Take note DUers - "We Are The Press" and how FDL made it stick.

[understandinglife]

Jeff Jarvis writes ...

Try this on as a new rule for newspapers: Cover what you do best. Link to the rest.

That’s not how newspapers work now. They try to cover everything because they used to have to be all things to all people in their markets. So they had their own reporters replicate the work of other reporters elsewhere so they could say that they did it under their own bylines as a matter of pride and propriety. It’s the way things were done. They also took wire-service copy and reedited it so they could give their audiences the world. But in the age of the link, this is clearly inefficient and unnecessary. You can link to the stories that someone else did and to the rest of the world. And if you do that, it allows you to reallocate your dwindling resources to what matters, which in most cases should be local coverage.

This changes the dynamic of editorial decisions. Instead of saying, “we should have that” (and replicating what is already out there) you say, “what do we do best?” That is, “what is our unique value?” It means that when you sit down to see a story that others have worked on, you should ask, “can we do it better?” If not, then link. And devote your time to what you can do better.

In the rearchitecture of news, what needs to happen is that people are driven to the best coverage, not the 87th version of the same coverage. This will work for publications and news organizations. It will also work for individuals; this is how a lone reporter’s work (and reputation) can surface. We saw that happening with the Libby trial and . As Jay Rosen said at our NPR confab last week — and I’ve heard this elsewhere — theirs became the best source for keeping up on the trial. Reporters and editors knew it and were using it. So those same reporters and editors should have been sending their readers to the blog as a service: ‘We’re not liveblogging it, but they are. We’ll give you our analysis and reporting later. Enjoy.’ That is where the architecture of news must go because links enable it and economics demand it.

<clip>

Let us continue to "rearchitect" our government as We the People ... take full charge of the fate of OUR Republic and never relinquish it again.


BE AMERICA. ---

[Dammit Ann]

1. It was truly inspiring. K&R

They did a GREAT job. I was there often and I was never disappointed.:patriot:

[Coexist]

2. One of my first thoughts after I heard of the verdict at work

1 - Wee heee - I actually spun around in my chair

2 - I am so happy for the Wilsons

3 - I hope all those at FDL have a well deserved night out and rest.

4 - I wish I could log onto DU and enjoy the victory party!

[understandinglife]

3. Transcript of Jeralyn Merritt's Q&A at WaPo - Libby Verdict

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/03/06/DI2007030600559.html

[understandinglife]

4. FDL: Joe Wilson’s Tele-Press Conference

Joe Wilson’s Tele-Press Conference



Disclaimer: this is NOT a transcript, but my quick, live notes.

2:30 EST

Melanie Sloan of CREW (MS): Thank you for coming. We're very pleased by verdict. Justice served. Valerie and Joe thank the prosecution team. No one above the law.

Civil case will proceed. It's about whether constitutional rights violated by administration. About abuse of power at highest echelons of government. Different from criminal case. Critical to continue to pursue this.

Joe Wilson (JW): We take great comfort that this is a nation of laws. No citizen is above the law. Respect the efforts of Walton and prosecution and jury.

Questions:

Q (John Amato): Congratulations. Will verdict help your civil case, and will Cheney be under further scrutiny?

JW: In aftermath of verdict, no reason for WH to hide behind ongoing trial to avoid questions. Would like to see Pres and VP share with the American people what they told the prosecutor during the investigation. The rest of this question I leave to my attorney.

Q: What new information will come out in the civil trial? Do you worry about chilling effect on the press?

MS: Civil case needs discovery to get additional facts, Libby, Armitage, Cheney others. Civil case is about justification for war and efforts to abuse power to retaliate against the Wilsons.

JW: The press was used and abused by the administration to deceive about rationale for war and then to launch campaign of disinformation against me by spewing lies about my family and me, Then Senior administration officials hid behind confidentiality of sources. Then, when that fell apart, the defense team put on the stand reporters for the sole purpose of humiliating them. Press should rethink efforts to protect sources engaged in disinformation campaigns.

<clip>

Much more at Pac's link, above

Bush, Cheney and all their neoconster fellow criminals will not prevail ....


Peace.

[Time for change]

5. Yes! -- Hopefully before too long there will be widespread recognition of how obsolete our

media is. Then they'll deservedly lose all their power.
:bounce:

[ms liberty]

6. K&R - excellent points n/t

[Tin Man]

7. Whether the media understands it yet, the OP nails the direction things are headed.

In the electronic age, news can be provided by a miriad of sources - like FDL. There'll always be "turf wars" over areas of common focus/interest in journalism, but ultimately the intellectually strong will vanquish the weak - and areas of overlap will diminish in the ensuing shake-out of the competing players.

