Here is a very good article defending the newsworthyness of blogs and the choices we make when selecting news. It's written by the great Canadian Science Fiction writer and Creative Commons advocate Cory Doctorow and published by the Canadian Brodcast Corporation:
Truth and the Net
By Cory Doctorow
Trusting what you read on the internet is a dangerous prospect, but it beats the alternative. At least on the internet, you get to choose your bias.
You can't trust what you read online. You can't trust what you read in the paper. You can't trust what you see on TV, or hear on the radio. You can't trust what your friend swears her brother's girlfriend said is true.
You can't trust anything – not with the gospel, bet-your-life trust that you reserve for things like gravity and death and your family.
You never could.
But for a long time, it sure seemed like you could. It seemed like any enterprise to which the CRTC gave a broadcast licence would surely conduct itself with dignity, fairness and accuracy. Anyone with the wherewithal to put a newspaper in your door in the morning, or get a magazine onto the stands surely wouldn't risk seeming wild or foolish by publishing untruths.
In hindsight, we know how wrong that was. Look at the CBC's infamous "Hippie Bill" segment where a young William Gibson (later to become a world-famous science fiction writer, but even then something of a storyteller) guided a gullible camera crew around the hippie paradise of Yorkville, inventing hippie argot and "facts" about the hippie lifestyle.
CBC.ca archives video: Yorkville Hippie haven, 1967
Look at how the New York Times omitted mention of Stephen Colbert's virtuoso performance at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Dinner, in which the comedian scorchingly denounced the press for its failure to address issues of moment in the Bush administration.
Consider the raft of woo-woo magazines advocating the use of crystal pyramids to improve gas-mileage, conspiracy books about alien abductions, racist monthly newspapers, nutjob talk-radio hosts, and the thousand other ways in which the truth is mangled, omitted, or reversed by the press. It's a truism that experts of all kinds wince when they see mainstream press coverage of their disciplines, anticipating the perennial clunkers, errors and mix-ups that characterize all generalist coverage of specialist subjects.
The most important difference between the internet and all the media that came before it is the cost of participation. On the internet, participation is pretty much free — or at least, it's in free-fall, with library terminals, cheap hardware, open WiFi and free training courses making the net available to ever-larger pools of people.
Almost anyone can participate. If having the money to run a publication was ever any kind of proxy for reliability, kiss it goodbye. You can't even count on a site's prominence as a barometer of its truthfulness. Wildly popular sites like the collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia can be edited by anyone who comes upon them, anonymously, and those edits show up live the instant they're made.
Media scholar Clay Shirky calls the pre-internet era the "select, then publish" epoch. It was a time when industrialists hired editors to choose from among the pool of available accounts of the world and its workings and publish those that suited their taste best.
Now we're in the era of "publish, then select." Gone is the era of a few news outlets who divide the pool of advertising dollars into substantial chunks and use those chunks to staff a newsroom full of investigative reporters.
Good riddance. We've got something better in "publish, then select" land. Investigative bloggers like Kathryn Cramer — whose hobby is tracking the movements and deeds of mercenary armies — post their initial impressions of a story, with whatever details they've gleaned. A horde of readers converges on the post and sends her corrections, argument, accord, evidence, and opinion. Cramer sifts through this to find what she considers credible and coherent, and adds new posts. In this incremental fashion, a truth emerges. Not the only truth (lots of the subjects of Cramer's posts strenuously object to them and tell her so on her site and on their own), but a truth nevertheless.
Other collaborative projects like Wikipedia — an encyclopedia with more than one million entries that anyone can edit — go one further, deploying elaborate tool-suites so that readers can, with a little effort, see who contributed what to which Wikipedia posts and when. Wikipedia articles are just the surface, beneath which lurks a palimpsest, revealing the chatter, denunciations, and consensus-building that yielded the current version of the truth.
Wikipedia gets it wrong all the time. So do bloggers. But then, so do newspapers, magazines, TV and radio. The interesting thing about systems isn't how they perform when they're working to specification, it's what happens when they fail.
Blogs, Wikipedia, and other online media fail gracefully indeed. When a newspaper gets a story wrong, it can take 24 hours to get a correction out – if it corrects it at all. There's no ready way to link criticism of a newspaper article with the article itself. Certainly, you can't make the edits yourself.
But if you find an error in a Wikipedia entry, you can fix it yourself. You can join the discussion about whether a blogger got it wrong. Automated tools like Technorati link together all the different blogs discussing the same topic, turning them into a conversation.
As advertising dollars are gobbled up by Google, Craigslist and eBay, major media outlets are slashing their newsrooms and their editorial staff, making do with generic syndicated material off the wires, contracting "truth" to a few accounts, a few biases. Meanwhile, "citizen journalists" of publish-then-select are discovering that you can fact-check on the cheap, without a Chumcity or Torstar building behind you, provided you do so *after* you go to press.
The news isn't just something your audience/funders receive in completed parcels. It's something they come to understand by looking at the story from many angles, through a multiplicity of online sources.
A public service broadcaster that wants to truly provide a service to the public can do better than merely producing yet another account of events. It can provide tools to help its audience explore the story as it emerges.
Imagine a future where "public service" news is a set of collaborative online tools that help citizens piece together coherent accounts of events as they unfold: message-boards that let you fly over to get the gist of the conversation, or drill down to see the nitty-gritty of individual discussions. Something that helped users create persistent identities through which their contributions could be permanently linked over time. Something that turned the news into a palimpsest where every buried body could be disinterred and examined for wounds.
