Self-serving vs. Social responsibility

I just attended the panel on New Media vs. Traditional Media and as pointed out, even the name of the panel's title is outdated. What is traditional media anymore anyway? There is hardly a newspaper that does not, at the very least, have a Web site or working on launching one.

The panelists were great--making many points worth summarizing, including, but not limited to:

1. The journalism industry is in crisis and crisis creates opportunity (Bob Benz)
   
2. Journalists must be incredibly good at filtering, synthesizing, making sense of complex issues, and offering a comprehensive path through the jungle of information available (Bernhard Debatin)
   
3. Each of us is our own individual journalism business--through tweets, Facebook, blogging, and other social networking tools--and the currency is being helpful to others by providing daily information (Gary Moneysmith)
   
4. Many of the "gotcha" moments in the 2008 presidential election came from ordinary citizens who captured soundbites, quotes, or pictures themselves and then posted on a personal Web site or blog and had the mainstream media pick it up (Peter Shaplen).

Together, the room mused about the lack of a viable, profitable business model in journalism; the convergence of who is considered a journalist and who can be a journalist (anybody...); the absolute necessity of becoming your own brand in the journalism industry; the obsession of paying attention to information shared online.

What the panelists and the audience didn't talk about were the consequences (intended or unintended) of becoming a society that is twitter-based, soundbite obsessed, computer screen tanned, and self-serving. Almost 10 years ago, Robert Putnam wrote in "Bowling Alone" about a technological society that was increasingly disconnected from everything but ourselves.

Although Moneysmith's point about using his twitter followers to get reliable information quickly is noteworthy, my point is that journalism, in a shortened, self-serving form doesn't serve the public's interest or advance the public discourse in a way that creates a robust, active citizenry....that is intent on the well-being of each other and their community as well as the well-being of the self.

So, one idea that was sparked by the panel was to investigate models of innovative journalism that were utilizing Web 2.0 and all the bells and whistles of technology to still serve the public's interest. There is one Web site (Spot.us) that is a nonprofit model where a story idea is pitched to the general public (the community) and then community members can donate money to that specific story idea if they want to see it done. This adds a whole new spin on investigative reporting--meaning if you have a vested interest in investigating a local community issue but do not have the time to do it yourself, you can, in essence, make a tax deductible donation to see it done.

As Bernhard reminded us, the Huffington Post is hiring three new investigative reporters. What are the innovative online journalism ventures seeking to serve the public's interest first and foremost and, perhaps in the process, provide a viable model for the future of journalism?

If you haven't done so already, check out CurrentTV or Current.com: One community model created for peer-to-peer news and information network.

--Jen Lovejoy