Jtm-pnw-session-traditional-media

Participant list (in no particular order): Joaquin Uy, Naomi Ishisaka, Stevie Mathieu, Ross Reynolds, David Boardman, Kathleen Sullivan, Aaron Randall, Michael McCarthy, Tim Gleason, Jadine Yang, John DeRosa, Rita Hibbard, Sanjay Bhatt, Rich Riski, Zach Verdin, Alex Stonehill

What Values of "Traditional Media" Should Be Preserved in the New News Ecology?

- The wall between editorial and advertising

- Reporter-Editor relationships / Mentoring

- Ethical Standards, i.e. not taking payola, arms-length relationships with sources, transparency, conflict of interest policies

- The Commons, the place where we have a common language on politics, culture, science

  One big concern is the silos developing in how people get their news, and people migrating into narrow silos that reinforce their own views, don't challenge their comfort zones. 

- It's about Public Service

- Accuracy isn't sacrificed for speed

- Fairness in reporting

- Diverse funding sources gives traditional media a certain amount of independence

- Transparency in correcting errors

- In-depth sourcing and knowledge of reporters enables them to question "authority" and hold it accountable

- Shoe leather, document-intensive, unglamorous reporting in pursuit of truth

What Values of "Traditional Media" Can we Jettison? - "Balanced" reporting that provides a false sense of what's happening - Not offering any solutions, just pointing out problems

What are the Values of "New Media"? - Speed and instant feedback

- Collaboration with other news gatherers, readers and Crowdsourcing

- Activism

- Convergence, multimedia

- Conversations, social media

- Linking to resources, other context

- Viral content (Swarming around a question)

What are current weaknesses of "New Media"? - Shouters, haters on comment boards

- Porous wall between editorial and advertising/business

- Publishing libelous comments that are harmful to public discourse

- Lack of vetting, verification of information

- Manipulation of images

- Inconsistency, lack of transparency about ethical reporting standards, relationships with advertisers

- Anonymity for people who blog or post comments

- Lots of unpaid people who don't want to do unglamourous reporting (i.e. digging through documents, databases)

- Blogs becoming echo chambers, breeding more polarization in politics

- Unsustainable business models