Most of all, a public service broadcaster could be the repository for the raw materials of the news: public, freely reusable databases of geodata, audiovisual news morgues, and user-created AV materials that the broadcaster could host permanently in a stable archive. As public service broadcasters around the world developed comparable archives, these could be reciprocally linked, giving Canadians access to the BBC, Britons access to Deutsche Welle, Germans access to Radio France. If bloggers and other citizen journalists represent a future for newsgathering and reportage, public service entities like the CBC should be working to fill in the infrastructure gaps that presently stand between them and a well-rounded, wide-ranging, timely and balanced view of the news.
Meanwhile, it's not sloppiness that compels a blogger to publish before all the facts are in hand. The way a blogger gets all the facts on hand is by publishing, attracting a discussion, and figuring out what's really going on, as best as anyone can figure it.
It's a lot of work, getting to the truth. Reading the newspaper is easy. Choosing whose news to believe is hard — but if it's the truth you're after, and not just some dominant narrative du jour, there's no getting around it.
Do you share Cory Doctorow’s view about the truth of what you read online? Are "citizen journalists" making the online world more trustworthy?
Share your comments »
Cory Doctorow (www.craphound.com) was born in Toronto and lives in London, England. He is a science fiction novelist, blogger and technology activist and co-editor of the weblog Boing Boing (www.boingboing.net). Doctorow is a contributor to Wired, Popular Science, MAKE, the New York Times and other newspapers, magazines and websites. He is a former director of European affairs for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit civil liberties group that defends freedom in technology law, policy, standards and treaties. He currently serves on several boards and advisory boards including Participatory Culture Foundation and Technorati, Inc.
Doctorow was a keynote speaker at the CBC.ca Web Ed 2006 conference. He spoke on the limits of copyright online.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Friday, July 14, 2006
Citizen journalists get rewarded
Here is an interesting report from the BBC about this new wave of journalism which comes, as from here, cell phone photographs but also from blogs, web pages and internet discussion boards.
The judges were unanimous in choosing the winning image.
Enlarge Image
A picture taken moments after a bomb exploded on a number 30 bus in London's Tavistock Square on 7 July 2005 has won the first citizen journalism award.
Second prize went to a shot of the Buncefield oil terminal fire taken by a passenger in a plane.
The awards, set up by Nokia and the UK Press Gazette, aim to highlight images shot by citizens witnessing events.
The popularity of camera phones means more images of significant events are reaching news organisations.
I witness
Increasingly the well-known pictures of significant events around the world, such as the bombings in London on 7 July 2005, are coming from citizens rather than professional photographers.
The shot taken of the immediate aftermath of the Tavistock Square bomb was widely publicised in newspapers and on the BBC. The judges of the award were unanimous in choosing it as the winner.
Vicky Taylor, BBC News Interactivity editor and one of the judges, said: "I went with the pictures which were taken by people almost by chance. They did not set out to photograph an event, it just happened in front of them."
David Otway's shot of Buncefield won second prize
Ian Reeves, editor of Press Gazette, said "It's clear from the quality of the entries to these awards that citizen journalism, however you define it, is going to play an increasingly significant role in the industry."
The person who took the Tavistock Square photograph elected to remain anonymous and asked for the prize to be donated to one of the London bombings charities.
The third prize went to another photograph taken of the aftermath of the 7 July bombings. The image was taken by Alexander Chadwick in the tunnels of London's Piccadilly Line as commuters made their way to a station from the bombed train.
To be eligible for the award, pictures had to be taken between 1 May 2005 and 20 April 2006. They also had to have been published in a known magazine, newspaper or broadcast or seen on a self-published blog, citizen journalism site or photo-sharing service.
Here is an interesting report from the BBC about this new wave of journalism which comes, as from here, cell phone photographs but also from blogs, web pages and internet discussion boards.
The judges were unanimous in choosing the winning image.
Enlarge Image
A picture taken moments after a bomb exploded on a number 30 bus in London's Tavistock Square on 7 July 2005 has won the first citizen journalism award.
Second prize went to a shot of the Buncefield oil terminal fire taken by a passenger in a plane.
The awards, set up by Nokia and the UK Press Gazette, aim to highlight images shot by citizens witnessing events.
The popularity of camera phones means more images of significant events are reaching news organisations.
I witness
Increasingly the well-known pictures of significant events around the world, such as the bombings in London on 7 July 2005, are coming from citizens rather than professional photographers.
The shot taken of the immediate aftermath of the Tavistock Square bomb was widely publicised in newspapers and on the BBC. The judges of the award were unanimous in choosing it as the winner.
Vicky Taylor, BBC News Interactivity editor and one of the judges, said: "I went with the pictures which were taken by people almost by chance. They did not set out to photograph an event, it just happened in front of them."
David Otway's shot of Buncefield won second prize
Ian Reeves, editor of Press Gazette, said "It's clear from the quality of the entries to these awards that citizen journalism, however you define it, is going to play an increasingly significant role in the industry."
The person who took the Tavistock Square photograph elected to remain anonymous and asked for the prize to be donated to one of the London bombings charities.
