberal, posting at Winds of Change, points past the current kerfuffle over consulting payments paid to bloggers to other issues that Blog World is going to have to confront.
The amateur nature of blogging up to now has been a significant part of its delight; we may well look back on this as the Golden Age, before Duncan Black and Oliver Willis rode partisan commentary to advocacy jobs, before Lauck and Van Beek slammed Daschle in their blogs while taking cash from Thune's campaign, and before Kos got hired to make sure he didn't defect to Clark. But the downfall — if it happens — isn't something that's unique to blogging, no not at all. He links two articles — one on the "swag" offered (and too often taken) by journalists, and the other on the growing use of viral marketing — to point to the type of ethical issues a rapidly-maturing blogosphere is going to have to deal with. The point he doesn't make is that these are issues that have long confronted "professional" journalism and even there they have not always been adequately dealt with. Worth a read, whether you're a legacy journalist, a blogger or a little of both.
TECHNORATI TAG: ETHICAL BLOGGING |
PUTTING IT OUT THEREAt Shutterbug: How Photographers Are Making The Internet Work For Them. Once you have all those images, get them out there so people can see them. Consider a photo blog as part of a resume, something to point potential employers to to let them see what you can do.
TECHNORATI TAG: DOING JOURNALISM |
JAY ROSEN GOES DEEPJay Rosen has published the draft of an essay he's writing for a coming conference on Blogging, Journalism & Credibility, and it is an incredibly dense piece of writing. I mean dense in the best possible sense: it is thick with information and one of the most compelling looks at the state of journalism that I've read. Rosen's hook is:
I have been an observer and critic of the American press for 19 years. In that stretch there has never been a time so unsettled. More is up for grabs than has ever been up for grabs since I started my watch. You can give the piece (and the comments) a surface read and absorb some of the central questions confronting the coming together (or collision) of blogs and journalism, along with a thoughtful analysis of what it all means. At a deeper level, Rosen pulls together a number of strings — some of them familiar grist for the new mediascape mill, others (like the Pro-Am Revolution) not. I'm not even going to try recapping or highlighting what he's written. There's too much there. I can't add much to the conversation at this point either. I've read Rosen's essay twice (once last night and again this afternoon) and I'm still absorbing everything that's there. I'll probably read it at least once more, but later, after my thoughts have settled a little. As far as I'm concerned, though, this is essential reading.
TECHNORATI TAG: RETHINKING MEDIA |
INDIAN OCEAN PHOTOJOURNALISMVII Agency's collection of truly outstanding photojournalism from the Indian Ocean areas devastated by the tsunami has grown. Very quickly after the disaster struck, the agency's web site featured the work of members John Stanmeyer and Gary Knight. Recently added to those are the work of James Nachtwey and Joachim Ladefoged. Amazing work that brings home the tragic reality.
TECHNORATI TAG: PHOTOJOURNALISM |
EXPLAINING GREENSBOROEditor John Robinson's newspaper column outlining the News & Record's plans to turn its web site into a town square, is as succinct an explanation of you'll find about all that fuss in Greensboro.
The gist of the report is this: We intend to build a Web presence that invites readers in to share the news they know and engage in the civic discussion. That will take a variety of forms, but, if we do it right, you will be able to come to our site and find the news of the day, featuring our reporting and stories from other newspapers and from other citizens.... You will be able to interact with others, in forums and comment sections. The topics could range from hard news issues such as school discipline to narrower interests like High Point Central football or video games. Readers will help drive the direction. I can only repeat what I've said in earlier posts: this is one of the most significant things to happen in North American journalism since the rise of the internet. A number of technologies and ideas come together here — access, blogging, reader desire to be involved and more — but the real significance is in an established newspaper buying into the idea that there is a better way to do journalism. In his column Robinson writes that most of the paper's resources will still be devoted to the print product (which is as it should be) but it would be surprising if what happens in the News & Record's on-line town square did not begin to have some impact and influence on the newspaper itself. This is about relationship, not technology. Greensboro may turn out it be what so many of us have been waiting for: journalism that combines the power of the press and the power of the reader to create a new vitality.
TECHNORATI TAG: GREENSBORO NEWS & RECORD | SOURCE: ED CONE |
Last update: 1/30/05; 10:22:07 PM .
