• Particls – FAQ
  Customising Internet alerts: “Particls uses all this information to determine the ‘Personal Relevancy’ of incoming items/alerts.”
  (tags: innovation)
• FRONTLINE: news war: watch the full program online | PBS
  N E W S W A R
  (tags: journalism,)

• Just another conversation « Natassia’s Weblog
  We need to project ourselves as a trust worthy person, a person people want to chat to. As i took on this approach, the interview was nothing but another conversation.
  (tags: journalism, trust,)

• Journalism Leadership: At a glance, 2008 Newsroom Barometer indicates editors may agree with market analysts on pathway to success
  For editors, the top concerns were people. In the survey, 35% said training journalists in new media skills would be their top priority if they were given resources to invest in editorial quality.
  (tags: journalism,)
• 6 Key Ways to Measure Your Blog’s Success
  After the official launch on Monday of yet another service which measures popularity of blogs – it’s time to revisit this space, long ruled by Technorati.
  (tags: blogs, blogging)
• Ipsos MORI – Opinion of Professions — Trend Data
  Ipsos MORI Poll of trusted professions 1983 to 2007 – statistics show percentage of the population that would expect journalists to tell the truth, and the percentage that would expect them to lie.
  (tags: column2)
• Journalism.org- The State of the News Media 2008
  The state of news media report from the US for 2008: “And some of the declining trust is associated with views of the institution rather than of a single news media company or journalist.”
  (tags: column2)

Ok, so this is something I’ve never done before (and it may get me in trouble).

Below is a copy of the (unsubbed) version of my column that will go into The Birmingham Post tomorrow.

I wanted to put it here so that people could add comments to it and I could link to it in Del.icio.us before the article was published.

As was pointed out to me, 600 words is never enough, and there is a lot I’ve missed out. So please help me add to it!

There is something I want to share with you. Something that I don’t think a lot of people know:

Journalists are people too.

They are. Honest!

But I doubt you’ll believe me. I am, after all, a journalist.

As a collective body, we seem to be ranked in the public consciousness as something akin to pond life… except a little less trustworthy.

There are numerous surveys placing journalists amongst the ranks of used-car salesmen, estate agents and, heavens forfend, politicians when it comes to trust.

Yet there are many that joined journalism because they wanted to be the trusted, responsible champion of the people.

So what makes people so convinced that, at the drop of a hat, us reporters are willing to lie, cheat and sell our grandmothers for a story?

A straw poll of contacts and friends on micro-blogging service Twitter (an interesting platform that I will delve into more on in a future column) offered up a few explanations:

• “Because some of them are plain untrustworthy – remember Hillsborough and Viglen?”

• “Most who’ve had an article written about them can see how many mistakes get made.”

• “Because when you have a 600 word limit something always gets left out.”

• “Lack of accountability.”

• “Tabloid digging into private lives.”

These show, collectively, we journalists have a long way to go before we are considered even as trustworthy as the ordinary man on the street.

But it is the man on the street that journalists have to worry about in the shiny new world of digital media.

In March, I was lucky enough to be part of a small team of young, West Midland “media types” sent to the SXSW Interactive conference in Austin, Texas, by Advantage West Midlands-funded project Digital Central.

The conference, which originally started as a music festival, is fast becoming known as a premier event attracting the top international talent in digital media.

My fellow attendees were all “early adopters”. Whether they be housewives, techies or students, they are the ones surfing the crest of the digital wave, the first to adopt all the new and shiny tools and applications that the web has to offer.

Many of them write blogs or produce their own videos, but what shocked me was the ability of some of them to command audiences in the thousands or tens of thousands.

When I asked them how they did it, the answer was pretty uniform: They were trusted and they were “part of a conversation”.

This conversation may be had through blogs, video or audio podcasts, but the fundamental idea is that their audience has redress and can correct and build upon the original work.

By opening up in this way, and by acknowledging their readers as real people, they show themselves to real too – something journalists have avoided in the pursuit of an ideal of objectivity, or a belief that their opinions and writing should command authority.