The third prize went to another photograph taken of the aftermath of the 7 July bombings. The image was taken by Alexander Chadwick in the tunnels of London's Piccadilly Line as commuters made their way to a station from the bombed train.
To be eligible for the award, pictures had to be taken between 1 May 2005 and 20 April 2006. They also had to have been published in a known magazine, newspaper or broadcast or seen on a self-published blog, citizen journalism site or photo-sharing service.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
WHEN NEWSPAPERS FALL FOR POLITICAL "DROPS"
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/truth-loses-when-only-half-the-story-will-do/2006/07/02/1151778807051.html?
"Next time you see an 'exclusive' tag on a story about state
politics, stop and have a closer look. The chances are that the
story, far from being a feat of journalistic endeavor, is what we
call in the trade 'a drop,'" writes Anne Davies in the Sydney
Morning Herald. "You'll be able to tell it's a drop because it's
likely to quote one side of politics only. This is often a condition
of the drop." Drops, especially those in Sunday papers, help
politicians influence the week's media agenda. Presenting
government-sanctioned leaks as "exclusives" also helps newspapers
gain a marketing edge over their rivals. Uncritical reporting of a
drop, Davies concludes, "may be of mutual benefit to newspapers and
politicians, but it's certainly not in the public's interest."
SOURCE: Sydney Morning Herald, July 3, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/4947
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/truth-loses-when-only-half-the-story-will-do/2006/07/02/1151778807051.html?
"Next time you see an 'exclusive' tag on a story about state
politics, stop and have a closer look. The chances are that the
story, far from being a feat of journalistic endeavor, is what we
call in the trade 'a drop,'" writes Anne Davies in the Sydney
Morning Herald. "You'll be able to tell it's a drop because it's
likely to quote one side of politics only. This is often a condition
of the drop." Drops, especially those in Sunday papers, help
politicians influence the week's media agenda. Presenting
government-sanctioned leaks as "exclusives" also helps newspapers
gain a marketing edge over their rivals. Uncritical reporting of a
drop, Davies concludes, "may be of mutual benefit to newspapers and
politicians, but it's certainly not in the public's interest."
SOURCE: Sydney Morning Herald, July 3, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/4947
Here is a really great story from the CBC on how a Canadian thinks a war should be fought in the 21st century. What are the chances?
DON MURRAY:
War by other means
July 11, 2006 | More from Don Murray
Don Murray is one of the most prolific of the CBC's foreign correspondents, filing hundreds of reports - in French and English - from China, Europe, the Middle East and the Soviet Union. He is currently based in London as the senior European correspondent for CBC Television News.
During his 30 years with CBC, Murray has covered a multitude of major stories, including the advent of perestroika and glasnost and the collapse of the Soviet Union. He wrote A Democracy of Despots, a book documenting that collapse and the rebirth of Russia. While in Berlin, he covered the peace agreement ending the war in Bosnia and, in London, covered the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and the peace agreement in Northern Ireland. He authored Family Wars, a major feature article for the International Journal paralleling the troubles in Northern Ireland and the war in Bosnia. In recent years he has covered the wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Von Clausewitz would have approved. The great 19th-century military thinker, the author of On War, was German and clinical. Among his many insights was this one: "When we speak of destroying the enemy's forces we must emphasize that nothing obliges us to limit this idea to physical forces: the moral element must also be considered."
The moral element. This was at the heart of the matter on the field in Berlin and in distressed conversations in France in the wake of its team's loss in the soccer World Cup final against Italy.
What had the Italian player Marco Materazzi said to the incomparable French captain, Zinedine Zidane, that caused him to lose his moral compass and commit a professional foul with 10 minutes to go in the tight game? Zidane headbutted the Italian and was shown a red card by the referee. He was thrown out of the game. France's penalty kicker was banished. Ten minutes later, they lost on penalty kicks.
The French coach, Raymond Domenech, understood immediately and bitterly. The player of the game, he said, was Materazzi: he had destroyed France's chief weapon.
Materazzi had not used physical violence; the French agreed on that. He had used mental violence: he had used words. But which words? Across France, the suppositions and rumours run. He had called Zidane, whose parents are Algerian, a terrorist. He had insulted Zidane's mother. In the crowd, Hamid, like Zidane a Frenchman of Algerian origin, fixed on this second interpretation. Of course Zidane had to react. Materazzi had wounded his family, his very self-esteem.
But in acting, Zidane had lost the battle. Italy lifted the prize. In that country, joy was unconfined. As the team returned in triumph to Rome, the streets filled. This was not the second coming, but the fourth coming of the World Cup to Italy. For Italian fans, it was almost a glimpse of paradise even if the descent to soccer hell may soon follow. Four of Italy’s top domestic teams, for which several of the World Cup stars play during the season, are wrapped in the tentacles of scandal involving match fixing and referee tampering. Within days, the teams may be relegated to the minor leagues.
Paradise glimpsed is far better than Paradise Lost, butted away, many in France think, by the head of Zidane.
Consolation and absolution
The day after the fatal game, the French team had to endure the purgatory of official thanks for being second-best. It began with handshakes from France's embattled president, Jacques Chirac, who can only dream of the popularity the French players enjoy. Then, in the garden of the presidential palace, came consoling words for Zidane. You are a genius of international football, Jacques Chirac told him. You have a great heart and great commitment. France loves you.
