Betting on the news

Newsweek has a Web exclusive that looks as Newsfutures.com -- that's right, a site (with 15,000 active users) where gamblers bet on the news. Last week, virtual speculators correctly wagered that John Poindexter would resign. This week, theyíre predicting that Arnold Schwarzenegger will be Californiaís next governor. How accurate are their predictions? Is this the future of interactive news?

God, let's hope not.

The cord blood controversy

My niece had a baby today, little Elizabeth Thomas. One interesting side note: They saved the umbilical cord blood (I believe it cost over $1,000, with another $100 per year for storage). As it happens, this week's Newsweek carries a report questioning the practice, except in rare cases.

20 Worst Figures in American History

So here are the 20 Most Infamous Figures in American History from bloggers on the left and the right (c'mon, guys, use a little imagination -- Bill and Hillary Clinton taking two spots in the top 10?). Thanks to Doc for the pointer.

California in crisis

From the August 2003 issue of California Journal comes a special project that explores five major causes behind the political, financial and leadership crisis dominating Sacramento this year.

Blogger Susan Kitchens, who tripped across the package -- which explores the budget-making process, term-limits, reapportionment, and the recall -- says by email: "I feel far more informed about the state after reading it. Perhaps other Californians might also? I think it deserves more exposure." I agree. Thanks, Susan. (Also check out the beautiful photos that Susan posted yesterday.)

An interview on citizen journalism

Michel Dumais, technology columnist for Le Devoir, a newspaper in Quebec, interviewed me by e-mail over the weekend on the subject of what he calls citizen journalism and what I call participatory journalism.

He writes a journalism blog in conjunction with his newspaper column, and posted part one of our interview here, in French Canadian. And here is Dumais's column in Le Devoir. I recognize some familiar names in this graf:

Trois journalistes amÈricains, Dan Gillmor chroniqueur ÈmÈrite au SanJose MercuryNews, Doc Searls, journaliste et co-auteur du Cluetrain Manifesto et JD Lasica, rÈdacteur au Online Journalism Review, constatent eux aussi que cette crise est bien palpable et, selon Gillmor, ´celle-ci ira en s'amplifiant.

The interview covered online ethics, credibility, personal reporting and whether open-source journalism and traditional journalism can co-exist. I'll post it in full below ... in English.

Do you think thereís a credibility crisis with the institutional media vs. Mr. Joe Public?

Thereís a growing credibility gap between what the news media report and what the public believes. The explosion in the number of media sources over recent years has alerted people to the fact that what they read in the newspaper or see on television does not always reflect reality as they know it. The rise of what I call ëpersonal mediaí -- weblogs, independent niche news sites, and other forms of amateur journalism -- gives people the ability to ferret out the truth for themselves. New technologies allow ordinary people to become creators and producers of news instead of couch potatoes who passively absorb whatever institutional media funnel our way.

Do you think weblogs are a new form of journalism?

Few bloggers fancy themselves journalists, but many acknowledge that their blogs take on some of the trappings of journalism: They take part in the editorial function of selecting newsworthy and interesting topics, they add analysis, insight and commentary, and occasionally they provide a first-person report about an event, a trend, a subject. Over time, bloggers build up a publishing track record, much as any news publication does when it starts out.

Not all weblogs engage in journalism. But some clearly do. However, it is a journalism of a different sort, one not tightly confined by the professionís traditions and values.

If yes, what do you think it will bring to our profession? To the public?

Blogs bring fresh voices and alternative points of view to the public discourse. By making the news process more open, transparent and democratic, blogging also has a positive effect on the craft of journalism, although newsrooms still have a long, long way to go.

Have you published stories on your blog that you havenít check before? Why?

Iíve published a few stories on my blog that I havenít been able to verify, but always with an introduction saying that I donít know whether this is true. As a journalist, you get a sense of whether something passes ëthe smell test.í Because I donít receive any income from my weblog, I donít have the means to make long-distance phone calls and spend hours tracking down the accuracy of a report. Instead, I rely on my audience to serve that authentication function.

For instance, after Sept. 11, I received an unmarked e-mail that contained an amazing story about the hospitality of a town in Newfoundland that served as a waystation for airliners diverted from the United States because of the terrorist attacks. I posted the story on my weblog because it read like a true first-person account by the co-pilot of one of the diverted planes. I asked my readers whether anyone could verify the account. Within days, several readers pointed to corroborating evidence. Several journalists also contacted me, asking for additional information. And one Canadian journalist finally tracked down the author of the piece and informed me that his name was misspelled but otherwise the account was accurate.

