Here are some of my musings on the current state of journalism delivered in a speech at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford.
I truly believe in the power of community and community sites, like a Facebook or a MySpace, to transform the way we think about the transmission of information; I believe that sites like Newsvine will challenge the way editors select and prioritize news.
The discussion was pretty intense. Some in the audience took me to task for being too starry-eyed about the role of technology (see this blog for one comment); my role as a “boss” made me suspect to some who felt that innovation was simply a code word for cost-cutting and the decline of quality (I made the speech on the day the BBC Trust was considering how to make its large savings.)
I see innovation/quality/budget as being related but without a natural cause-and-effect relationship. It’s all in how you use any and all of the tools at your disposal. For a news organization, you need to decide how to deploy your people, how to spend your money, how to invest in your technology and how to uphold your standards and maintain your ethics. There’s no “right” answer; there’s no simple formula.
Since we were in a University forum, I have to admit we also spent some time discussing the relationship between Daoism and journalism. Here’s one of my favourite Daoist stories – it’s a parable about the difficulties of reporting accurately and the need for us all to be humble about our ability ever to “know”, let alone explain, the truth. It’s as important now as it was when it was written, in the 4th century BC:
Chuang Tzu and Hui Tzu were strolling along the dam of the Hao River when Chuang Tzu said, “See how the minnows come out and dart around where they please! That’s what fish really enjoy!”
Hui Tzu said, “You’re not a fish-how do you know what fish enjoy!”
Chuang Tzu said, “You’re not I, so how do you know I don’t know what fish enjoy?”
(Translated by Burton Watson, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, Colombia University Press)
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David: I enjoyed your presentation Wednesday. Apparently, the Chinese DON’T say, “May you live in interesting times” (at least according to Wikipedia), but I think the sentiment applies now. It will be, uh, interesting to see how this all shakes out. Here’s my recent take on one sliver of the issue:
- Posted by John Kellyhttp://voxford.blogspot.com/2007/10/futu re-of-newspapers.html
It was a good speech. I hope it you thought it was “friendly” intense.
And you’re right that technology isn’t merely a way of making people redundant. Sure it can be, and can be a force for efficiency, clearing out those dusty old handlooms and replacing them with a magnificent steam powered machine. But the temptation is to think that efficiency is necessarily better, when it isn’t. You can get a McDonalds burger in 5 minutes, but you have to wait for a roast chicken.
Will the market guarantee quality? Not necessarily in our field.
- Posted by Richard Danbury