Bibliobooks blog post<\/p>\n
Summarize your conversation using these questions, or whatever questions seem
\nappropriate to you:
\n1. What meaning did you take from the conversation?
\n2. Share a standout story or quote for each of you.
\n3. What surprised, challenged, inspired, and\/or delighted you about the
\nconversation?<\/p>\n
Jacob Caggiano and Jack Brighton mashed up this blog post from several email
\nexchanges and a long phone conversation. We felt it would flow better as a jointly
\nauthored piece, or at least give us a chance to speak more clearly. Peggy\u2019s questions
\nprovide a helpful framework, so we\u2019ll go ahead and hang our answers on them\u2026so
\nto speak.<\/p>\n
1. What meaning did you take from the conversation?<\/p>\n
We began the conversation by discussing the idea that journalism has arrived at a
\ntransitional moment. Jacob started describing what is obvious to him: the shift from
\none-to-many media, to a many-to-many system. \u201cBasically I\u2019m part of this hybrid
\ngeneration, where I grew up with old media, then transitioned to new media while
\nbecoming an adult,\u201d said Jacob. \u201cWhen I was 13, AOL was really popular, and I was
\nconnecting with people across the universe. The premise is that we\u2019re not just a
\none-way or two-way medium, but a multifaceted system where anyone can be a
\npublisher, or a celebrity, and the barriers of entry have been reduced and there\u2019s no
\ngatekeeper.\u201d I think Jacob is in that perfect spot to understand the previous media
\nsystem, without being locked into its habits of thought. This could be an advantage
\nfor him over the kids I see going through J School who have no concept of a pre-
\nInternet world. But that\u2019s a big topic for another time.<\/p>\n
Jack began his journalism career in 1987 as a public radio producer and host. \u201cSo
\nbefore Mosaic, before Gopher, and before the Newsgroups if you remember what
\nI\u2019m talking about. Radio, TV, and newspapers were it,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen the web
\ncame along, I was lacking in whatever brain chemical induces people to freak out
\nabout change. I loved the complete feeling of freedom it gave people to express
\nthemselves in ways they never could, to engage in conversations without barriers
\nor gatekeepers, and to tell stories to a growing global audience.\u201d So while the idea
\nof many-to-many media appealed to Jack from the get-go, we both reflected on how
\ndifficult this shift is for so many people.<\/p>\n
We also discussed the trade-offs we\u2019re all experiencing as we use the array of social
\nmedia tools, e.g. connectivity versus privacy. When we push those little \u2018like\u2019 buttons
\nwe now find all over the web, we\u2019re helping Facebook know more and more about<\/p>\n
us in the aggregate, but for us that information quickly disappears below the fold of
\nour status page. We\u2019re uploading our social media content (pictures, video) to the
\ncloud, but who owns the cloud and where does our stuff go? Will our content persist
\nand be findable in the future? We should think about these things, even though we
\ndon\u2019t.<\/p>\n
We found ourselves in agreement that this moment of transition has some great
\nopportunities, but we need to address some of the pitfalls and no one has perfect
\nanswers yet to issues like privacy, security, and openness.<\/p>\n
2. Share a standout story or quote for each of you.<\/p>\n
Jacob: \u201cI\u2019ve been very interested in broadening the definition of who is a journalist,
\nbut does that restrict you from having an opinion? It seems like people are starting
\nto accept that there\u2019s no such thing as objectivity, and that pretending to be
\nobjective is really hiding your point of view. Have a point of view but have it with
\nintegrity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jack: \u201cThe tension is between reporting and advocacy or activism. I\u2019ve arrived at
\na place where think much of this concern is exaggerated. Historically, journalism
\nmade a difference: if you reported on corruption, unfair laws, or problems within
\ncommunities, things changed. For most of its history professional journalism had
\na real impact. Of course this can go too far, and there is such a thing as becoming
\na political partisan. I think a journalist can take a stance for objectivity while still
\narriving at clear and reasonable judgments. But in recent decades the profession
\nhas adopted a notion of objectivity which suspends all possibility of judgment. The
\nresult is a sort of blind and bland stenography that supplies facts but no impact.
\nThen we wonder why people don\u2019t pay attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jacob: \u201cI think everybody coming to this conference agrees that there\u2019s a great
\nmatch between journalists and librarians. A journalist has to be ready to go report
\non the fly, where as a librarian is engaged in more long-term organization. Let
\njournalists be the storyteller, and librarians be the organizer and archivist. Sort of
\nlike Batman and Albert\u2026though I don\u2019t want to restrict roles, I like the dynamic
\nbetween the two, where one handles the tech and maintains the headquarters,
\nand the other hits the streets and interfaces with the public.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to see citizens comfortable know that if there is a story worth telling
\nthey can tell it. And if there\u2019s a story worth finding, they can find it. And it would
\nbe up to them to decide if they want to do these things. My vision, there would be
\nstandards for storing, classifying, and cataloging information as it\u2019s published. The
\nmission is straightforward, it\u2019s a matter of ironing out the kinks on the technology
\nside, and then funding and support from the community, and participation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jack: \u201cThe center-margin structure of the familiar media system is way too slow<\/p>\n
for the Internet age. Like it or not, we now have a many-to-many media system and
\neveryone can play a part. What is the role of the \u201ctraditional\u201d media organization
\nemploying professional journalists? We have not answered this question very well
\nas yet, but have instead dug in our heels and refused to recognize how technology
\nhas added new dimensions to the media universe. And we\u2019re no longer at the center.
\n\u201cI think journalism by 2016 must be deeply engaged in community conversations
\nto truly understand what issues and concerns need to be addressed, and by
\nwhom. In 2016, citizens will play the largest part in telling the stories of their own
\ncommunities, histories, and interests. Established media entities will facilitate a
\nconversation about civic life that has a positive impact where it needs to. The result
\nis we build knowledge upon knowledge that everyone can successfully use. Libraries
\nand librarians will be integrated with journalism at the DNA level, and we will no
\nlonger think of them as foreign territories. IT will be part of this model as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
3. What surprised, challenged, inspired, and\/or delighted you about the
\nconversation?<\/p>\n
Jack: \u201cIt didn\u2019t really surprise me to find that Jacob is a smart, focused person who
\nthinks about these issues on a daily basis. It does inspire me that while he\u2019s working
\nseveral jobs doing journalism and media production, he\u2019s also participating in
\nJournalism That Matters and every other opportunity to meet with other people
\ntrying to find the way forward. Jacob mentioned the phrase \u201cpublic space\u201d several
\ntimes, and it\u2019s clear that he is committed to the idea of the public sphere. I think
\nmany of us are likewise committed, but we don\u2019t speak out about it enough in
\nconversation and professional practice. Jacob impressed me greatly in speaking to
\nthe role of journalists and librarians in the public sphere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jacob: “Jack told me that although he\u2019s a bit older, he doesn\u2019t feel like an old timer. I love interacting with media veterans like him who are embracing the rapid changes and are here to help usher the younger generations along. I\u2019m also grateful that he\u2019s put so much thought and energy into handling the massively complex task of standardizing the archiving process with his work on the PBCore system. One thing I mentioned to him was my utmost respect for people like him who are getting their hands dirty with the heavy tech that the rest of us consider too dry or complicated to deal with. I can\u2019t wait to meet him and the others in person, I just wish we had more time!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bibliobooks blog post Summarize your conversation using these questions, or whatever questions seem appropriate to you: 1. What meaning did you take from the conversation? 2. Share a standout story or quote for each of you. 3. What surprised, challenged, … Continue reading