The players then travelled five minutes down the road to the Place de la Concorde where once the guillotine had stood. What awaited them was not execution but absolution. A crowd of several thousand faithful bathed them in applause and thanks as they stood on the balcony of a luxury hotel. This raucous outpouring of esteem was directed particularly at Zidane. The talismanic captain had played his last game; he had already announced he was retiring after the World Cup. He was still loved, and greatly.
The affection was also directed at David Trezeguet, whose missed penalty kick lost the championship for France. As the ovation washed up, he broke down. This was not Italy; this was not joy unconfined. But it was full remission for football sins.
One further point: two European nations were pitted against each as the world watched. Yet no one died.
Breaking boredom's bonds
Exactly 90 years ago, European nations were also pitted against one another in battle. On the first day of the battle of the Somme, 20,000 British soldiers died. Almost 400,000 European combatants would be chewed up by the end of the months-long battle. And it was only one of many in the First World War.
The cultural historian George Steiner has advanced the theory that one of the prime causes of that colossal carnage was ennui or spleen – boredom. French poets like Baudelaire were writing about the terrible burden of this ennui decades before. Steiner suggests that European nations rushed headlong into war to break the iron bonds of boredom.
Ennui still stalks the world; nations still square off. But soccer is the preferred form of combat, 22 men in T-shirts and shorts, kicking a round ball. As Von Clausewitz might have said, this is war by other means.
While France forgave its hero Zidane, others were not so kind. 'Zidane-Amok' was the headline in a German tabloid; 'Zid Vicious' was the choice of its British equivalent. Editorialists weighed in with words of censure for his heinous act.
The headbutted Materazzi fell to the ground but rose again to finish the game and raise the championship trophy. No one died.
Consider again the axiom of the German thinker: the moral element must also be considered.
DON MURRAY:
War by other means
July 11, 2006 | More from Don Murray
Don Murray is one of the most prolific of the CBC's foreign correspondents, filing hundreds of reports - in French and English - from China, Europe, the Middle East and the Soviet Union. He is currently based in London as the senior European correspondent for CBC Television News.
During his 30 years with CBC, Murray has covered a multitude of major stories, including the advent of perestroika and glasnost and the collapse of the Soviet Union. He wrote A Democracy of Despots, a book documenting that collapse and the rebirth of Russia. While in Berlin, he covered the peace agreement ending the war in Bosnia and, in London, covered the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and the peace agreement in Northern Ireland. He authored Family Wars, a major feature article for the International Journal paralleling the troubles in Northern Ireland and the war in Bosnia. In recent years he has covered the wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Von Clausewitz would have approved. The great 19th-century military thinker, the author of On War, was German and clinical. Among his many insights was this one: "When we speak of destroying the enemy's forces we must emphasize that nothing obliges us to limit this idea to physical forces: the moral element must also be considered."
The moral element. This was at the heart of the matter on the field in Berlin and in distressed conversations in France in the wake of its team's loss in the soccer World Cup final against Italy.
What had the Italian player Marco Materazzi said to the incomparable French captain, Zinedine Zidane, that caused him to lose his moral compass and commit a professional foul with 10 minutes to go in the tight game? Zidane headbutted the Italian and was shown a red card by the referee. He was thrown out of the game. France's penalty kicker was banished. Ten minutes later, they lost on penalty kicks.
The French coach, Raymond Domenech, understood immediately and bitterly. The player of the game, he said, was Materazzi: he had destroyed France's chief weapon.
Materazzi had not used physical violence; the French agreed on that. He had used mental violence: he had used words. But which words? Across France, the suppositions and rumours run. He had called Zidane, whose parents are Algerian, a terrorist. He had insulted Zidane's mother. In the crowd, Hamid, like Zidane a Frenchman of Algerian origin, fixed on this second interpretation. Of course Zidane had to react. Materazzi had wounded his family, his very self-esteem.
But in acting, Zidane had lost the battle. Italy lifted the prize. In that country, joy was unconfined. As the team returned in triumph to Rome, the streets filled. This was not the second coming, but the fourth coming of the World Cup to Italy. For Italian fans, it was almost a glimpse of paradise even if the descent to soccer hell may soon follow. Four of Italy’s top domestic teams, for which several of the World Cup stars play during the season, are wrapped in the tentacles of scandal involving match fixing and referee tampering. Within days, the teams may be relegated to the minor leagues.
Paradise glimpsed is far better than Paradise Lost, butted away, many in France think, by the head of Zidane.
Consolation and absolution
The day after the fatal game, the French team had to endure the purgatory of official thanks for being second-best. It began with handshakes from France's embattled president, Jacques Chirac, who can only dream of the popularity the French players enjoy. Then, in the garden of the presidential palace, came consoling words for Zidane. You are a genius of international football, Jacques Chirac told him. You have a great heart and great commitment. France loves you.
The players then travelled five minutes down the road to the Place de la Concorde where once the guillotine had stood. What awaited them was not execution but absolution. A crowd of several thousand faithful bathed them in applause and thanks as they stood on the balcony of a luxury hotel. This raucous outpouring of esteem was directed particularly at Zidane. The talismanic captain had played his last game; he had already announced he was retiring after the World Cup. He was still loved, and greatly.
The affection was also directed at David Trezeguet, whose missed penalty kick lost the championship for France. As the ovation washed up, he broke down. This was not Italy; this was not joy unconfined. But it was full remission for football sins.
