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There's a fantastic little piece by Stilgherrian today about the future of journalism. He writes:
What is the future of journalism? To judge by the discussion at this week’s Future of Media Summit held simultaneously in Sydney and Silicon Valley (and every other “new media” conference I’ve been to lately) it’s endless bloody whinging. Whinging about how journalism has standards and bloggers are all “just” writing whatever they think.
The panels in both cities covered the same, tired old ground. The new “participatory media” and “citizen journalism” would never be Real Journalism, because Real Journalism is an Art/Craft/Profession. Real Journalism involves research and fact-checking and sub-editing. There’s a Code of Ethics. But “these people”, as bloggers get labelled, these people just sit around in their pyjamas and write whatever comes into their heads.
Bollocks.
Now instead of me just doing some lazy journalism and linking his whole piece, let me tell a little story about how I came to read this article.
Early in 2007 when I was still running my company and starting to consume more and more information, particularly about technology, business and politics, I decided that most of it was crap. I haven't watched TV in years because it's crap and full of ads and I hate having to be in front of it at a certain time when something good is on. I don't read the mainstream newspapers because they're full of crap, though I skim through the online editions occasionally. I am finding the online editions less and less useful though because the content is clearly skewed towards celebrity news and recycled rubbish and groupthink.
I was already subscribed to a good selection of blogs and news sites which interested me, though most of them were overseas. I really wanted to know what was going on here in Australia, so I took the plunge and paid for a subscription to Crikey, a daily independent online news service which focusses on - surprise - politics, business and technology from an Australian perspective. At $115 for a year it is totally indispensable.
Crikey employs a small core of full time journalists and a larger group of freelance contributors. It has a few ads in it which are relevant to the content and I'm told it has about 15,000 subscribers. It makes a small profit appropriate to its size.
Crikey was originally started several years ago as a gossip rag for politics nuts and insiders. It grew to be more sophisticated over time and since it was bought out by independent publisher Eric Beecher in 2005 it has been moving consistently from a daily email newsletter to a full embrace of new media technology and ideals. It is nice to see that some people are quietly just getting on with adapting and providing a quality service in today's environment.
One of Crikey's regular contributors is Stilgherrian, whose name I don't pretend to understand, but who writes very incisive articles on tech issues which I enjoy reading a lot. He has his own blog, which, as a result of reading his work in Crikey, I have now subscribed to as well. Stilgherrian's blog features a lot of other stuff that isn't in Crikey but which is interesting and valuable, at least if you're interested specifically in Australian tech issues, which I am. Through this blog I have also discovered other blogs and places of interest which I have subscribed to as well.
One such place of interest is Twitter, a microblogging service that I had heard a lot about but never bothered getting into. Now I have, and I find Stilgherrian is even more active on Twitter than he is on his blog. He attends most of the expos and conferences involving technology, politics and journalism and provides an intense stream of live updates and thoughts which make fascinating reading and save me the bother of having to go.
Other people occasionally respond to what Stilgherrian writes on Twitter and sometimes I read their responses and follow them up. I have found a few interesting people and places this way too. It spirals onwards and outwards infinitely.
In fact, my whole approach to consuming and creating media has changed dramatically since I took out that Crikey subscription. The new media landscape makes total sense to me and I have embraced it thoroughly. This blog is evidence of that, and I use it as the platform for the rest of my activities. I am writing a book now which I intend to self-publish.
12 months ago I didn't have a Facebook account or a separate RSS reader. 6 months ago I knew nothing about how to run a blog. Granted, I am a technology nut and I enjoy learning but the point is you learn these things by doing them. In his piece, Stilgherrian makes the point that journalists know about this new media thing but either resent it or are waiting around for someone to show them how to use it.
We don’t need a third party in The Mainstream Media to bring us mass-produced stories for mass-produced audiences when we can tell each other our own stories. Stories that are directly meaningful to us — like how niece Sarah did so well at the school concert (and here’s a video), or how the factory’s closing down (and here’s the lousy memo the bastards sent us). We’re only just learning how to connect myriad storytellers to myriad audiences, but we’re learning fast.
There’s still a role for Real Journalism, of course, with your research and storytelling skills and, yes, with your Code of Ethics too. No-one’s saying there won’t be. And you know what? You too can use all these wonderful new tools to create wonderful new forms of Journalism — if only you’d stop whinging about how your world’s falling apart and actually learn to use them. A hint: You don’t have to wait for your grumpy old chain-smoking editor to show you, either, because he’s a dinosaur and will soon be dead.
Sometimes it's good to be reminded of what you already know, if only to appreciate it. Have a look at Stilgherrian's full piece here or over at Crikey, it's a good read.
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