>From Ernie: "What really will happen is that different sites will evolve communities -- like ours here! -- with different levels of interaction between "readers", "writers", and "editors"."
This type of new e-community is a powerful force for me professionally. I live in a low population density geographic area where there is no established community of professionals doing what I do (child custody evaluations and parenting coordination). Thanks to a high-level listserv I can be energized and educated by the leaders in my field on a daily basis. There is no professional editor, but we have strict rules of conduct about the confidentiality of individual cases. There is a rigorous review of the credentials of each new member of the "community". On a very regular basis we quote from and recommend peer reviewed articles from traditional journals, so we are a fusion of old and new journalism. I don't suppose the listserv qualifies as journalism, but it one of the best sources of expert experience, commentary, and thought that I have ever seen. Chris -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dr. Ernie Prabhakar Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 4:27 PM To: Radical Centrist discussion list Subject: Re: [RC] Arianna Huffington on The Desperate Need For BetterJournalism Hi Billy, On Dec 1, 2009, at 2:22 PM, [email protected] wrote: > Actually I did read that part. Think I over-simplified my comments, though. > At least the impression I got was that she seemed to say that one standard > is professional, the other "whatever comes in." Then it is up to the pros > to do the fact checking and correct grammar and the like. That wasn't my impression at all. Her high-order point is that the future of journalism will involve a mixture of "paid" and "amateur" journalists. The reality is that some amateurs are better at fact-checking (and spell-checking!) than many professionals, and it is pointless to pretend that "paid" means "good" and "amateur" means "bad". What really will happen is that different sites will evolve communities -- like ours here! -- with different levels of interaction between "readers", "writers", and "editors". Some of these roles will be paid, others not. There will be many ways to get paid -- advertising, academic tenure, non-profit foundations, etc. The ugly unmentioned fact is that "old" media virtually all had only a single business model: support by mass-market advertising, with the consumer at most paying for distribution. In the Brave New World, there'll be a lot more diversity. Yes, the short-term will be painful. Plus, there won't be a single "obvious" model. Each of us -- yes, including you, Billy -- will have to figure out what model works for our particular goals, and it may be very different than what works for someone else. But that's a good thing. -- Ernie P. _______________________________________________ Centroids mailing list: [email protected] http://radicalcentrism.com/mailman/listinfo/centroids_radicalcentrism.com Archives at http://radicalcentrism.org/pipermail/centroids_radicalcentrism.com/ _______________________________________________ Centroids mailing list: [email protected] http://radicalcentrism.com/mailman/listinfo/centroids_radicalcentrism.com Archives at http://radicalcentrism.org/pipermail/centroids_radicalcentrism.com/