One further point: two European nations were pitted against each as the world watched. Yet no one died.
Breaking boredom's bonds
Exactly 90 years ago, European nations were also pitted against one another in battle. On the first day of the battle of the Somme, 20,000 British soldiers died. Almost 400,000 European combatants would be chewed up by the end of the months-long battle. And it was only one of many in the First World War.
The cultural historian George Steiner has advanced the theory that one of the prime causes of that colossal carnage was ennui or spleen – boredom. French poets like Baudelaire were writing about the terrible burden of this ennui decades before. Steiner suggests that European nations rushed headlong into war to break the iron bonds of boredom.
Ennui still stalks the world; nations still square off. But soccer is the preferred form of combat, 22 men in T-shirts and shorts, kicking a round ball. As Von Clausewitz might have said, this is war by other means.
While France forgave its hero Zidane, others were not so kind. 'Zidane-Amok' was the headline in a German tabloid; 'Zid Vicious' was the choice of its British equivalent. Editorialists weighed in with words of censure for his heinous act.
The headbutted Materazzi fell to the ground but rose again to finish the game and raise the championship trophy. No one died.
Consider again the axiom of the German thinker: the moral element must also be considered.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
This is.....so.............international!
-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MDN presents 'Manglish - Manga in English' |
| from the dept. |
| posted by Hemos on Monday July 03, @08:07 (Anime) |
| http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/03/1159239 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Mainichi Daily News writes "Japan's leading English news site
revolutionizes manga -- Manga lovers rejoice! A never-seen-before
approach to manga made its debut on the Mainichi Daily News on Monday,
July 3, 2006. [1]Manglish takes some of Japan's hottest young manga
talents -- showcased in the Mainichi's MangaTown site -- and places their
creations on the MDN in their original Japanese format. However, cool
thing is that while it appears on the site in the original Japanese, but
if you run your mouse over it you get the translation in English.
Discuss this story at:
http://features.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/07/03/1159239
Links:
0. http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/
1. http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/entertainment/etc/manglish/index.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MDN presents 'Manglish - Manga in English' |
| from the dept. |
| posted by Hemos on Monday July 03, @08:07 (Anime) |
| http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/03/1159239 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Mainichi Daily News writes "Japan's leading English news site
revolutionizes manga -- Manga lovers rejoice! A never-seen-before
approach to manga made its debut on the Mainichi Daily News on Monday,
July 3, 2006. [1]Manglish takes some of Japan's hottest young manga
talents -- showcased in the Mainichi's MangaTown site -- and places their
creations on the MDN in their original Japanese format. However, cool
thing is that while it appears on the site in the original Japanese, but
if you run your mouse over it you get the translation in English.
Discuss this story at:
http://features.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/07/03/1159239
Links:
0. http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/
1. http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/entertainment/etc/manglish/index.html
Monday, July 03, 2006
Sunday, July 02, 2006
The influence of blogs on journalism and the media and the public that reads them all. Excellent article from the BBC on the accuracy challenge for blogging>
Blagging in the blogosphere
VIEWPOINT
Richard Ladle
Blogs are revolutionising the way millions of people around the world keep in touch with environmental issues, but at what cost? Richard Ladle, in this week's Green Room, says the growing popularity of web-based journals is making it harder to sort fact from fiction.
Luiz is worried. He has just read in O Globo, Brazil's premier newspaper, that the Amazon may be completely gone by the year 2050.
Ana, a Brazilian living in the UK reads about the deforestation statistics in Luiz's web diary, otherwise known as a "blog", and is so concerned that she emails it to all her friends.
Joy, Ana's friend from Hong Kong, translates part of Ana's email into Mandarin Chinese and pastes it into her blog, which is read by Cheryl, a primary school teacher in Singapore who decides to discuss deforestation in her class.
And so things go in the borderless, unregulated, democratised world of the internet. Now, we no longer have to rely on the television or the newspapers to find out about the latest scientific advance or environmental catastrophe.
Scientific information and "expert" opinions are literally just a mouse-click away. However, unlike the traditional news media, the internet has no gatekeepers, no reviewers, and no authority to help you distinguish good science from the bad, environmental fact from environmental fiction.
Rise of the blog
The latest craze to sweep across cyberspace is the use of blogs, frequently updated websites that contain a mixture of personal observations, excerpts from other sources, and links to other websites, online journals or diaries.
Despite the growing popularity of blogs they are still viewed with considerable suspicion by both scientists and the general public
Unlike traditional web pages that are essentially static in nature, it is interactions between weblogs which makes them so interesting and influential.
When linked together into intertwining communities, or "blogospheres", they provide a communication platform of incredible power and complexity where information and opinions are exchanged, transformed and reworked with astounding rapidity across international boundaries and time zones.
There are already nearly 12 million weblogs in existence and it is estimated that this number is doubling every five months. However, despite the growing popularity of blogs they are still viewed with considerable suspicion by both scientists and the general public.
A recent international survey of public trust in the media, conducted for the BBC and Reuters, found that internet blogs were the least trusted source of news information, with one in two people unable to say if they trusted them.
The public are right to be cautious. Misrepresentation of environmental science on the internet is widespread and weblogs are by no means a special case. From deforestation rates in the Amazon to climate change statistics, nothing is necessarily how it appears.