In Gander, the hospitality of perfect strangers

A blog is sometimes a ìraw unedited feed.î Do you think there is a danger for the ìeditorî of a blog to publish a story without validating it first?

I believe all bloggers have a responsibility to state whether they know if a story they publish is true or is just an unverified report. But the main responsibility lies with the reader. I'm always amazed at the credulity of people who tend to believe something just because they read it on the Internet. We need to fine-tune our bullshit meters by expressing skepticism each time we come across a far-out story from an unverified source.

Almost every week a relative or friend sends me an e-mail saying they had 'heard this on the Internet' and wondered if it was true. I finally put up a Web page to steer people to sites that debunk Internet rumors. We should trust blogs and other Internet sources only to the extent that they have earned our trust.

Do you think traditional media will have to rely more and more on weblogs as a source of information? How will you judge the credibility of a story published on a blog?

Many bloggers have staked out a legitimate claim as experts in subjects as diverse as wireless networking, copyright infringement, sonnet poetry and much more. Their blogs are written with a high degree of insight and sophistication. I know of many readers who now turn to gifted amateurs or impassioned experts with a deep understanding of niche subjects, rather than to journalists who are generalists and cover topics a mile wide but an inch deep.

Can traditional journalism and this new ìcitizen journalismî co-exist? Do you think weblogs can offer something different to journalism?

Blogging will not replace traditional media or drive news organizations out of business. But citizen journalism will provide a valuable supplement to traditional media. When a major news event unfolds, most readers will continue to turn to institutional media for their news fix. But the story doesnít stop there. On almost any major story, the weblog community adds depth, analysis, alternative perspectives, foreign views, and occasionally first-person accounts that contravene reports in the mainstream press.

Journalists should not see blogs as a threat. For readers, itís not a binary, either-or choice. Instead of looking at blogging and traditional journalism as rivals, we should recognize that they complement each other, intersect with each other, play off one another.

Weblogs do offer new opportunities to journalists. Journalists who blog are doing things that they canít do in their traditional roles. On their blogs they ask readers for expert input, post the complete text of interviews alongside the published story, expose the raw material of their stories-in-progress, and write follow-up stories based on readersí tips and suggestions. Giving readers a voice in the editorial process -- by letting them provide meaningful feedback or suggesting story leads -- increases loyalty and understanding.

Do you think that a lot of journalists react negatively to blogs, comments from their readers and new technology because they donít want to accept the facts that sometimes readers know more than you?

I think journalists are often slow to adapt to change. We have been trained to think of ourselves as a special elite who report, filter and interpret the news for lay people. And itís hard to accept the notion that ordinary folks can use the tools of our trade to engage in journalism.

But I find that as journalists learn more about blogging, they accept this as an interesting new form of information and a good alternative source of expertise.

Where do you think weíre going with ìcitizen journalismî or ìopen source journalismî?

Weíre heading to a more open and democratic media ecosystem where people at all rungs of society get to participate in a dialogue about news. Take three examples from recent months:

ï During the peace demonstrations in February, Lisa Rein took to the streets of San Francisco and Oakland, camcorder in hand, and taped video footage of the marchers and speakers, such as congresswoman Barbara Lee, actor Harry Belafonte and antiwar activist Ron Kovic. She posted the video on her weblog, complete with color commentary, providing much deeper coverage of the events than a viewer would get by watching the local news.

ï At technology and media conferences, such as PopTech, South by Southwest and Digital Hollywood, bloggers in the audience have reported conference events in real time, posting photographs, speaker transcripts, and summaries and analysis of key points a full day before readers could see comparable stories in the daily newspaper.

ï On July 16, 2003, blogger Andy Baio reported on the tragedy in which an elderly driver plowed through the Santa Monica Farmers Market just outside Baioís office window. He had been walking down that street 20 minutes before. Baio described ìthe dead and dying" lying in the street and relayed first-hand reports from office co-workers who were eyewitnesses. He also posted a map of the accident scene, laid out a detailed chronology of events, and pointed to media coverage and photographs of the bloody scene.

What do you think of this statement: Weblogs will replace those big analyst houses that normally you consult when you need a source of niche expertise?

Blogs wonít completely replace the traditional analysts found in journalistsí Rolodexes. But blogs will become an increasingly important supplemental source of expert analysis. Thatís a welcome development. As media become more diverse, so will our sources of expert advice and commentary.

