By Frank MacekA few weeks ago, I was invited to be part of a group of professionals from WKYC who participated in a day long Poynter Media Ethics Workshop at Kent State University on Thursday, September 18th. This year's session combined compelling speakers and controversial topics called "Whose Rules?"
This fourth annual conference focused on bloggers and the media and whether there should be rules for those who are becoming citizen journalists on the internet. In attendance included local media, bloggers, students and ethic experts from around the nation and beyond.
A brief overview of the day's sessions included a main discussion dealing with the pace of journalism and media online with topics including "Has the blogosphere ruined journalism?" and "Examining the relationship between blogging and journalism."The second focused around whether there should be rules for bloggers, leading to the the keynote address by speaker Jay Rosen - a respected teacher of journalism at New York University and author of "PressThink.org". His speech centered around "If Blogging Had No Ethics, Blogging Would Have Failed (But It Didn't. So Let's Get a Clue)".
Following lunch, we split for concurrent sessions on "Political Blogging: Information, Innuendo, Insults and Spin;" "Online 101: What Students Need to Know About Snark, Social Networks and Survival in Cyberspace;" and "The Future of Traditional Media in a Digital Universe" that included WKYC News Director Rita Andolsen on that panel.
The day concluded with a wrap up of the day's discussions and whether we had consensus about blogging and ethics?
We did not and that's where this part of the story begins.
In today's media environment, we have two systems at work - a closed system where the media filters all of the information to the audience. A group of professional journalists bring you what newsrooms feel is important. In this system, the public is only the recipient.
However with the internet, we now have an open system where the public can write and publish anything it wants - true or false. The risk to the users of the information is that is may or may not be factual.
Traditional journalists are worried and with good reason. They can no longer control the flow of information, but must adapt to become a part of new reality where the public participants in the process - through blogs, photos, on-line forums and the like. The public becomes citizen journalists in their own communities or areas of interest forming the foundation of a "blog".
Partly blamed on today's economics where large newsrooms and expensive budgets are no longer an option, the media must begin to accept the public's help in presenting local news content in unique and niche ways on the internet. Outlets like WKYC or the Cleveland Plain Dealer MUST expand their broadcast beyond the traditional news broadcasts or daily newspaper. News happens 24/7 and people want information anytime. If we don't adapt, we'll become irrelevant and cease to exist. There is no alternative.
Almost overnight bloggers became a rich part of this new media environment. Blogging is instantaneous, providing more voices in the process and can be a strong influence of public opinion.
The main battle between the open and closed system is how mesh these two systems into a credible environment that will keep people interested and bring them stories and news that's fair and ethical.
There is the key word "ethics."
How the heck do we, as the media, force bloggers to be ethical? The short answer is we can't. However, bloggers don't have completely free reign either. The bloggers already have a code of ethics by the very nature of what they are doing.
I believe this is the point that Jay Rosen was trying to make as he spoke. "In all these ways, good bloggers build up trust with a base of users online. And over time, the practices that lead to trust on the platform where the users actually are… these become their ethic, their rules."
In summary, the media and bloggers need to co-exist in some manner that is acceptable to both and to the general public. The time has come for some serious discussion on how everyone can become involved in the process - our democracy, our freedom of speech.
The Poytner Kent State Media Ethics Workshop was the start of that conversation.
Although I can't include everything in a short posting about 8 hours of content, I would like to invite you - in fact, challenge you - to take some time enjoy some of the following links to learn more information on this year's seminar and what we discussed. Included are videos of the actual sessions you can watch. It's a fascinating look at the media in action - whether you are part of it or a consumer of it. The new media environment affects us all.
RELATED LINKS:
*The Poynter Kent State Media Ethics Workshop
*PressThink.org (Jay Rosen Blog)
RELATED VIDEO:
*Channel 3's Eric Mansfield talked with Jay Rosen after the seminar
Feel free to post your comments here on the blog or you can email me directly: fmacek@wkyc.com
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