Citizen journalism & Traditional Media

Creating new media stakeholders

By Anika Gupta

@DigitalAnika

14 December 2013

Citizens have new media tools available

• The Year of Elan

Thanksgiving battle: http://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelzarrell/this-epic-note-passing-war-on-a-delayed-flight-wins-thanksgi

• Carried on BuzzFeed

• Made it to the NYTimes travel blog

Anika Gupta @DigitalAnika

Elan says…

Anika Gupta @DigitalAnika

What are Elan’s incentives?

• He wants to grow his Twitter following

• He wants to promote his show

• He wants to crack a joke & be famous

• He does NOT feel accuracy is his job

• He does NOT consider himself a journalist

• He does NOT think he did anything wrong – and maybe he didn’t?

Anika Gupta @DigitalAnika

Online Pub’s incentives?

• To make people laugh

• To satisfy their online advertisers with high page views

• To get shared on FB/Twitter

• NOT?– Getting the “full story”– Getting “all the facts”– Dismissing a story bc it isn’t accurate

Soul searching Among Media

• BuzzFeed corrected:

• NYTimes had a piece on virality:

• GigaOm suggested:

Anika Gupta @DigitalAnika

New Theories of Ethics

• Are we all responsible for things like accuracy in our Tweets?

• “it’s incumbent on the sources of such erroneous reports to point out that they are engaging in fiction, rather than leaving everyone to their own devices” – Mathew Ingram

• “But blaming “the media” for getting it wrong is no solution either any more. We are all the media” – Ingram

• The nature of virality is such that it rewards inaccuracy• “Human attention is formulaic online” – Washington Post• “ethics for anyone who commits acts of journalism”• “Audiences need to see, within the journalism itself, why

this piece is worthy of trust and how it reflects ethical reporting” – Josh Stearns

Anika Gupta @DigitalAnika

The Challenge Is…

• How do you create a sense of ownership – of being a “stakeholder” – among citizens, in values that journalists profess, like accuracy and thoroughness?

• More importantly, how do you disincentivise inaccuracy? (Considering CPCs, etc).These are central questions for media of all shapes and sizes. If “viral engineering” is easy and profitable for everyone, then there are issues all around

Anika Gupta @DigitalAnika

Verification Communities

• Good journalism is rooted in the relationships among members of a community: trust

• Storyful: crowd-sourced verification on G+• France 24, BBC, others: networks of

community verifiers who are trusted experts, often rewarded for their consistently accurate accounts, and verified beforehand

Anika Gupta @DigitalAnika

What is a community?

• It isn’t just a “source”, it isn’t just an “audience”• It is a group of people who have a stake in your

work, and you have a stake in theirs• Transparent, open, information flows both ways• It is responsive, it looks out for every member’s

interests• It is marked by a sense of trust between

members

Is Indian media ready?

• There is immaturity on both sides – but there is an unwillingness to be questioned

• It’s not about “activism” or “slant” – it’s about transparency (community members may disagree with an open slant, but they will leave the community over a slant that is disguised)

• Community values must be the same for news orgs and the people on Twitter