[understandinglife]

8. In_deed. Intellectually rigorous, ethical social networks are going ...

... already having consequences that every aspect of traditional media and traditional governance are still largely clueless. Protecting the net should be our highest priority, followed by expanding access to every human mind on the planet.


Peace.

[NobleCynic]

9. Simplistic and misguided thought like that

Is why we only have AP and Reuters for wire services now. It comes dangerously close by implication to recommending there only be one media outlet/newspaper in any given market at any given time.

The newspaper industry isn't in trouble because it fails to be profitable. It has profit margins that would make any other industry envious. I'm taking margins of 20-30% average across the industry. It is in trouble because panicky and greedy wall street types are divesting newspapers of as much as possible as quickly as possible in order to maximize short run profits at the expense of the long term.

The newspaper business has panicked every time a new medium came along that they'd be run out of business. And they've been wrong every time. They panicked when television was invented, and newspaper stocks tanked. They panicked back when radio came out, and newspaper stocks tanked. They even panicked when the telegraph was invented, and the stocks tanked. And now they're panicking because of the internet. Newspaper stocks are down, sure. But the profits never stopped coming, and the newspaper industry is still going.

Check out Mother Jones for a much better review of what's happening to the newspaper industry.
<http://www.motherjones.com/news/featurex/2007/03/breaking_the_news_package.html>

[understandinglife]

10. Nope.

You missed the meme and the message ....


Peace.

[NobleCynic]

11. Under no circumstance

can I support any proposition that encourages newspapers to hire fewer people, and perhaps even lay off more.

Blogs may at times be more accurate and up to date than standard media. But there are also few to no checks or balances on the truthfulness or ideological skew of blogs. In fact, said blog could be positively full of it. Newspapers cannot simply link to outside sources for all of their stories. If an actual newspaper links to a blog, they take responsibility for the veracity of the facts within.

Yes, yes, I understand the meme "We are the media". But look around. And not around DU, this is a pretty bright and aware crowd, but around at the people of the country. The average person isn't that politically aware, isn't up to date with current events, and couldn't care. We need to use this alternate media to put pressure on the main stream media to cover certain stories or issues. It cannot supplant it. Blogs aren't going to get the same kind of respect among the general public that the NYTimes has, or CNN.

Yes, yes, I know. Standard media is at an alltime low in terms of respect among the public. It is beside the point. People are still going to take something they see in the newspaper or on television far more seriously than anything posted in a blog. Even if the blog is correct. The problem is, there are no reprocussions for a blog being incorrect. Newspapers face actual reprocussions for being incorrect.

A newspaper story, even if it says the exact same thing as a blog story, carries more weight. Because a newspaper puts its reputation behind every story that it prints. And people can see that reputation in the physical presence of the newspaper, its building downtown, its reporters in the community, the local and national advertisements in its pages, and its history.

What do bloggers have? No strings attached. Which means there is nothing to prevent them from telling the complete and brutal truth. But at the same time, people subconsciously or consciously realize there is also nothing stopping them from making up complete and total fabrications. Bloggers have everything, and nothing, all at the same time.

If the problem in the newspaper industry is that corporate consolidation and pillaging are slowly destroying the business, the answer is to break up the media monopolies and reinvest in the newsrooms and copy desks. The answer isn't to just change the newspaper industry into a link hub for blogs.

Lastly, the article's complaint that newspapers cover too many topics is ridiculous. What is a newspaper? A source of general news and information. General facts. Let me say that once again. General information. If you really want specific information on a specific topic, you don't read the newspaper as your primary source of information. You read a trade magazine, or a foreign affairs journal, something that exclusively covers the topic of interest. Specialization already exists within the news industry. It is called the Economist, or Guns & Ammo Magazine, or Orchids Magazine, or Small Farm Today Magazine. Whatever the subject you're interested in, there is probably already a completely devoted news organization dedicated to it. But to claim that newspapers need to specialize defeats the very purpose of the newspaper. To be an all purpose source of general news.

[understandinglife]

12. Still Missing It ...

... while I might suggest you stop fantasizing that you might be able to roll back reality -- that would only be enabling your dysfunctional approach to today and tomorrow and the day after .... beware -- you are among those who no longer have any currency in the world of the informed and those diligently seeking fact not fiction ... bye, bye ....


Peace.

[NobleCynic]

13. Oh I see now.

I disagree with the notion of the inevitable primacy of the blog. Therefore I must be delusional, dysfunctional, and completely unconcerned with the truth.

Goodness. Do you read the words that you type before you post?

[understandinglife]

14. bye ... bye ... bye bye ... bye ... bye ....

.... what part of that don't you get ... ??????????

BYE.