Convener: Dan Gillmor/Jonathan Lawson
Reporter: Jonathan Lawson
Participants:
Dan Gillmor, Jean Min, Karen Toering, Jane Stevens, Sue Ellen Christian, Jonathan Lawson…
Discussion:
Framing comments/questions:
Dan: Much contemporary journalism (Fox news may be the most prominent example) presents “faith-based” journalism, in which reportage complies with established pieties. For good journalism, facts must be the fundamental, not faith.
Advocacy journalism is useful, but there is a danger that journalism advocating for a particular point of view may overstate (or ignore) facts that help support an argument, while leaving out other relevant perspectives.
A terrifying statistic emerges from a PIPA study a couple of years ago that demonstrated that a large percentage of people who get most of their news from Fox News believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the 911 tragedy and that weapons of mass destruction had been discovered in Iraq. How can we get people to distinguish between faith-based and fact-based journalism?
Jonathan: Fox News is an example of what is actually the dominant form of advocacy journalism—advocacy for the political and economic interests of the wealthy and powerful. Now that citizen faith-based reporting seems to be on the rise, helping produce more fragmented audiences, is there a positive benefit for “advocacy journalists” to develop something like professional standards upholding the pursuit of truth and (elusive) objectivity, while at the same time being self-conscious advocates for democratic values?
Discussion
Can journalists be political citizens? Sometimes, at least, no… policies against attending demonstrations, etc. There is a reasonable distinction to be made… if someone’s beat involves covering an election, that reporter perhaps shouldn’t attend a demonstration against a candidate. A legitimate concern.
Can you combine journalism and advocacy? Sy Hersh, Ida Tarbell and the whole tradition of muckrakers would say yes.
What is the distinction between civic and citizen journalism? Civic journalisms is trying to open journalism to the public’s interests—community advocacy. Created some angst at newspapers; reporters and editors asking: why are we letting the people tell us what to do? Citizen journalism bypasses the newsroom entirely. Citizen journalism also often includes critical engagement with mass media.
JM: As citizen journalism, OhMyNews is open, but also has a distinct editorial focus created by the founder’s intention to provide progressive perspectives. In South Korea, OhMyNews is one of very few media outlets providing an alternative to a monolithic mainstream.
DG: How do we get kids to grow up understanding the difference between straight news and, for example, Jon Stewart’s commentary on The Daily Show?
KT: What is most important to maintain: the daily news core of stories from credible media institutions.
JS: Re. Credibility: The web creates the opportunity for reportage that includes, as sidebar links etc., detailed sourcing and information about stakeholders in a particular story… mapping of key players, opinions, etc.
JL: That in itself doesn’t solve the question of credibility—a highly ideological site could produce its version of such a map as well as a more fair outlet.
The problem to solve is less about the unavailability of reputable information—the Internet provides great access to plenty—than about the perception of mainstream audiences. There was tons of information available online, including from establishment news organizations, demonstrating that no WMDs had been found in Iraq, for example.
DG: There are sites such as sourcewatch, etc. that provide good info on current in-the-news topics. We need smarter readers. Is this primarily a media literacy problem?
We also need laws that require greater transparency about, for example, the funding support for ideological think tanks.
KT: ‘smarter readers make better journalists.’ We do need media literacy.
JM: Today’s media consumers approach media with the expectation that there will be opinion and bias. News outlets need to take sides—make apparent what their political slant is and use that to build an audience.
JL: We need a wide variety of news sources. Google news is useful simply in that it provides quick access to multiple outlets, although it doesn’t do any apparent political/ideological sorting for you.
KT: People often have limited time to consume media—a limited window. For me, I first get the basic stories from balanced, nonideological sources. Later if I have time, I’ll seek out advocacy/opinion sources on the same topics.
SEC: If we agree about what constitutes good journalism, why is there still so much unbalanced reporting?
JL: Part of the reason is the journalistic bad habit of privileging a lazy version of “balance” over truth-seeking. Present two opposing views about, say, global warming, and forego the task of evaluating based on available evidence.
DG: Practically speaking, journalists under deadline aren’t always given the option to go deep.
DG: During the buildup to the Iraq war. Guardian UK web readership spiked—much from US readers hungry for substantive, independent reporting. This fact gives me hope for American media consumers. People can increasingly take advantage of the ability to “roll your own” news report from Internet resources… choose the kind of journalism they want, get substantive reporting from trustworthy sources.
JM: With RSS, readers become their own editors.
JL: But left to their own simple preferences, people won’t necessarilty select what’s best for them, but rather entertainment, sports, ideological news, and whatever the most powerful new corporations spend lots of money to promote. Journalism is a public trust—in order for our culture and democracy to work properly, the public needs to be presented with a level of quality coverage whether they know they want it or not—in fact, good journalism creates the public sphere that enables people to identify valuable journalism in the first place, and understand why it’s important.
JS
DG: A CBS exec recently noted that mass media conditions people to believe that everything is simple, whereas in fact nearly everything is quite complicated. How do we ensure that everyone gets access to that basic daily news report? At the end of drug commercials, you get that quick fine print. We need even basic news reports to explain that there’s fine print, and help people get there.