| Abstract |
Journalism
is evolving away from its lecture mode (here is the news, and you buy it
or you don't) to include a conversation. Interactive technology is the principal
catalyst. The phenomenon augments traditional methods with new and yet-to-be
invented collaboration tools ranging from e-mail to Web logs to digital
video to peer-to-peer systems.
We must understand something essential: Collectively, our readers know more
than we do. They can find the information they want, and they can create
their own news if they want. Moreover, the newsmakers -- the people we write
about -- have the same opportunity to use this technology on their own
behalf. They can talk directly to the public, and they can add context to
the stories and broadcasts about them. There have been many examples of this
in recent months and years, not least the fact that word of the SARS
outbreak was first spread by SMS messages on mobile phones.
While this changes the landscape for journalists, it is not a necessarily a
threat. It is at least as much an opportunity, because together we can
create a more comprehensive and accurate news report.
Emerging techniques will raise new issues. We'll have to find ways to deal
with important questions of accuracy, trust, ethics, and law. The forces
of central control, meanwhile, are not sitting by quietly in the face of
the challenge. They're trying to rein in the Internet's interactivity, to
turn it into little more than glorified television. And the business model
for interactive news is deeply uncertain.
But this is probably an unstoppable force. Journalists, the people we cover
and the audience all need to understand why.
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