Home > Work > Geeks Bearing Gifts: Imagining New Futures for News
1 " my one great fear about advertising and media is that they, too, will become irrevocably unbundled, that marketers will no longer have need of media, "
― Jeff Jarvis , Geeks Bearing Gifts: Imagining New Futures for News
2 " journalism that matters, arguing that if it is not advocacy, it is not journalism — that is, if it does not strive to have a positive impact on the lives of citizens, then it is not journalism. "
3 " Note well that investigative journalism springs mostly from two sources: whistleblowers’ leaks and beat reporters’ expertise. "
4 " TV on the internet can now be freed from the need to fill a clock. It can expand past video. "
5 " I’d like to see every news organization, large and small, newspaper and blog, sponsor FOIA clubs in their communities to get scores, hundreds, thousands of citizens helping to open up data. "
6 " Once the industry has been pared to its essence and its essentials, once we determine what matters most and needs protection, once we find the means to support that work, then journalism can grow again. "
7 " News is a stream of events, questions (and sometimes answers), debate, increasing information, and evolving understanding. "
8 " There are in fact no masses,” said sociologist Raymond Williams, “there are only ways of seeing people as masses.”11 "
9 " In the future, journalists must ask: How do we encourage and support flows of information? "
10 " Sometimes, news is best served fresh. Sometimes, it’s better when baked. "
11 " A few people in a basement room take the best of that service and repackage it, freeze-drying it for print. Print becomes a promotional vehicle for the brand’s online services and a supplier of cash flow to subsidize research and development. That "
12 " You don’t make communities,” he said. “Communities already exist. They’re already doing what they want to do. The question you should be asking is how you can help them do what they want to do better. "
13 " Mobile isn’t just another content-delivery mechanism. Don’t try to be mobile first. Be user first. Context over content, that’s the lesson of mobile. "
14 " When a TV network — not to pick on TV — devotes hours and hours to the salacious details of a crime of passion that affects none of our lives, is that advocacy? No. When an online site collects pictures of cute cats, is that advocacy? Hardly. When a newspaper devotes resources to covering football games, is that advocacy? Sorry, but no. "
15 " Do what you do best and link to the rest "
16 " Nobody sells native advertising better than BuzzFeed, with an entire staff devoted to creating its trademark listicles and quizzes just for sponsors: “How To Rank Your Happiness By Jars Of Nutella® "
17 " This is why I like Diakopoulos’ approach of using technology to answer a need. He identifies four news consumers needs: 1. staying informed; 2. gaining personal identity (through, for example, reinforcing one’s values); 3. integrating and interacting socially (finding the basis for conversation); and 4. being entertained. He next defines 10 key journalistic functions: 1. truth 2. independence 3. impartiality 4. public interest 5. watchdogging 6. organizing forums 7. informing 8. storytelling 9. aggregating 10. sensemaking "
18 " Then I narrowed the definition of the journalism sharply to focus on the journalism that matters, arguing that if it is not advocacy, it is not journalism — that is, if it does not strive to have a positive impact on the lives of citizens, then it is not journalism. If it does not hold power to account on behalf of citizens, it is not journalism. If it merely covers the baseball game or the county fair or the latest fire, that is not necessarily journalism. Journalism changes its world. "
19 " Should we continue to serve people as a mass now that we can serve and connect them as individuals? "
20 " They are all fighting to know who we are, where we are, and what we want. "