ISSUE

Winter 2008

The Search for True North: New Directions in a New Territory

In this time of accelerating change, how journalists do their work and what elements of journalism will survive this digital transformation loom as questions and concerns. By heading in new directions and exploring the potential to be found in this new territory of interactivity and social media, journalists – and others contributing to the flood of information – will be resetting the compass bearing of what constitutes “true north” for journalism in our time.

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Articles

Technology

Media Re:public: Conclusions After a Year of Exploration

RELATED ARTICLE“Media Re:public: My Year in the Church of the Web”– Persephone MielMedia Re:public’s final report went to press in November. It is available on the Berkman Center’s Web site…
Persephone Miel
December 24, 2008
Journalist’s Trade

Distracted: The New News World and the Fate of Attention

‘As a term, “multitasking” doesn’t quite do justice to all the ways in which we fragment our attention.’
Maggie Jackson
December 23, 2008
Technology

Journalism as a Conversation

‘Today digital publishing is practiced by the masses, and it’s inseparable from the practice of journalism.’
Katie King
December 23, 2008
Opinion

Using Strength of Evidence to Tell a Powerful Story About Torture

‘… there’s still an odd disconnect between the issues about which she’s done such superb reporting and the lack of informed public debate about them.’
Tom Ehrenfeld
December 23, 2008
Opinion

The Ties That Bind: Newspapers and Nonfiction Books

What reporters do in their daily reporting can become the foundation for compelling storytelling in a book. So what happens when newsrooms shrink and support for long-term beat assignments dries…
Melissa Ludtke
December 23, 2008
Journalist’s Trade

Blogging From Inside a TV Station’s Newsroom

‘Comments on the blog began generating tips that turned into leads for on-air reporting, and the blog became a tool for promoting and teasing stories we planned to air or…
Katie Allison Granju
December 23, 2008
Journalist’s Trade

Creating a New Platform to Support Reporting

‘My sole and motivating mission is to figure out how reporting can thrive as we witness the death of the institutional model that traditionally supported it.’
David Cohn
December 23, 2008
Journalist’s Trade

Suggest a Topic—And Content Flows to It

‘… content becomes a roaring campfire that gathers around it a thoughtful and engaged group of people.’
John A. Byrne
December 23, 2008
Journalist’s Trade

No Time Left for Reluctant Transformers

‘Digitally based consumption by a fragmented audience requires new and sophisticated distribution mechanics … smartly connect[ing] consumers to available, relevant content in virtually unlimited ways.’
Jim Kennedy
December 23, 2008
Technology

The Wisdom of the Crowd Resides in How the Crowd Is Used

‘… the animating idea—our readers know more than we do—is evolving into something that, if used wisely, will be far more efficient and useful than our first, early attempts at…
Jeff Howe
December 23, 2008
Technology

Ethical Values and Quality Control in the Digital Era

‘Situations that editors confront in this digital-era maelstrom reflect the vexing ethical challenges and the diminished quality control standards at a time when they are most needed.’
Bob Steele
December 22, 2008
Technology

Political Video Barometer

RELATED ARTICLE“Mapping the Blogosphere: Offering a Guide to Journalism’s Future”– John KellyAs a visual demonstration of how ideas move through social networks, Morningside Analytics created a user-friendly online tool called…
John Kelly
December 22, 2008
Journalist’s Trade

Using E-Readers to Explore Some New Media Myths

An experiment with digital media sets out to see what similarities might be found in how young and old adapt to new technologies.
Roger Fidler
December 22, 2008
Journalist’s Trade

Engaging Young Staffers in Newsroom Activities and Change

RELATED ARTICLE“Adding Young Voices to the Mix of Newsroom Advisors”– Steven A. SmithA newsroom’s younger staffers can play a significant role in charting the organization’s future. What follows are some…
Steven A. Smith
December 22, 2008
Journalist’s Trade

The Gang of Eight’s Recommendations: An Excerpt

RELATED ARTICLE“Adding Young Voices to the Mix of Newsroom Advisors”– Steven A. SmithThe Gang of Eight didn’t hesitate to recommend significant changes in structure and cuts in the editing staff.…
“Gang of Eight”
December 22, 2008
Journalist’s Trade

What Young People Don’t Like About the Web—And News On It

‘… news organizations need to pay attention to what young people say about what makes them tune out on news sites.’
Vivian Vahlberg
December 22, 2008
Journalist’s Trade

Tracking Behavior Changes on the Web

Evidence accumulated in a major study reveals significant shifts in how people deal with knowledge and information—shifts that affect young people the most.
David Nicholas
December 22, 2008
Journalist’s Trade

Passion Replaces the Dullness of an Overused Journalistic Formula

‘… mainstream journalism that my students abhor has become too formulaic, too cynical, and too concerned with internal standards over external truth.’
Robert Niles
December 22, 2008
Journalist’s Trade

Journalism and Citizenship: Making the Connection

‘Not only do citizens benefit from good journalism, but also journalism gets a boost from having engaged, news-hungry citizens.’
David T.Z. Mindich
December 22, 2008
Journalist’s Trade

Net Geners Relate to News in New Ways

‘Is it any surprise that they remember less from the traditional newscasts—told from beginning to end—than from interactive versions that allow them to click to hear the news or learn…
Don Tapscott
December 22, 2008
Journalist’s Trade

Accepting the Challenge: Using the Web to Help Newspapers Survive

‘Meeting us where we are—with a great Web site, content that works well in digital media, told in ways we can absorb and share—is a step in the right direction.’
Luke Morris
December 22, 2008
Technology

Digital Natives: Following Their Lead on a Path to a New Journalism

By understanding how young people ‘process various types of news and formats’ using new media, journalists enhance their ability to adapt their work to emerging technologies.
Ronald A. Yaros
December 22, 2008
Technology

