Tom Rosenstiel on the Future of Journalism |
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OurBlook interview with Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. Editor's Note: The Project for Excellence in Journalism in Washington, D.C. is part of the Pew Research Center. Since it's probably the nation's foremost impartial watchdog and analyzer of the media, whom better to ask than him about what's going on?)  With newspapers' staffs being decimated, it seems likely that so-called citizen journalists may have to fill the gap, or part of it. Yet your annual report notes that "some large experiments with citizen reporting failed" at legacy media. Could you tell us about these experiments, and with their failures in mind, do you see any hope that citizen journalism can succeed at papers? Do you have any enthusiasm for the CJ trend if there is one?TR: There were several experiments at legacy media we heard about that were sincere but ended up being disappointments. There was a significant one that the editors tried hard to make work in Norfolk. They found that getting citizens to produce well-written copy on deadline that also met the paper's standards for reliability was difficult. Editors in interviews we did, in surveys, and at conferences, reported similar if less organized experiences. Most of them had now somewhat diminished expectations for legacy media using citizen reporters. But they still had high expectations for citizen involvement in crowd sourcing, providing photos, eyewitness testimony, improving sourcing bases and more. So, within the context of legacy organizations, I think there is a cultural dimension here. They have a lot of skilled reporters. Maybe not as many as they once had. But that will be the core of what they do that involves the bulk of their narrative reporting and the bulk of their beat reporting. Citizen media is emerging as a tool that doesn't supplant that but that can complement it by strengthening the reporting with photos, eyewitness material, expert sourcing, etc. The rise of social media has been a startling trend lately. How do you see Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. affecting the future of newspapers and journalism? TR: Social media are becoming part of journalism, another transmission system, that all journalism must be involved in, in much the same way that aggregation is now a component of journalism. Journalism is more than narrative now. It is more than storytelling. It always has been, but professional journalists didn't always see it. Journalism is shifting from being a product ... our stories ... to being a service ...how can I help you answer your questions. Your annual report also asked once again about believability of the media and once again the results were dismal. In particular, you found that the public's perception of slanting by reporters in the presidential campaign reached "an all-time high" in your surveys since you began them in 1992. Do you think media credibility is a problem and if so, how should the media try to solve it? TR: The credibility crisis hasn't deepened in any significant way recently, though the sense of partisanship continues to increase. By some other metrics, the press is now considered more believable than it once was. The crisis remains, but it is not steepening in a general sense. I think what is more important is that concerns over credibility are now taking a back seat to more urgent concerns over the collapse of the advertising model. And that is not a credibility issue as much as a technology issue. Old media are keeping their audience, if you look across platforms. But the Internet has decoupled advertising from news. Display advertisers both do not need the news as much, and are finding that the interface online with display ads isn't very satisfying. For a variety of reasons, search advertising works better, but by and large that is not benefiting journalism. A few politicians, and a few hopeful journalists, have suggested that the federal government bail out newspapers just as it's bailing out the banks and auto companies. Your feelings? TR: The news industry has to look at all kinds of new revenue options, not just one, and it is unclear at this point which mix of them and for which news organizations will work. Public policy has always been involved in journalism at some level, from setting postal rates, tax rates, to direct subsidy. Some elements are more complicated than others. Direct subsidy is much more complicated than allowing tax breaks. But if I had to guess, I would imagine that no one source is the answer. Subscription will be in the mix. Niche products. Collaboration. Working with search engine aggregators. Working with internet service providers. The list of things that the industry could and should explore is longer than the list of things they have actively pursued. And that is at the nexus of the problem of why the industry hasn't made more progress. The focus of your organization is excellence in journalism. What do you do specifically to try to increase and encourage excellence? TR: Through research. Through facts. Through holding up a mirror to the industry and trying to identify what is REALLY going on, by being empirical rather than anecdotal, argumentative or ideological. The PEJ ... http://www.journalism.org ... says it is "dedicated to trying to understand the information revolution. We specialize in using empirical methods to evaluate and study the performance of the press, particularly content analysis. We are nonpartisan, nonideological and nonpolitical." Tom Rosenstiel also has been executive director in charge of the daily operation of the Committee of Concerned Journalists, an initiative engaged in conducting a national conversation among journalists about standards and values. A journalist for more than 20 years, he is a former media critic for the Los Angeles Times and chief congressional correspondent for Newsweek magazine.
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Comments (5)
  written by batterie, July 09, 2010
the press is now considered more believable than it once was.
written by r4 ds, July 09, 2010
that is at the nexus of the problem of why the industry hasn't made more progress.
written by Rolex watches, July 09, 2010
Through holding up a mirror to the industry and trying to identify
written by labatterie, July 09, 2010
you look across platforms. But the Internet has decoupled advertising from news.
written by batterie, July 09, 2010
being empirical rather than anecdotal, argumentative or ideological.
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