Strategically Communicating

As stated in the articles for this week’s reading, there is opportunity for significant issues that arise in the world of citizen or non-professional journalism. Accuracy in reporting, timely content delivery, and content quality are just a few of the issues. However, there are also tremendous advantages to using ‘community contributors’ as mentioned in the Sacramento Press article. These contributors could cover stories that larger daily papers could not. Citizen journalists, whether their channel is a news site like the Sacremento Press, or social media outlets such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, can tell stories that they feel need to be told in an efficient way.

However, as Barton suggests, the quality and accuracy may leave something to be desired. I do believe that citizen journalists are an important part of the new media reality, but I also believe that fact checking and editing are necessary components of a credible news outlet. As always, the answer to our media quagmire lies somewhere in between an all-citizen newsroom and an all-professional one.

How do you decide which sources are credible and which sources are not?

What motivation does a website such as the Sacramento Press have to retain professional journalists if they are getting so much content for free?

This week’s reading list stresses me out. It’s not just that I am a Facebook stalker (because I watch but never post.) Nor does it entirely have to do with the fact that I shut down my Twitter account right after setting it up because some stranger tried to follow me and I freaked out. My stress comes from the fact that I feel as though I am sitting in a teeny tiny little lifeboat in the middle of the social media ocean.

Most of the time I just fake it. Other times I rationalize it all and convince myself that the really important things in life cannot be reduced to 140 characters. Then, there are moments when I know I really have to try to figure it out so I don’t end up as one of the “media illiterate” that others like to tweet about. At least I think they are tweeting about me, but since I don’t actually follow any of them, my information is not necessarily first hand.

Beyond my technology fears, there are two reasons I haven’t tried to become literate:  1) I really don’t care about watching videos of singing cats, and 2) I don’t trust what I read to be accurate. Trust is key for me, and I am not alone according to this Pew study: http://www.people-press.org/2011/09/22/press-widely-criticized-but-trusted-more-than-other-institutions/

Mainstream media and new media are both going to have to evolve to address the trust issue. I just have no idea what that evolution will look like.

Discussion Questions:

1) Has anyone ever studied what I will call “link fatigue?” Reading this week’s articles seemed easy enough until I kept getting lost in the multitude of embedded links that lead the reader to an ever-expanding pool of information. I wonder if there is a psychological limit to how far people are willing to go?

2) How do we as public relations or marketing professionals best (both practically and ethically) take advantage of the changing landscape of journalism?

After spending the week with my 5 year old nephew, I noticed I felt uncomfortable with his (heavy) use of video games/the computer. In the PBS documentary “Digital Media-New Learners of the 21st Century,” an educator said: why is it bad when a child is determined to get better at a video game by spending hours playing it, but it is good when a child spends hours in his/her room reading a book? I realized I can’t judge my nephew: my way was analog, his is digital. After watching the documentary, I wished I had been exposed to that type of learning in K-12. Although the standard curriculum gave me a solid foundation of the “basics,” I believe it stifled creativity. These kids are also learning collaboration, team work and project management

In poking around to learn more about this subject, I read an interesting article: What a Difference Ten Years Can Make: Research Possibilities for the Future of Media Literacy Education (http://jmle.org/index.php/JMLE/article/view/177/136). The author discusses what has happened in the last 10 years and what her wish list is for the next 10 years regarding media literacy for youth. I saw that the Federal government is getting on board too. In 2014, they will begin to assess and measure technology literacy in schools. I read their framework to see if they were just assessing whether kids knew how to use technology and was pleased to find media literacy assessments in there too.
(http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/techliteracy/)
(http://www.nagb.org/publications/frameworks/prepub_naep_tel_framework_2014.pdf)

***

1. In contrast to learning by rote memorization (like a lot of us experienced as kids), it seems that today’s kids don’t need to memorize as much, they need to know how to gather information on the Internet. (Aside from being an important example of their need for media literacy), do you see a danger in this new way of learning in regard to development of kids’ cognitive abilities? If they don’t develop the ability to memorize, what are the implications for learning spelling, math, etc.? Or is total reliance on the Internet ok?

2. If you watched the PBS documentary on youth media literacy–Do you think this style of “digital media” curriculum is good, bad, or neutral? If you had the chance to learn in this way, do you think you would have developed different skills or passions than you did through a more traditional education?

