Convener:<\/strong> Jim Shaffer<\/p>\n Attendees: <\/strong> Nora, Stephen, Linda, Eric and Chris.<\/p>\n Submitted by: <\/strong>Jim Shaffer<\/p>\n Nora: <\/strong>Jean Gaddy Wilson, the former head of NDN, retired in 2000.\u00a0 [I think I heard Nora say] she hired Dale Peskin and they explored locating NDN at the University of Minnesota.\u00a0 But, eventually NDN was merged into The Media Center, which is now headed by Dale.<\/p>\n A lot of groups within the industry are \u201ccircling the wagons\u201d and trying to avoid change.<\/p>\n Eric: <\/strong>We need to involve the \u201ccircle the wagons\u201d groups in a non-threatening way.<\/p>\n Chris: <\/strong>Scripps Howard (his company) is part of the CTW movement, which he sees as moving 90 MPH toward a cliff.<\/p>\n It is very possible that the change mechanism will be that the existing industry goes over the cliff and a new industry emerges \u2026 Journalism could be just a phase \u2026 But, those within the existing industry that are aware of their plight would want to be included in a discussion of alternate futures.<\/p>\n Eric:<\/strong> We need to balance dissenters, nervous choir, experimenters, fence sitters, and \u201ccloset transformers.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Nora: <\/strong>Also involve the On-line News Assn, which is trying to preserve the best of conventional journalism\u2019s values and practices into the new environment.<\/p>\n Jim to Nora: <\/strong>You must know Joe Michaud of the Portland Press Herald.\u00a0 Nora:\u00a0 Oh yes \u2026<\/p>\n Nora: <\/strong>There is also a new organization of bloggers.<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong> We need to build bridges between the big behemoths with big money and a myriad of small, agile innovators \u2026 both tend to put each other down \u2026 with hostile language.<\/p>\n Eric:<\/strong> We need to inject Love and Forgiveness in to that dialogue!<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong> We also need to incorporate the personal journeys of the \u201cold media\u201d people, who will have a lot to lose as they adapt \u2026 it\u2019s like bridging between the elders of the church and the new generation.<\/p>\n Nora:<\/strong> These discussions are not going on now. \u00a0There has been a disappearance of the campfire.<\/p>\n Chris: <\/strong>Many young people today wouldn\u2019t want to set foot in a conventional newsroom.<\/p>\n Stephen: <\/strong>There\u2019s also the Project for Excellence in Journalism, led by Tom Rosenstiel and Bill Kovach.\u00a0 They put out an annual \u201cState of Journalism\u201d report.<\/p>\n Chris: <\/strong>They have great<\/span> contacts.<\/p>\n Jim: <\/strong>We also need to include the aggregators, like Google.<\/p>\n Nora: <\/strong>And Teoma (a web search site)<\/p>\n Jim: <\/strong>If these organizations simply do their market research and follow their customer, they will go to higher levels of service.\u00a0 Aggregating will lead to assembling and assorting and, eventually, interpretation.\u00a0\u00a0 The practice of marketing will lead them onto turf that we now think of as journalism.<\/p>\n Nora: <\/strong>And education.<\/p>\n Eric:<\/strong> What about the people that aren\u2019t using broadband?<\/p>\n Nora: <\/strong>There are time-shifting services, too.<\/p>\n Eric: <\/strong> And filtering technologies and \u2026 people.<\/p>\n [Jim Shaffer\u2019s thought<\/strong>, not vocalized:\u00a0 Eventually, networked computers will be wise and omniscient, and much of this work will be done by non-human superbeings.]<\/p>\n Nora:<\/strong> A critical aspect of these technologies is that people want to be in control \u2026<\/p>\n Stephen:<\/strong> Should we include Jay Rosen?\u00a0 Or, is he too much of an impresario?\u00a0 (Rosen\u2019s org:\u00a0 Press Think)<\/p>\n Nora: <\/strong>He\u2019s the kind of smart guy that could be helpful.<\/p>\n Chris: <\/strong>He\u2019s made a name for himself by saying, \u201cThe mainstream media has it wrong \u2026 they have to change, and I\u2019m going to help them change.\u201d<\/p>\n Nora: <\/strong>We should also involve Jim Haney at the Buffalo Evening News.<\/p>\n [Eric and Linda leave]<\/p>\n Nora: <\/strong>There\u2019s also a guy in Minneapolis \u2026 Jeremy Iggers, who\u2019s been working on citizen journalism for years<\/p>\n Jim: <\/strong>We also need to involve the Newspaper Association of America and the MIT Media Lab.<\/p>\n Chris: <\/strong> At MIT the person to involve is Walter Bender.\u00a0 He wrote \u2026 something like Technocosm<\/em> or maybe it was Telecosm.<\/em><\/p>\n There is a major group of people just riding out the change \u2026 hoping to make it to retirement.\u00a0 And TV is being driven by ratings and news consultants following conventional formulas.\u00a0 I don\u2019t see a way out for them.\u00a0 This is a major deterrent to change.<\/p>\n Another issue is to provide cover for the dissidents and out-liers.<\/p>\n Stephen: <\/strong>Even when people go to a retreat \u2026 they come back to the \u2026 inbox … and can\u2019t act on their new knowledge.<\/p>\n [Eric and Linda back]<\/p>\n Jim:<\/strong> What we need to provide is what Professors Heifetz and Linsky at Harvard\u2019s Kennedy School of Government call a holding environment.<\/em> This involves a reduced-risk environment that enables multiple parties and stakeholders to exchange information, build relationships, learn, accept change, and adapt.\u00a0 It enables ideas to be ripened for appropriate discussion.\u00a0 Heifetz and Linsky have developed a body of thought around how to create holding environments, and their thinking might be helpful here.<\/p>\n Several: <\/strong>Holding?<\/p>\n Jim:<\/strong> Holding people together; holding ideas before the appropriate parties; holding the discussions in a fault-tolerant setting that allows for learning and exchange \u2026 And the revelation needs to unfold gently.\u00a0 If all we did were write the visionary \u201cwhite paper\u201d and drop it in peoples\u2019 in-boxes, it would generate a lot of fear and negative energy.\u00a0 Sometimes the idea of a holding environment is to let people discover bad news slowly.\u00a0 Sometimes the essence of leadership is to disappoint people at a rate they can tolerate.<\/p>\n Chris: <\/strong>Many people don\u2019t want to think for themselves, they just want to be told what to do \u2026<\/p>\n Nora: <\/strong>Maybe role-playing would be a helpful tool.<\/p>\n Eric: <\/strong>This is classic conflict resolution\/transformation work.\u00a0 People will suffer pain \u2026 solutions must come out of different paradigms \u2026 people need to be valued \u2026 within an environment of hope and despair \u2026 Everyone has a personal story and their own challenges.\u00a0 We need to value their stories.\u00a0 If we get heady and take action that does not include their personal stories \u2026 lose effectiveness.\u00a0 We need to establish a common ground.<\/p>\n Jim: <\/strong>We also should put the Maynard Institute on the list.<\/p>\n [End of session]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What are New Directions for News and other similar organizations doing to help establish a new vision for the media, and how can Fetzer and\/or we coordinate, collaborate, and\/or differentiate our activities vis-\u00e0-vis theirs? Convener: Jim Shaffer Attendees: Nora, Stephen, … Continue reading