Furthermore, unlike most traditional forms of media that have gatekeepers, people whose job it is validate facts, check copy, exert some sort of quality control; the defining characteristic of the blogosphere is its lack of regulation.
Inspire or conspire?
Misreporting and misrepresentation are important because they can lead to a loss of trust at a time when public support for pro-environmental policies is most crucial.
Poor reporting of environmental science may also have a disproportionate effect on children who are increasingly turning the internet as their preferred source of information and who are least able to judge the validity of claims or the legitimacy of one blog over another.
So how should we be responding to the challenges and opportunities presented by the blogosphere?
One way to deal with misrepresentation in blogs is to increase the weight of informed opinions in the blogosphere. An influx of scientifically informed opinion and accurate information would also help combat and correct misrepresentations in the traditional news media and draw public attention to important new research findings.
Whatever precautions are taken there is always scope for being mislead or misdirected and for work to appear out of context
Weblogs could also be used to inspire the next generation of environmentalists. For instance, blogging is the perfect way for field biologists and conservationists to communicate the soap opera quality of working and living in the field.
Furthermore, new wireless communication systems and solar technology now make real-time blogging from the remotest of locations a strong possibility.
The diversity of views that can be found on the internet is one of its greatest strengths. However, associated with such freedom of information is a lack of quality control which can make it hard to sift through the weight of uninformed, misguided or misleading websites and weblogs.
One of the challenges of living in a media world without gatekeepers is that we need to take far more personal responsibility for assessing the quality of scientific information that we receive.
Fortunately, there are several ways in which the credibility of a website or blog can be quickly assessed:
Check the data - strong scientific arguments are based on information from recognised sources that is available for public scrutiny, while weak or spurious arguments are often backed up with data from secondary sources or often no data at all
Take note of the language - arguments couched in hyperbolic language may be masking a lack of understanding or sound information
Whatever precautions are taken there is always scope for being mislead or misdirected and for work to appear out of context - even when the exact figures are readily available for public scrutiny.
In the blogosphere the individual is king and everyone, rightly or wrongly, can become part of the news
This transition from individuals consuming their environmental news from traditional sources such as newspapers and television to selecting their news from the "electronic buffet" of the internet could have profound implications for the environmental movement and, for that matter, news providers such as the BBC.
The challenge has been laid down: how to effectively communicate in this new virtual world of shifting environmental values and consumption patterns?
There are no easy answers but if we don't respond quickly we run the risk of creating a generation of eco-illiterate consumers and voters at a crucial time for the Earth's diminishing resources.
In the blogosphere the individual is king and everyone, rightly or wrongly, can become part of the news. Dangers and opportunities abound and never before has there been a greater responsibility on individuals to be more discriminating news consumers.
But, at the end of the day, if you don't like what you are reading then you can always start your own blog and tell the world about it!
Dr Richard Ladle is director of MSc Biodiversity, Conservation and Management at Oxford University, and a senior partner of Sustainable Solutions Worldwide
The Green Room is a series of opinion pieces on environmental issues running weekly on the BBC News website
A series of thought-provoking environmental opinion pieces
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/5099764.stm
Published: 2006/06/23 07:19:36 GMT
© BBC MMVI
Blagging in the blogosphere
VIEWPOINT
Richard Ladle
Blogs are revolutionising the way millions of people around the world keep in touch with environmental issues, but at what cost? Richard Ladle, in this week's Green Room, says the growing popularity of web-based journals is making it harder to sort fact from fiction.
Luiz is worried. He has just read in O Globo, Brazil's premier newspaper, that the Amazon may be completely gone by the year 2050.
Ana, a Brazilian living in the UK reads about the deforestation statistics in Luiz's web diary, otherwise known as a "blog", and is so concerned that she emails it to all her friends.
Joy, Ana's friend from Hong Kong, translates part of Ana's email into Mandarin Chinese and pastes it into her blog, which is read by Cheryl, a primary school teacher in Singapore who decides to discuss deforestation in her class.
And so things go in the borderless, unregulated, democratised world of the internet. Now, we no longer have to rely on the television or the newspapers to find out about the latest scientific advance or environmental catastrophe.
Scientific information and "expert" opinions are literally just a mouse-click away. However, unlike the traditional news media, the internet has no gatekeepers, no reviewers, and no authority to help you distinguish good science from the bad, environmental fact from environmental fiction.
Rise of the blog
The latest craze to sweep across cyberspace is the use of blogs, frequently updated websites that contain a mixture of personal observations, excerpts from other sources, and links to other websites, online journals or diaries.
Despite the growing popularity of blogs they are still viewed with considerable suspicion by both scientists and the general public
Unlike traditional web pages that are essentially static in nature, it is interactions between weblogs which makes them so interesting and influential.
When linked together into intertwining communities, or "blogospheres", they provide a communication platform of incredible power and complexity where information and opinions are exchanged, transformed and reworked with astounding rapidity across international boundaries and time zones.
There are already nearly 12 million weblogs in existence and it is estimated that this number is doubling every five months. However, despite the growing popularity of blogs they are still viewed with considerable suspicion by both scientists and the general public.
A recent international survey of public trust in the media, conducted for the BBC and Reuters, found that internet blogs were the least trusted source of news information, with one in two people unable to say if they trusted them.
The public are right to be cautious. Misrepresentation of environmental science on the internet is widespread and weblogs are by no means a special case. From deforestation rates in the Amazon to climate change statistics, nothing is necessarily how it appears.