But these digital pioneers shaping a future for online media are demonstrating that, above all, trust is where it’s at.

The old model of distance between journalist and reader is going to have to change.

It is something The Birmingham Post has been investigating over recent months with the launch of its blogs, its experimentation with social bookmarking service Del.icio.us and Twitter.

By realising that they are just one – hopefully well-researched, well-written and interesting – part of a bigger conversation, journalists have a chance of raising themselves out of the pond and – hopefully – becoming seen as the trusted champions they really should be.

To see some of the websites that helped to inform this column or to respond, please visit http://del.icio.us/joannageary/column2

• Possibly an Announcement « WordPress.com
  If we find any posts on your blog that are related, we’ll put those at the very top and in bold. Next we’ll show other posts from around WordPress.com, and finally we’ll check if there’s anything in the mainstream media.
  (tags: journalism,)

• charliebeckett.org » Blog Archive » Is New Media Killing Journalism? Do you care?
  In other words, put a bunch of journalists in a room and they will disagree about the role of New Media in their industry but they will agree about keeping the public at arm’s length. I think that is unsustainable.
  (tags: journalism,)
• News Interactivity index
  (tags: journalism, assignment3)
• Views in the News: Last night in Preston
  Pictures from the Preston course – what a great bunch of people!
• Mobile News Network
  AP Launches its mobile news network for iphone.
  (tags: mobile)
• Cedar Creek Texas office home complex
  Office Home for web developers / programmers
  Trade Web Development work for rent and bandwidth (full fiber T-1 w Servers) (via @philcampbell)

• Seesmic: Re: Does Anyone Read the Paper?
  Backlotops talks about the problem of the traditional omnibus newspapers.
  (tags: journalism, local_news)
• American media | On the brink | Economist.com
  “Not all is lost, however. Plenty of innovation is taking place, particularly at local papers…[with] 24 examples of newspapers becoming “information and connection utilities”, through such offerings as local internet forums.”
  (tags: journalism, newspapers)
• BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » More writers than readers
  …in 2004, 53 million Americans “have used the Internet to publish their thoughts, respond to others, post pictures, share files and otherwise contribute to the explosion of content available online.” Only 50 million Americans now buy daily newspaper
  (tags: blogging journalism,)
• On blogs and newspapers and fearing for the future | Mellinger’s Blog on the Royals and Baseball
  …just because someone writes the c-word on some internet message board doesn’t make all blogs a threat to society anymore than Jayson Blair being a total fraud makes all newspapers dishonest.
  (tags: blogging)
• Can less be more? Defining new media products by how they are used. Rebuilding Media: The fate of media
  What is the media equivalent of the Mac Air or Flip camcorder: a product that is recognizable but, by changing—often removing—product attributes is used by consumers (and advertisers in this case) in new ways?
  (tags: journalism,)
• Seven psychological complaints of bloggers and social media addicts « Online Journalism Blog
  In my capacity as amateur psychotherapist to the blogerati, I have discovered a new raft of complaints as social media addicts adapt to the demands of new technologies and fluctuating social structures.

• Publishers need to mimic tech firms, says FT.com chief | PDA: The Digital Content Blog | Guardian Unlimited
  Cheng is quite candid that not every traditional news brand is going to survive.
  “Frankly, they shouldn’t all survive. But the ones that provide a sustainable value to users wil not only survive but will be stronger. “
  (tags: journalism,)
• Blogging in “our” newspapers « Groves Media
  … I expect to disagree, I expect to nod my head enthusiastically in agreement. I don’t expect to be patronised. I don’t expect to stay mute when something appears that angers me.
  (tags: birmingham_blogs birmingham_post)

• (iverson’s) currentbuzz: Interaction index being developed by 20 something journalist
  Following up on a Bivings Report from 2006, Joanna Geary moves toward a way of quantifying or at least visually comparing the interactivity of news sites. Very interesting.
  (tags: project)