Do you think webloggers have less integrity than journalists?

No. Bloggers write chiefly out of passion. They want to share their views with others -- theyíre not in it for a paycheck. There are far more bloggers than journalists -- at last count, there are more than 700,000 active blogs -- and yet itís the journalism profession that produces scandals about fabricated stories, conflicts of interest, and other unethical behavior. Not all bloggers are honest, but those who betray their readersí trust are quickly found out by the blogosphereís fact-checking machinery.

What can journalists (and traditional media) learn from ìamateur journalistsî?

They can learn that personal voice -- an important hallmark of blogs -- still attracts a wide following. Institutional journalism too often drains the blood from colorful writing.

They can learn that there are alternative perspectives outside the sometimes narrow purview allowed by traditional media.

And they can discover the value of transparency. Letting readers know that journalists are talented, creative individuals who hold opinions on a variety of subjects can only help to repersonalize journalism and make journalists more human in their readersí eyes.

How can the bloggers will deal with problems related to trust, ethics, accuracy? And the law? Do you think that, when weíll see the first lawsuit against a blogger, the ìchilling effectî will force bloggers to autoregulate themselves?

I think itís readers who have to maintain a skeptical eye when reading anything on the Internet, including blogs.

I donít think the law will have much impact on where blogging is going. The ìgossipyî nature of blogging will always be with us, because informal communication is part of human nature.

With all those tools, (weblogs, moblogs, cellular phones, SMS, photophones, webcam, etc...) that enable anybody to be an editor or.... a victim (ref.: Trent Lott) of those ënew journalistsî, and now that the medias, the political advisors, the business men, etc., are becoming more aware of their impacts, do you think that weíll see people becoming more and more politically correct, afraid of what they say or do, will be 5 minutes later published on the Web? A plain jane vanilla society?

On the contrary, I see political leaders taking up the weblog form themselves to engage the public directly and to correct misimpressions fostered by traditional media. In mid-July, presidential candidate Howard Dean guest-blogged on Larry Lessigís weblog:

This week, presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich will do the same. Last week, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle began a weblog.

Yes, weblogs will hold political figures more accountable for their words and actions. Thatís a positive development.

What do you think of anonymity? Do you think that a weblogger, to have a minimum of credibility, should clearly identify himself? What can we believe? What can we trust?

Yes! I do not read anonymous weblogs, and I donít know why anyone would. The first thing I look for when I trip across an unfamiliar weblog is a link to the personís bio or background. How can we be expected to trust a personís observations or reports if we donít know who he is?

Thatís not to say that bloggers need professional credentials in order to blog. Anyone should be able to pick up the democratic tools of blogging. But the first rule ought to be, tell us about yourself.

Letís get back to moblogs and photophones. What about obtaining a permission? In some countries, like Canada, you need a permission before publishing a picture. What about reputation?

In Canada you need permission before publishing a photo taken in a public place? Certainly that canít be true of news photojournalists. Moblogging will force a reevaluation of traditional cultural mores and expectations. As the tools of personal media allow us all to become publishers, weíll be taking photos of friends, public speakers, protestors, street scenes and interesting-looking strangers, and e-mailing them to acquaintances and publishing them to photo blogs. That kind of free exchange of information and ideas -- that increase in openness and transparency -- will lead to some diminution of privacy, just as cell phones have increased our connectedness at the expense of our privacy.

Reputations wonít be ruined by moblogging. But perhaps carefully cultivated (and misleading) manufactured images will be punctured by the moblog paparazzi.

Weíve seen recently a new kind of site, RedPaper (www.redpaper.com) , where, as they say, RedPaper is the world's first collaborative Newspaper filled with articles for sale written by people from around the world. RedPaper's goal to is create an alternative to traditional media outlets by providing individuals with the capacity to publish valuable content on every matter of interest. What do you think of that new approach?

I hope they succeed, but I donít know if they can sustain their business model over the long haul. Weíre surrounded by so much free media today that getting people to pay money for editorial content is a real challenge.

6 degrees of separation: True or not?

The NY Times reports on the research done by Columbia University researchers on the six degrees of separation theory.

I was contacted by someone involved with the Columbia study last weekend, and passed on the e-mail to Susan Mernit, who knew the party in question. So for us, at least, it worked.

