Augmented Journalism
Journalism has to reinvent itself. It sounds almost like a mantra, not only because it is practically the only thing new bloggers and old journalists agree upon. Journalism has to reinvent itself. Indeed, it has to. But up to now, that’s where the common understanding stops. Heavily disputed are questions like how, when, in what, and even why.
If you look at the best qualities of the blogosphere and those of the world of the classical newspapers, then one thing is sure: combined they would be able to restore the reputation of journalism. But then again, you only have to read Jeff Jarvis’ Buzzmachine to know just how divided both worlds actually are.
The world has known the concept of augmented intelligence since the 1960’s, recently we all discovered augmented reality, what we now need is Augmented Journalism.
So let’s take the strong investigative roots, in depth reporting and power of the facts from the old world, and combine it with the transparancy, interaction, speed and connectivity of the new one. And moreover, let’s finally place the involved, knowing and interested audience on a pedestal and work together for even better results. Augmented Journalism is where bloggers and reporters meet and society can benefit from the best practices of the two of them.
Augmented Journalism is all about a stronger relationship between journalists and their audience. Journalists must stop being the all-objective ivory tower bystanders who bring the facts as they occur and who give (or don’t, if they are not willing to) an incident the label “news”. Journalists – as bloggers have understood – should be part of society and open for the input of participating members of society. They should stop regarding themselves as the only true gatekeepers of the news & opinion business, and start giving the context needed to keep society rolling. In short, professionals and amateurs can come toegether in the process of journalism, but only if both can adopt a new attitude. In the end, Augmented Journalism shall be rewarding and might even be a way to get the business back in journalism.
The plan is to write a book on Augmented Journalism, and give the visitors of True/Slant an active part in it. True/Slant is offering its audience – being journalists, bloggers or none of both – to participate in the very process of writing: framing the playing field, improving the thoughts and all together reaching a sustainable definition of Augmented Journalism. It will hopefully result in a book that is built upon the knowledge of many and in that way will be the first proof of Augmented Journalism’s power.
True/Slant’s subtitle is saying: “News is more than what happens“. Augmented Journalism is too.
UPDATE: see also augmentedjournalism.com
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Other models to include would be “Distributed Cognition” and “Content Analysis”. the former is about the collective intelligence of tools and technology. The latter is about making sense of all that text…
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A great way of describing it. My own work on HelpMeInvestigate.com is trying to do exactly what you describe, and I’ve been blogging the results at http://onlinejournalismblog.com/helpmeinvestigate/blog/
It’s early days yet, but thanks for putting a frame around it.
(comment by Faviel, copied from weblog dodebomen.nl)
Great idea. Let me add a few strains of thought that might be relevant here.
1. In depth reporting and investigation’ is linked at ‘old school’ journalism, whereas datamining is a ‘new’ type of research (what’s new) that is certainly ‘in depth’ and may reveal or create new types of news. One of the fields where the wisdom of crowds may play a relevant role.
2. When the relation between journalists and their audience is mentioned two things come to mind:
a. general notions of co-creation en peer-production
b. the fact that in ‘old skool’ journalism the news facts are ‘established’ through procedures (check-double check, hearing both sides and always menioning sources etc.) and that in augmented jousnalism this might be replaced by a kind of journalist- or news relevance is decided upon by the audience. Which is something totally different than the listst of ‘most read’-articles on some websites, BTW.
3. When it comes to the business models underpinning new and old journalism, a good read of ‘Free’ by Anderson is recommended.
@Paul Bradshaw
Thanks Paul, it would be great to keep on building on a framework that brings the best of all J-worlds. Your weblog is really helpful, as are some specific suggestions I just received from Jay Rosen.
[...] lead to what I have been calling augmented journalism, a concept that – hopefully with the help of all involved – still needs a lot of [...]
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[...] dead. Journalists do not need to be bailed out. There will always be space and NEED for journalism. However, traditional print media is in need of a makeover. Can we said [...]