Furthermore, unlike most traditional forms of media that have gatekeepers, people whose job it is validate facts, check copy, exert some sort of quality control; the defining characteristic of the blogosphere is its lack of regulation.
Inspire or conspire?
Misreporting and misrepresentation are important because they can lead to a loss of trust at a time when public support for pro-environmental policies is most crucial.
Poor reporting of environmental science may also have a disproportionate effect on children who are increasingly turning the internet as their preferred source of information and who are least able to judge the validity of claims or the legitimacy of one blog over another.
So how should we be responding to the challenges and opportunities presented by the blogosphere?
One way to deal with misrepresentation in blogs is to increase the weight of informed opinions in the blogosphere. An influx of scientifically informed opinion and accurate information would also help combat and correct misrepresentations in the traditional news media and draw public attention to important new research findings.
Whatever precautions are taken there is always scope for being mislead or misdirected and for work to appear out of context
Weblogs could also be used to inspire the next generation of environmentalists. For instance, blogging is the perfect way for field biologists and conservationists to communicate the soap opera quality of working and living in the field.
Furthermore, new wireless communication systems and solar technology now make real-time blogging from the remotest of locations a strong possibility.
The diversity of views that can be found on the internet is one of its greatest strengths. However, associated with such freedom of information is a lack of quality control which can make it hard to sift through the weight of uninformed, misguided or misleading websites and weblogs.
One of the challenges of living in a media world without gatekeepers is that we need to take far more personal responsibility for assessing the quality of scientific information that we receive.
Fortunately, there are several ways in which the credibility of a website or blog can be quickly assessed:
Check the data - strong scientific arguments are based on information from recognised sources that is available for public scrutiny, while weak or spurious arguments are often backed up with data from secondary sources or often no data at all
Take note of the language - arguments couched in hyperbolic language may be masking a lack of understanding or sound information
Whatever precautions are taken there is always scope for being mislead or misdirected and for work to appear out of context - even when the exact figures are readily available for public scrutiny.
In the blogosphere the individual is king and everyone, rightly or wrongly, can become part of the news
This transition from individuals consuming their environmental news from traditional sources such as newspapers and television to selecting their news from the "electronic buffet" of the internet could have profound implications for the environmental movement and, for that matter, news providers such as the BBC.
The challenge has been laid down: how to effectively communicate in this new virtual world of shifting environmental values and consumption patterns?
There are no easy answers but if we don't respond quickly we run the risk of creating a generation of eco-illiterate consumers and voters at a crucial time for the Earth's diminishing resources.
In the blogosphere the individual is king and everyone, rightly or wrongly, can become part of the news. Dangers and opportunities abound and never before has there been a greater responsibility on individuals to be more discriminating news consumers.
But, at the end of the day, if you don't like what you are reading then you can always start your own blog and tell the world about it!
Dr Richard Ladle is director of MSc Biodiversity, Conservation and Management at Oxford University, and a senior partner of Sustainable Solutions Worldwide
The Green Room is a series of opinion pieces on environmental issues running weekly on the BBC News website
A series of thought-provoking environmental opinion pieces
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/5099764.stm
Published: 2006/06/23 07:19:36 GMT
© BBC MMVI
Research is the basis for most good journalism. Here is an article from the New York Times on just that:
ECONOMIC VIEW
Giving It Away, Then and Now
By DANIEL GROSS
The announcement that Warren E. Buffett would donate most
of his fortune to a foundation created by Bill Gates sent
reporters to the history stacks.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/02/business/yourmoney/02view.html?th&emc=th
ECONOMIC VIEW
Giving It Away, Then and Now
By DANIEL GROSS
The announcement that Warren E. Buffett would donate most
of his fortune to a foundation created by Bill Gates sent
reporters to the history stacks.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/02/business/yourmoney/02view.html?th&emc=th
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Reporters can start out poorly educated and dumb but they are forced to become knowledgeble, sensetive and aware of all historical movements. This may be the activity of the rest of your life. Remember that the guys who are doing the xxx thing here are the same ones that excomunicated Leonarod DeVinci and Kazinzakis, actually they also did Coprinicus and anybody else with a brain. Pitiful really.
Excommunication Is Sought for Stem Cell Researchers
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Stem cell researchers should be punished in the same way as
women who have abortions and doctors who perform them, a
senior Vatican official said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/01/world/europe/01vatican.html?th&emc=th
Excommunication Is Sought for Stem Cell Researchers
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Stem cell researchers should be punished in the same way as
women who have abortions and doctors who perform them, a
senior Vatican official said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/01/world/europe/01vatican.html?th&emc=th
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Well talking about subversion of the democracy:
BUSH JOINS IN CONDEMNING N.Y. TIMES
U.S. President George W. Bush has joined the chairman of the House
homeland security committee in denouncing the New York Times for
publishing a story last week about a secret financial-monitoring
program used to trace alleged terrorists.
FULL STORY:
http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/06/26/congressman-new-york-times.html
A PS to this is that the Canadian government, and I'm sure others, is investigating the possibility that Canadain and International laws were broken with this secret financial-monitoring. Breaking laws has seldom stopped the White House in the past.
BUSH JOINS IN CONDEMNING N.Y. TIMES
U.S. President George W. Bush has joined the chairman of the House
homeland security committee in denouncing the New York Times for
publishing a story last week about a secret financial-monitoring
program used to trace alleged terrorists.