To Prepare for the Future, Skip the Present

‘… today’s obsession with saving newspapers has meant that, for the most part, media companies have failed to plan adequately for tomorrow’s digital future.’
Edward Roussel
December 22, 2008
Technology

Where the Monitor Is Going, Others Will Follow

A decade ago, resistance at The Christian Science Monitor to its online site almost killed it. Now, the newspaper is depending on the Web for its survival.
Tom Regan
December 22, 2008
From the Curator

Clear Direction in Tough Economic Times

Economic volatility brings ‘new meaning to the program’s transformative nature.’
Bob Giles
December 22, 2008
Books

If Murder Is Metaphor

Novels, at times, speak to truth in ways we, as journalists, can find hard to do.
Steven A. Smith
December 15, 2008
Opinion

The Middle East Conflict: American Coverage

‘… Dunsky’s book is at its best when she reveals little-known aspects of the relationship that exists between American journalists and their government.’
Simon Wilson
December 15, 2008
Technology

Web v. Journalism: Court Cases Challenge Long-Held Principles

‘… courts and legislatures, reluctant to apply different rules to the “old” and “new” media, are rethinking the basic constitutional principles that have protected a free press for generations.’
Jane Kirtley
December 15, 2008
Journalist’s Trade

A Retired Newspaper Journalist Takes What He Knows to the Web

‘What “sold” RappVoice to the local audience was solid and timely reporting, analysis, and in-depth explanation of complex subjects ….’
James P. Gannon
December 15, 2008
Election Night in Chicago–Capturing the Moment
Nieman Notes

Election Night in Chicago–Capturing the Moment

“I couldn’t stop crying.” From one conversation to another, those were the words photojournalist Eli Reed heard most often from friends after the election of Barack Obama as President of…
Eli Reed
December 15, 2008
Features

Winter 2008: Introduction

In this time of accelerating change, how journalists do their work and what elements of journalism will survive this digital transformation loom as questions and concerns. By heading in new…
Melissa Ludtke
December 15, 2008
Opinion

The Unchanging Essence of War Photography

The image’s power rests ‘in the hands of intrepid, artistically gifted photojournalists who travel to trouble and assemble what they find without written commentary.’
Peter Osnos
December 15, 2008
Journalist’s Trade

Adding Young Voices to the Mix of Newsroom Advisors

‘Start with a blank sheet of paper, I instructed them. On it, put down ways we can reinvent our newsroom.’
Steven A. Smith
December 15, 2008
Nieman Notes

The View From Baku

Azerbaijan’s presidential candidates debate on public television.Fortunately, the 5-hour flight from Heathrow was nearly empty, and I had three seats to get horizontal. I peered out the window and pictured…
James Trengrove
December 15, 2008
Journalist’s Trade

Video News: The Videojournalist Comes of Age

‘It is now possible for a person working on his or her own to make high-quality, intelligent and, most importantly, very inexpensive television.’
Michael Rosenblum
December 15, 2008
Journalist’s Trade

Live Web Cast—From a Newspaper’s Newsroom

‘We did not want to produce an imitation of local TV news. We wanted to create something far less polished—more like a video blog, short and raw and conversational.’
John Hassell
December 15, 2008
Journalist’s Trade

How Spot.Us Works

RELATED ARTICLE“Creating a New Platform to Support Reporting”– David CohnSpot.Us accepts microdonations that are put toward a journalist’s proposal for an investigation. Progress toward reaching the goal is charted on…
David Cohn
December 15, 2008
Journalist’s Trade

Engaging the Public in Asking Why We Do What

‘No longer do I enter the newsroom believing that readers have tuned us out. Perhaps it is we who have tuned them out by creating too great a distance between…
Nancy San Martin
December 15, 2008
Technology

Digging Into Social Media to Build a Newspaper Audience

‘We weren’t even sure whether a mainstream news site could become part of the cybercommunities that evolve from social media sites.’
Bill Adee
December 15, 2008
Technology

Media Re:public: My Year in the Church of the Web

In studying new and old media, the author feels ‘as though I’ve undergone two religious crises; one feels like a loss of faith, the other like a conversion.’
Persephone Miel
December 15, 2008
Technology

The Wikification of Knowledge

A neuroscientist explores the shared challenges of medicine and journalism when it comes to gathering information and reaching conclusions in the era of social media.
Kenneth S. Kosik
December 15, 2008
Technology

The End of Journalism as Usual

‘To maximize a news organization’s social capital and marketability, its journalism today must be transparent, authentic and collaborative.’
Mark Briggs
December 15, 2008
Technology

Mapping the Blogosphere: Offering a Guide to Journalism’s Future

‘… what we find is that legacy media holds the center, while online-only media are frayed at the edges.’
John Kelly
December 15, 2008
Opinion

Peering Deep Into the Essence of Small-Town Life

A photographer returns to Oxford, Iowa after 20 years to take pictures of its residents again, and his images share space with their words.
Madeleine Blais
December 15, 2008
Journalist’s Trade

A 21st Century Newswire—Curating the Web With Links

News organizations can remain vital daily destinations by supplementing original reporting with links to the best nonlocal content.
Josh Korr
December 15, 2008
Local News

Serendipity, Echo Chambers, and the Front Page

As readers on the Web, we may filter out ‘perspectives that might challenge our assumptions and preconceptions about what’s important and newsworthy.’
Ethan Zuckerman
December 15, 2008
Technology

When Journalists Blog: How It Changes What They Do

‘I was surprised at just how much these journalists felt their work had been changed by the simple act of blogging.’
Paul Bradshaw
December 15, 2008