Buiding Community Online I

On Sunday, March 2nd, after circling around the mobs of people in town to watch the Los Angeles Marathon, I made my way to the Westin Bonaventure Hotel on Figueroa Street.  For nearly 9 hours, I listened closely to full-time journalists, many with MSM newspapers like the Des Moines Register, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Oregonian discuss how they are tapping into the growth industry that is online journalism.  Today’s digital journalist (aka information broker) is likely to be a non-journalism graduate, someone with a niche market understanding or expertise in something that others value.  MSM typers have to compete with the Google News, Craig’s List, Yahoo! News and YouTube users who are not beholden to their city newspapers.

This wasn’t the death of the newspaper conversation crowd.  I was impressed by how the traditional journalists and editors viewed their roles in the communities they serve.  They recognize that there is prominent role to be played here--that of representing a record of our lives for future generations, and of illustrating what intelligent discourse looks like through thoughtful staff editorials, letters, and op-ed pieces.  Allowing any Johnny or Jane come lately to step forward as a self-defined journalist can be hazardous to the public health of a nation.  It is still the role of the traditional media to coax, coach, and inspire good writing, both in news and editorial fashion. 

As a professor of communications at a state university where I regularly teach opinion writing, I was comforted by the value that the journalists placed on accuracy and respectability.  I tell my students that it is okay to attack ideas, but not each other.  No name calling or personal attacks are tolerated and call me a fuddy duddy but I also reject cliches, foul language and slang in their writing.  There is far too much casual and lazy talk with each other, thanks to the instant message, text me, and photo caption generation at hand.  I still want and need information service companies, what we used to call the town newspaper, to serve as an institutional link to good journalism as well as a change agent to how better to connect communities.