Keebler/Blog

- Paul: help “citizen correspondents” if they ask for help, but the “citizens” have the last cuts, lots of comments on stories, trying to “get ppl to tell their story, from their neck of the woods…in their words”, growing steadily until a few months ago when it took off
- Steve: breakthrough moment on 7/7 (London underground bombings) when they got stills from underground that they couldn’t have gotten any other way, challenges are volume
- Paul: don’t make distinction between pro and amateur, if you’re willing to tell your story in your own words you are welcome, power concentrated in traditional media, ppl felt alienated, ppl belive they have something to say (”[they have] ligitimate stories to tell”), ppl played the game civily on Orato, ppl get nervous when they have the responsibility (for telling a story) but they don’t shy away from it, “the editors work for the correspondants”, “[what I don't like about the BBC is that the] BBC has final authority over my story”, “what’s missing is this marvelous sense of street authenticity”
- Tony: why don’t ppl just start their own blogs then?
- Paul: we provide them with a platform, “We’re a community”, community is important for a lot of ppl
- Steve: “We’re telling [the audience] that this is news. We’d better be damn sure it’s right.”, “We don’t want to relinguish that responsibility”, serious news (with consequences) = have to get it right, we’re about “showcasing the presentation” e.g. ppl on the ground in war-torn areas, BBC translates long form story into short-form news
- Paul: then how do you know it’s right at the end? (broken telephone) “Not sure the editorial process gets [the facts] right”
- Paul: What about legal responsibilities? Did some training of ppl about libel etc., ppl that violated the ban on publication (in Pickerton trial): “ppl are just as capable of making…responsible decisions”
- Tony: we just use our own good judgement, it’s a “self-correcting medium”, “if you get things wrong, ppl will tell you” (until you fix it), I can see how having an editor is important but having a self-correcting medium allows the conversation can continue
- Steve: We (traditional media) aren’t isolated from that feedback unless they shut their eyes to it
- Tony: “individual bloggers are vulnerable to litigation”, can be scary to get a ceise-and-desist, it’s easy to shut individual bloggers down, it’s important to belong to a community of bloggers = validation for what you do and support when times are difficult (legal or just differences of opinion)
- Paul: “I’d like to see more cooporation going on between pros and amateurs” in regards to legal issues and things in common
- Tony: Amateur writing: “If it’s something you’re willing to work at, it gets better”, “Can anybody do it? Yes, but are they willing to put the time/energy into it”
- Paul: impulses of ppl + everyone has a story to tell + bring ppl back into the community of people that care = Charity 2.0, that’s what we have to do with news/stories, we give them the tools to do it, “there’s places where ppl’s stories are depressed…we’re getting a sterile view of the world”, must discovery our voices, “gotta start to encourage; gotta build confidence”
- Steve: 2 areas we have to get right: transparancy about what and how we do it (gather news) to maintain ppl’s trust, and “open the gates to bring in all the sources you have out there to help you tell the story when you need them”, “Tell us what you know then [we] reflect that out to a much larger audience”
- Paul: NY Times (all the news that’s fit to print)->Rolling Stone->Internet 2.0 (all the news), “important that media institutions understand that ppl (not all ppl) want to go further”, ppl aren’t prepared to just wait around
- Steve: “Reference the sites and blogs out there that are interesting, pertainent to that story” then “here’s our version of the story”
- Tony: “I think newspaper will continue to exist” but in a different form, “their value is in the trust ppl have in those brands” (”trust in brands will always exist”), signal-to-noise issue will continue to be a problem but tools with continue to evolve and get better to deal with it
- Paul: “At least the BBC doesn’t kill trees”, “I think anybody should be able to tell stories”, “How long are you going to have to continue to pay for the news?!”, websites on every topic = “I can inform myself for free”
- Steve: unfiltered news is here already, where are ppl going to go to get their news? At what point do you start to get personalities as brands (in traditional media)? Reporters going off to start own websites, best quality will win out
- Paul: “free market for stories. Quality prevails”, who will write important stories that are “boring”? e.g. politics, need to find someone who cares enough to investigate
- Tony: it doesn’t have to always be about ppl reporting on events, “It can also be about ppl in those events doing it themselves”
- Steve: Whose going to pay for the reporters in Baghdad for months on end?
- Paul: There’s millions of reporters already there - the ppl who live there, “the most ppl there are, the harder it is to suspress those voices”, “freedom of information is improving because of citizen journalism”
- What keeps you up at night?
- Tony: “Potential for [any] voice to be heard”
- Paul: “AlQ’ida beheading videos”
- Steve: “Keep getting it right and respond quickly enough”