In the article that debunks the myths of social media, it is suggested that social media cannot be the direct conduit for social uprisings due to the fact that Internet access is limited and restricted in many parts of the world.  However, in my research for our final paper, I came across an article entitled “Using Social Media to Empower Women: A Case Study from Southern Africa” by Danny Glenwright.  The paper is available on a social change website called Genderlinks where they work to educate women in rural African communities about issues and policies that directly affect and matter to them.

In the paper, it is stated that in 2010 there were more than 400 million mobile phone subscribers in Africa and of those with Internet access, 15% were Facebook users and Twitter and YouTube stood out as some of the most visited websites.  The paper draws the conclusion that social media is widely responsible for empowering women across Africa and that it can be an extremely successful tool for organizations seeking to educate, inspire, and motive individuals in rural communities of third-world nations.  

After reading this, I am inclined to think that we are only beginning to understand the impacts of social media on social change movements.  Social media may very well evolve in new and unforeseen ways that will fundamentally shift our current paradigm of social change, allowing for more effective campaigns in global communication, empowerment, and education.

Discussion Questions:  

How do you see social media changing in the future?

In what ways has social media empowered your organization to more effectively spread your message?

Using Social Media to Empower Women: a case study from Southern Africa. (n.d.). Retrieved November 27, 2011, from http://www.genderlinks.org.za/article/using-social-media-to-empower-women-a-case-study-from-southern-africa-2011-05-19

When I started this class I was reminded that journalist are important to the greater society not because they tell their readers what to think, but because they:

• “Tell people what to think about”
• Provide context on the big issues

In the Internet age wherein we are constantly inundated with more information than anyone can possibly process or vet for themselves as credible and true in any given day skilled journalist should be seen as more valuable not less .

There is also the problem of quantity does not equal quality. Just because anyone can post a blog, comment on a news story, or happen to be in the place news is taking place doesn’t mean that person has the skills to ask the questions, provide a sense of the larger context, and write a well-written article that is spelled correctly and  grammatically correct.  Being a writer and a journalist is a real skill set deserving of recognition and pay as a profession. Many people out there blogging and doing citizen journalism do it because they are passionate about their topics and they hope to turn their passions into wage paying work. A quick Google search on blogging for pay turned up 124,000,000 results in a scant 19 seconds. Part of the American dream is the idea that you can make a living doing what you love.

I just read this Op-Ed that reminded me of what we started to talk about in last night’s class…

How About Better Parents? By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN November 19, 2011

McChesney, in The Political Economy of Media, makes a sound argument for media reform; both of the necessity and possibility, two overlooked or sullied points.

Perhaps the most tangible arguments against media reform and in favor of dismantling public broadcasting are also the most mundane. It goes something like this, “There’s no risk to society anymore in the concentrated, deregulated media system we have today, now that we have the Internet and new technologies.” (which McChesney claims, at least in the instance of the internet, would not even exist in a purely market driven system).

New technologies and the Internet allow citizen journalists to find and disseminate information. But if you think this addresses the issue of a profit-driven media system’s encroachment on culture, family and the human condition, I ask that you consider trying to make a go of it with your own blog. How often does anyone but your mom read it? How can a lone blogger, however competent or relevant, compete with a rival who can buy up not just internet space, but billboards, TV spots, magazine and newspaper placements, radio ads, lunchroom, community center and classroom presence? They can’t.

The link I’m including here is a rare (and reactive) example of the media covering media, concluding that the coverage of the Occupy Movement has been minimal, declining, and mostly followed a “horse race” like formula while failing to cover the issues at the heart of this global discontent.  The article, in it’s own limitation as well as it’s findings, illustrates the problem as well as the complexity of the situation. The article points to the fact that law enforcement will not recognize citizen journalists, refusing to grant them the access or immunity that someone with an official “press pass” would be afforded. Even sanctioned journalists are being arrested alongside the Occupy Movement. How can they respond? Journalists are losing their jobs because of this movement.

To me that suggests two things, the movement matters to our society in the ways that McChesney suggests media matters to our society and it challenges the media system’s service to oligarchy rather than democracy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/business/media/occupy-wall-street-puts-the-coverage-in-the-spotlight.html

Questions:

What do you think of McChesney’s proposition that it is possible to reform the system?

Are there meaningful parallels between the issue of media and other issues of consumption in regards to regulation and reform? McChesney points out the automobile. What else?