Here, take our Constitution

Good quip from Jay Leno from the Aug. 4 Tonight show regarding the current efforts to write a constitution for Iraq:

"Hey, why don't we send them ours? It worked well for us for over 200 years ... and we're not using it anymore."

Streaming Video, Cheap and Easy

From yesterday's Wired News:

As if the recording industry didn't already have its hands full suing music file traders, pretty soon anyone will be able to wirelessly stream high-quality, uninterrupted video and audio from their PCs to their TVs.

All they need is a pair of dongles, and voila -- the movie they've downloaded from the Internet appears on their TV screen.

"Typically, people will want to take MP3 files or music downloads and be able to play them through their stereo, which is a much better system than listening to music on a PC," said Ian McPherson, principal analyst at Wireless Data Research Group. "And as we get more bandwidth and more capabilities, we will see more streaming video applications that will be served by the PC in the home. But you still want to watch it on your television." ...

Keeping the Net Neutral

Salon: A coalition of big-name tech companies -- Microsoft, Amazon, eBay and others -- wants the feds to make sure that cable companies don't ruin the broadband Internet. Excerpt:

... Many of the people who've come to the defense of the cable industry in this fight are, like Thierer, of the libertarian school of telecom policy -- folks who believe that all regulations are bad regulations, certain to do more harm than good. Indeed, the cable industry's main argument is a paean to a live-and-let-live broadband marketplace -- a world in which regular market forces prevent cable company mischief. We won't do anything terrible, the cable firms say, because our customers would leave us if we did.

Can we trust your cable company -- and the free market -- to let us do what we want on the Internet? So far, there's no reason not to. But Gerry Waldron points out that the cable firms have both the technical capability and the financial incentive to block some things on the Internet and to feature others. And at least for now, the broadband world does not resemble a very free market; if customers get sick of their cable firm, most people have little choice to go elsewhere. ...

Another censorship attempt from the right

More censorship attempts from the right. This time, the Washington Post reports, Fox News Channel has sued Al Franken and his publishing house to stop them from using the expression "fair and balanced" in the title of his upcoming book.

Fox News, in a trademark infringement lawsuit filed in Manhattan, claims that it registered the expression "fair and balanced" in 1998.

That's not only outrageous, it's uproariously funny.

Here's Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them on Amazon. (Thanks to IWantMedia for the pointer.)

Meantime, Eschaton might want to reconsider its slogan -- Eschaton - Fair and Balanced -- before Fox comes after it for trademark infringement.

Students, plagiarism and original thinking

A professor of journalism ethics and aveteran journalist reports from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications conference in Kansas City. Excerpt:

Teachers assign ''reports'' that require nothing more than downloading and stitching together texts. Dumb, yes. But a generation ago, those reports required us to read a few articles and put them ''in your own words.'' So parroting is now a crime but paraphrasing was education?

The point is, if the information is right there, thanks to Google, education must shift to encouraging original thought. Why should a term paper confine itself to page upon page of readily available stuff when, as a teacher, it's the page or two of inspiration you pray for? Just as we no longer stress computational skills, because we assume that students have hand-held calculators, why continue to value rote learning -- and punish those who circumvent it? ...

One lighter moment at the conference came when a professor told of a student who handed in a first-rate essay that sounded familiar. Sure enough, he checked back into some professional journals and discovered the articles that were the verbatim source of the paper.

He called in the student, laid out the articles alongside her work and confronted her. She was stunned. ''I can't believe this,'' she said. ``The guy I bought the paper from assured me it was original.''

Arnold running a mime campaign

Patt Morrison in the LA Times: Arnold Schwarzenegger will evidently be running for governor as a mime, and other political stuff.

Arnold may turn out to be a good guv, but let's hear what he has to say. To claim that it's a campaign about character, not issues, is nothing but gamesmanship.

Hack your neighbor's fridge

New Scientist: Many Bluetooth gadgets open to wireless snooping.

How to find Saddam

How to find Saddam: sic the RIAA on him.

The Power Vacuum: More news from the right

Discovered on Slashdot: The Power Vacuum, which the editor (he goes by RootPimp on /.) calls "a slash site that provides political news and conservative analysis." It's a community news and commentary site in the mold of Slashdot.

Blogging and journalism in Canada

Just came across this May 27 article reporting on this year's Canadian Association of Journalists international conference. It's about blogs, participatory journalism and emerging technology.

I was flown up to Calgary five years ago for their convention, and the conference organizer picked my brain this year on the subject because he had never heard of weblogs.