Jan Schaffer
Director of J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism

I think there is a huge "so what?" factor about whether one is a journalist or not. I think the real tension that we are not focusing on is: What will news look like, and what do people need to know in a democracy? Where will I find what I didn't know before? Who will connect the dots for me on big issues? Where will I have "aha" moments? Who will ask the missing questions for me?

In fact, I think that both "big J" journalism and "small j" journalism are hugely failing in this task. By "small j," I will include the blogger universe. Not to be demeaning, but the real tension is how do we design--it's a design issue, not a platform issue--ways to give people what they need to know.

Is it going to look like a linear feed in a blog? I actually don't think so, because it is terribly, terribly inefficient to get information that way. Is it going to look like an inverted-pyramid story? I also don't think so, because that's also a terribly inefficient way to get stories.

So, I think the metaquestion is, What will news be in the future, and what will it look like?

Karen Schneider
Director, Librarians' Index to the Internet, blogger at Freerangelibrarian.com

I have heard a lot here today about the beginning of the information transaction where news is gathered and delivered in many formats, but I represent the other end.

About four years ago, I was a rural library director for a couple of years in upstate New York. We received a large check from our assemblymen--yes, that was pork, and yes, I am proud of it--and we used it to buy our first public Internet computer. Because our library was open twenty hours a week, we set up half-hour sessions where you could be online. This was in a town of 11,000 that was definitely underconnected to the Internet.

So when you talk about asking the user to do a lot of legwork and read up on everybody who is writing about all this, you can ask yourself: In a town that has one Internet-access computer for the general public, which is available for forty-one half-hour sessions per week, how is the user on one half-hour session during the week going to be able to do that?

Coming back to the ethical framework concept, I would like to say first that any ethical framework needs to start from not only the interest but the needs and limitations of the people that you are ultimately serving. I think that's really important. I think it's a great reality check to remind yourselves that most people are still not very well connected, not very well educated about the Internet. As my sister says, "What are these globs you keep talking about?"

And think about the eighth-grade student trying to look up information about tsunamis. Or, heaven help her, the student, teacher or librarian also trying to ferret through all these blogs and information. We have a proliferation of information, and we have a dearth of resources to help process and assess that information.

• « Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• Next »

• Get The Nation at home (and online!) for 75 cents a week!
• If you like this article, consider making a donation to The Nation.