Social reporters may be network weavers: if you trust them

Nancy White offers reflections on the recent “Journalism that matters” gathering in Seattle, including thoughts on how social reporting relates to mainstream and citizen journalism. Nancy quotes me as suggesting social reporting is “an emerging role, set of skills and philosophy around how to mix journalism, facilitation and social media to help people develop conversations and stories for collaboration” and goes on to say:

I suspect citizen journalism is a form of social reporting. For me the question is about transparency and how one chooses to be a social reporter. Is it as someone trying to objectively cover an event? Editorialize? Synthesize? Focus on particular outputs? Some of these transgress traditional journalist  practices and perhaps even ethics. My conclusion is that social reporting sits on the continuum that includes journalism, but often moves outside of its bounds and becomes more subjective than objective. If that is what is needed, that’s useful. Ethically it suggests we should disclose our intentions and agendas as social reporters!

(read more...)

Do social reporters need to be accountability journalists too?

After suggesting yesterday that socialreporters might adopt Make Sense, Be Positive and Help Out as guiding principles – or even resolutions – I’m wondering whether to add Investigate if No-one Else Will.

Euan Semple kindly reblogged my diagram, prompting @mark_barratt to tweet “Where’s exposure of cant, lies?”
My initial response was, we can leave that to all the other reporters. But then thanks to @marshallk I read Clay Shirkey’s talk at the Shorenstein Centre. Not new (last September), but a wonderfully timely tweet. (read more...)t.

Newspapers are gone. We still need journalists

In an essay Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable Clay Shirky brilliantly details the point I was discussing the other day with Craig McGinty: “Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is journalism”. Jeff Javis has been saying for some time that many newspapers are gone, so not surprisingly he endorses Clay’s piece. I love it when local and global conversations join up. Newspapers never did that – unless you were a journalist. Now we can all join in.

Social media changes the local landscape

Two conversations in Manchester this week deepened my understanding of the changes social media is bringing to communication at local level – and the potential for new collaborations between journalists and community activists.
The first chat was with Craig McGinty, who has worked in print and (read more...)

Seriously Civic Social Media in Brum

Today’s the last chance to comment on the Birmingham Big City Plan, so in case I have one or two readers up that way I’d better get this posted, and also endorse Nick Booth’s recommendation to click over to the independent Big City Talk. There (read more...)

More buzz around Local 2.0

Another boost to the growing interest in using social media for local communication and action, with a report from Kevin Harris on Simon Grice’s Hyperlocal *mashup workshop, which he helped facilitate. Kevin did a lot of early work on digital inclusion and local online centres in the Web 1.0 world, and knows both about technology and neighbourhoods. This time around there are lots more commercial interests, though Kevin reports:

But at the end of it I found it hard to believe that any of the companies represented, large or small, has a commercial model that will deliver sustainable local online communication with an acceptable framework of ownership, in sufficient density to help compensate for the current inadequacy of communication channels at local level.

(read more...)

Organise social reporters? Up to a point.

I’m delighted that the idea of social reporting, which I first floated a couple of years ago,  is taking off without much promotion from me. Maybe there’s something in it. My friend Paul Henderson of Ruralnet came up with this admirably brief definition, applauded by Nancy White, and Bev Trayner has posted a thoughtful analysis of the role, about which more later. (read more...)

Could the BBC co-design its new community services?

Here’s a try-out for socialreporter as collaboration co-ordinator, on the lines of “wouldn’t it be a good idea if…” rather than “here’s a problem, let’s stir things up”.
I wonder if it’s possible to organise a get-together between people interested in how new BBC services may support social action, local democracy and online (read more...)

Citizen journalism: what if no-one comes?

These days it’s no news that old-style newspapers are facing a big challenge from the Internet as people get their news and fun online, produce their own content … and advertisers follow them.
Recently Charlie Beckett was reporting from a major conference on media and social participation, where everyone was getting excited (read more...)

BBC trails their version of networked journalism

In confirming the closure of the Action Network, set up five years ago to support grassroots action, the BBC offers some hints about what’s coming next in their public service remit for “sustaining citizenship and civic society”. The announcement says:

… we (read more...)