Ftc-engaging-consumers
This is a coverage page rough, contemporaneous notes of the second day of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission workshop: "From Town Crier to Blogggers: How Will journalism Survive the Internet Age," held Dec. 1-2, 2009, in Washington, D.C., at the FTC's 601 New Jersey Avenue offices. Your scribe is Bill Densmore, a fellow at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism. Of course we've tried to provide accurate quotes and summaries. But the FTC has stenographers recording all of the testimony and that should be your definitive source. The home page for this coverage is http://www.newshare.com/wiki/index.php/ftc
BACK TO FTC HEARING WIKI HOME PAGE
Contents
Jason Seiken
Challenge is to create companies with a right-brain left brain approach.
Jonathan Miller
Digital officer, chairman and CEO of digital media group at News Corp. How does it affect news, information, story tell and is it performing on a global basis.
There are three things he thinks about:
- Mobility
- Real time nature of information
- Socialization of the Internet i
MOBILITY is the most profound change going on. In the next few years most people will access information by mobile. The world is shifting to a portable and mobile environment. That affects everything. It also allows many, many more people to be on line and to be online all the time. It reaches areas and parts of the globe that haven't been reached before. it is a tremendous source for diversity.
REAL TIME. The world wants what it wants the minute it wants it how it wants it as it is happening. That is also a profound change. Coupled with mobile it needs to be available at any time.
SOCIALIZATION. It is much easier to form interest-based groups of many different times. it is a force for organization, diversity and performing an editorial aspect that was done institutionally before.
The one high-level concept to keep in mind: Bytes are bits. What was television is now delivered digitally to most people in the United States. You want the bits where you want when you want. All that is happening at the same time.
Linda Solomon: Citizens to save The Eccentric
She starts with a story. She found out on Facebook that the Birmingham, Mich., Eccentric was closing. It came out every Thursday and Sunday. She had a career as a photojournalist. She was a Detroit News columnist. She sent a letter to the editor about her personal feelings. When the letter was printed, there was a letter from the editor saying it was not closing after all.
One of the people in her community, David Bloom, went to Dave Hunke at Gannett and asked that it not be closed. The task: Increase subscriptions.She called the editor for 20 years and said can I volunteer to write a column. Other celebrities will also volunteer their time. She called Hall of Fame columnist Al Kaline, Bob Woodruff, Jill Rappaport, the former chairman of Ford Motor Co.
While they were saving their newspaper, a 200-year-old paper, in Ann Arbor, couldn't be saved. It was too late, the paper had closed. The importance of getting on top of it when it is happening. Encouraging kid s to participate is the key.
Debra Osofsky, Amer. Federal of TV and Radio Artists union
"If everyone and anyone is a journalist, what's the product that you're trying to sell?"
There's a lot of pressure on journalists to do much more with a lot less.
Benjamin Todd Jealous -- NAACP CEO and president
National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.
What about mobile and the digital divide and diversity?
Susan DiSanti asks about mobile, the digital divide and diversity?
Jonathan Miller says the technology is causing more and more voices to emerge and you have the chance to self organization. Social networks are expanding on a global basis and it is leading to greater diversity.
Disanti: Is there a profit opportunity that news organizations should be paying more attention to?
Miller: Yes, companies can target niches. And you have to do it because people want things that are going to be tailored to them with great and greater relevance.
Jim Gaines: Did a story on what is going on in Detroit which is very, very hopeful. It was about things going on in garages and new media.
He comments on what Jeff Jarvis said yesterday: "Please make sure there is a level playing field, and tread lightly."
Broadband ubiquity is critical, but not if it comes at the cost of prolonging the digital divided.
Jason Seiken: There is a digital divide in terms of educational content available to kids. The commercial content business isn't that interested, but the government is putting some money into it. Earlier he said that libraries and schools are where broadband came first and as a result our young adults and K-12's are some of the most digitally enabled of our society.
Osofsky: When you have too-few sources, that is an issue when you talk about diversity.
Elizabeth Jax: How does interactivity and digital allow you to tell more compelling or diverse stories than before?
Miller: There will be lots of voices. Out of that, will there emerge new institutions alongside the existing institutions that have gravitas and merit.
Jason Seiken talks about educational media for kids at PBS. For the 2-9 year old set, games are the killer app for kids. They have seen that over and over again with sites they have launched. There's a big initiative around science, technology energy and math.
In the new news environment, "what's critical and what is missing is media literacy for kids. When I grew, you knew who to trust ... these days, kids growing up, do they know the difference between a blogger, a citizen journalist or the New York Times."
Susan Disanti: She things gaming is valuable as a teaching tool long after age 9.
So how are you all thinking about the future? How do you make the news as interesting as a game?
Ben Jealous: Most of the leaders of the NAACP were journalists.
Miller: Ties together games and journalism. "I don't think we want to turn journalism into game play." But game companies know how to create an engaging premise and then they are really good at following what you do when and what motivates you and incentivize your human behavior. In journalism, you can now know how long a person stays with an article, and where did they go. "That's a powerful tool for journalistic organizations if you think that way ... now you are not just making an engaging story, you really understand how engaging it is ... just by peoples' behavior, and you never knew that before."
Jason Seiken: More and more you are turning over control to the audience. The new program, "Lifeboat to Mars," is a game that requires you to learn levels of information before you can progress. But you can't create your own game unless you know the facts, you know the curriculum. "It has become what the younger audience expects and demands ... I think journalists need to be open to these kinds of developments and these kind of opportunities."
Jim Gaines: Google Analytics gives a lot of information of where people go and click around on sites.
