Doing the new news

We've been sold a lemon

By Andrew McKenna

Mainstream news organisations – Fox, CNN, and plenty in Australia – have sold journalism out. Instead of helping us understand our world, their daily fare is infotainment and blind repetitions of government press releases. If news is about making sense of the world, then we as citizens have been sold a lemon too.

CI attended and presented at the Public Interest Journalism Foundation’s New News conference during the Melbourne Writer’s Festival last week, and some speakers argued that we’re coming to the end of heavily industrialised newspaper journalism.

One Saturday copy of The Age is equivalent to something like 50 toilet rolls, so in environmental terms alone this is hugely unsustainable. Representatives from The Age argued that they are stepping up to take the lead in the new media, because no one else will. At a new media conference where people are turning away from mainstream news services in their droves, however, 'old media' and men in suits looked embarrassingly like the Emperor with no clothes. New media is everywhere, leading the way on a million different websites and mobile phones.

In case you hadn’t noticed, the news is changing. Over the last few years there’s been an enormous democratisation of the ‘press’.

Jan Schaffer from J-Lab in the US gave the closing address at the conference. She says it’s an exciting and daunting time for news.

Social media, she said, is ‘game changing’.

‘Facebook and Twitter have ushered in a new age for news, as they can put a new news start-up on the map with the speed of light,’ she said.

And while we’re still waiting for new definitions of news, one thing is certain: journalists need to make indispensable journalism. We need to reimagine what journalism is, and reimagine it as something that no one could do without.

The Internet has become the primary go-to place for news, and in Australia is also displacing television as the main source of entertainment. Journalists need to add value to an already information-rich world.

Trust is important, as is a highly engaged relationship with readers

Authenticity, reliability, veracity is what journalists need to peddle – the old days of aggregating broad content are over. Journalists now need to be experts in their content, and need to be ‘multimedia storytellers’.

Jan Schaffer says an audience needs to be able to say 'wow that was a really useful story.’

Another of the conference’s presenters argued that newspapers are suffering from ‘relevance deprivation’.

‘The mainstream media still try to define the news, but they overlook and neglect consensus,’ Schaffer said.

‘Truth is a plural not a singular word. Journalists don’t do a good job of reporting truths, nor do we validate consensus well. We might help communities step closer to solutions to their problems.

‘We’ve added the multimedia bells and whistles, but can we change journalism to add value? We need to look at stories from the five thousand foot view, not just the 50-foot view.’

The new news is now giving roles to many individuals:

• Partnership coordinators
• ‘Fact entrepreneurs’
• Creative technologists. (Creative technologists are building innovative sites; re-imagining the way they manage information. In 2009 at the Knight Batten Innovations in Journalism Awards, a new company won an award for their research, not their journalism)
• Philanthropic foundations
• Citizen media makers: Journalists and media organisations have started deputising new feet on the street
• Universities
• Advocacy groups
• Government

Schaffer says eight trends have been identified in the US in new news:

1: Hyperlocal blossoming of news sites. Some are individuals, by ‘civic catalysts’ or activists, who know what is going on at the local level

2: Old media companies branching into new media

3: New media, such as AOL’s patch.com

4: State-wide news ventures, such as the Texas Tribune, California Watch, the New Jersey Spotlight. These organisations produce real journalism, have paid staff, and write and publish investigative and ‘watchdog’ stories.

5: Independent metropolitan news sites such as the Voice of San Diego, The Chicago Co Op, the Bay Citizen, the St Louis Beacon, which usually have paid staff.

6: University-based news sites, with stories from student reporters eg Grosse Pointe Today. These are laboratories for fledgling student journalists.

7: Network journalism collaborations, between old and new media. The Seattle Times launched into cooperation rather than competition with ‘incredible success’. That paper now has around 30 hyperlocal sites collaborating with it, and they do synchronised stories on relevant local – and national – issues.

8: Philanthropic foundations, alarmed at cutbacks in newsroms and the loss of services and good investigative reporting, are playing an increasing role in the US. These foundations are now more ready to step in and fund new news organisations.

‘Not all of these initiatives will be successful, but many are doing good work,’ Schaffer said.

‘And there is one caveat in this new era, which is the emergence of agenda-driven political sites, which look and smell like journalism but are party-funded.’

The community doesn’t just want news – ‘the community’ wants connection, and new news has to be about building – not just informing – the community.

Life has more of the ambivalence that you see in a novel than in a news story

A keen demand for news coverage is not changing, but new news has to be about empowering citizens to be citizens. This can be activated with good local news sites.

‘As a profession, journalists do not know how to validate consensus,’ Schaffer said.

Journalism does conflict well, but not consensus. This helps shape our world.

‘We do conflict, and this is very damaging. We report on extreme points of view, but life has more of the ambivalence that you see in a novel than in a news story.

‘We maybe still don’t yet know how to do the new journalism. If we can figure that out I think there are enormous possibilities.’

CI is engaged in this change – investigating and experimenting with news and its place in the world.