FULL STORY:
http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/06/26/congressman-new-york-times.html
A PS to this is that the Canadian government, and I'm sure others, is investigating the possibility that Canadain and International laws were broken with this secret financial-monitoring. Breaking laws has seldom stopped the White House in the past.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Monday, June 26, 2006
Sunday, June 25, 2006
We've talked about some of the threats to a free and open society and free and open news which is supposed to support it. Here is an article that clearly outlines this problem in the U.S.A. What happens there has often already happened in other places or is just about to.
Check it out at The Nation:>http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20060703&s=crispinmiller
Mark Crispin Miller on the Death of News
Although its history is far from glorious, the US press has never been as bad as it is now.
Date filed: 25-06-2006
Check it out at The Nation:>http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20060703&s=crispinmiller
Mark Crispin Miller on the Death of News
Although its history is far from glorious, the US press has never been as bad as it is now.
Date filed: 25-06-2006
Friday, June 23, 2006
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Next weeks assignment, and the last one, is a future story. What is going to happen tomorrow,next week or next year in business, the weather or anything else such as fashion. You must not write a fantasy story, it should have basis in fact. We have two more classes. The class on the 13th of July will be off and there will be no class as that will be the make up for the Asahi Tour. Again look back over the last three or four entries and check out the tools for journalists. Clark
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
| Washington Post Reviews its 10 Years on the Web |
| from the i-also-collect-spores-molds-and-fungus dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday June 19, @19:22 (The Media) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/19/221222 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]anaesthetica writes "The Washington Post is featuring three stories
today reviewing their experience in adapting the "old media" to the new
environment of the web. The first article examines their revelation that
'The news, as "lecture," is giving way to the [1]news as a "conversation".'
The second looks at the '[2]Kaiser memo' which served as the germinating
point for what would become WashingtonPost.com, phrased in language that
today seems amusingly quaint. The final article looks at the [3]death of
traditional print newspapers as consumers flock to internet sources for
their news."
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/06/19/221222
Links:
0. http://slashdot.org/~anaesthetica/journal/
1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/18/AR2006061800618.html
2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/18/AR2006061800743.html
3. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/13/AR2006061300929.html
| from the i-also-collect-spores-molds-and-fungus dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday June 19, @19:22 (The Media) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/19/221222 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]anaesthetica writes "The Washington Post is featuring three stories
today reviewing their experience in adapting the "old media" to the new
environment of the web. The first article examines their revelation that
'The news, as "lecture," is giving way to the [1]news as a "conversation".'
The second looks at the '[2]Kaiser memo' which served as the germinating
point for what would become WashingtonPost.com, phrased in language that
today seems amusingly quaint. The final article looks at the [3]death of
traditional print newspapers as consumers flock to internet sources for
their news."
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/06/19/221222
Links:
0. http://slashdot.org/~anaesthetica/journal/
1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/18/AR2006061800618.html
2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/18/AR2006061800743.html
3. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/13/AR2006061300929.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Earth Sandwich |
| from the no-mayo-mayo-sucks dept. |
| posted by timothy on Monday June 19, @13:22 (It's funny. Laugh.)|
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/19/1718219 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
yourhotneighbor writes "If you haven't seen Ze Frank's hilarious
[0]videoblog, it's worth checking out. A few weeks ago he challenged
visitors to create an "Earth Sandwich" where two pieces of bread are
placed exactly opposite each other on the globe. Google mashups showing
[1]what's on the opposite side of the Earth and [2]a live GeoRSS-based
bread gallery were provided. A piece [3]on NPR this Saturday details the
concept and a team from New Zealand and Spain [4]completed the challenge.
Then on Friday he allowed his show to be written by his viewers who
battled out 2,000+ script revisions in a Wiki. Sunday's New York Times
[5]describes the results."
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/06/19/1718219
Links:
0. http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/06/061206.html
1. http://www.zefrank.com/sandwich/tool.html
2. http://www.zefrank.com/sandwich/status.html
3. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5492174
4. http://scourist.com/2006/06/09/0009-earth-sandwich/
5. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/18/fashion/sundaystyles/18ze.html
| Earth Sandwich |
| from the no-mayo-mayo-sucks dept. |
| posted by timothy on Monday June 19, @13:22 (It's funny. Laugh.)|
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/19/1718219 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
yourhotneighbor writes "If you haven't seen Ze Frank's hilarious
[0]videoblog, it's worth checking out. A few weeks ago he challenged
visitors to create an "Earth Sandwich" where two pieces of bread are
placed exactly opposite each other on the globe. Google mashups showing
[1]what's on the opposite side of the Earth and [2]a live GeoRSS-based
bread gallery were provided. A piece [3]on NPR this Saturday details the
concept and a team from New Zealand and Spain [4]completed the challenge.
Then on Friday he allowed his show to be written by his viewers who
battled out 2,000+ script revisions in a Wiki. Sunday's New York Times
[5]describes the results."
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/06/19/1718219
Links:
0. http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/06/061206.html
1. http://www.zefrank.com/sandwich/tool.html
2. http://www.zefrank.com/sandwich/status.html
3. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5492174
4. http://scourist.com/2006/06/09/0009-earth-sandwich/
5. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/18/fashion/sundaystyles/18ze.html
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