news

There is an interesting top ten list I ran that addresses the slow bleed of readers from traditional media sources and poses ideas for pulling young people more into the news media.

Amusingly enough, the whole thing amounts to a 151 page PDF report. I don't think I'm alone in arguing that a 151 page report would be mistake number one, but I digress.

The first recommendation is for journalists who write more in-depth complex stories to provide contextual analysis so readers understand the political, historical, or financial implications on the topic being addressed.

Secondly, they recommend a kind of "wisdom journalism." Wouldn't that be nice? Wisdom journalism is a specific kind of reporting where a journalist is an expert in the topic he or she is covering and can give a more active, interpretive approach to the story. Amazingly enough, the report is saying young people value the kind of old school journalism that the world became accustomed to with Murrow, Bradlee, Margaret Fuller, and Nellie Bly. This is in direct contrast to the hyper-graphic super flashy hologram iNews that I feel like we see on the 24-hour cable crap.

The third is to personalize the news. Their examples are amazon and ebay which allows us to personalize everything that we want or need so they ask why shouldn't the news be that way? I don't know how I feel about this. Basically, this sounds like the blogosphere kind of news, and maybe that's what they think news should emulate. I read Kos or HuffPo because I'm choosing to read my news from a perspective that is more personalized for my agenda. But I value the lack of personalized preference in sites like CNN or the NYTimes. They deliver the news, if I wanted the spin I'd read my blogs.

Four and five are about redesigning sites and formats to make things hip and sexier, and I'll agree streamlining presentation is important. One of my greatest problems in my job now is the constant fight between the "old guard" who continue to insist that websites offer press releases, documents, and various other things via PDF. I don't think I'm alone in rolling my eyes when I click a link and watch my browser begin to download something.

Six is to make the news more civic and community focused. I think this is code for doing happier stories on good civic things that are happy or community events that are more localized and impact people's daily lives.

Seven is where it becomes art: Report on stories about young people. It seems like the only stories I hear about young people via the mainstream news are the ones that diss our generation or they're the stories that we've worked collectively in the youth movement to garner attention around for weeks. Stories about young people or issues that matter to young people give a reason to watch or read beyond that the news is relying on the topic and without a "wisdom journalism" what else is there?

Eight is to begin raising children with the news so it becomes part of the culture of young people. This is a pretty decent point - we never had CNN on TV growing up in classrooms. I was a sophomore in high school before I was in a classroom that had the daily newspaper. I loved that my college had free papers for those with student ID's. Everything from the local to the NYTimes, it was fantastic. I hope these are more accessible in schools.

Nine is providing more sharing features which references allowing access to share stories on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Any site that doesn't do this now is simply stupid. When we read something important we share it with our friends online, the easier the news makes it the better.

Finally, they encourage thinking about new approaches to TV news. This is delicious (emphasis mine):

"The network evening newscast is not a popular news platform among young people, and its market share will continue to decrease in the years ahead. Though cable news is much more popular, it too is losing ground to the Internet and will continue to. Television news is generally less dense than printed or online content per minute spent by consumers, and cable news is plagued by well-known problems. Yet it remains a powerful medium thanks to its visual strength and nearly universal penetration. Television outlets should focus on online content production and select particular topics to highlight in-depth on-air. Current.tv is an encouraging but limited example of this idea in action."

I hope we can save the news industry - I mean the real news industry. If Faux died I wouldn't lose any sleep, but quality Pulitzer style journalism deserves to be saved and its an endangered species. If these few tweaks can help them make the transition into the new world then a blessing on the house of news. The ones resistant to evolve will lose.

37 local NPR and PBS affiliates will be receiving over $10 million in total funding in order to better cover local and regional news stories. The funding is intended to make up for a fledgling newspaper industry.

On Thursday, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced the creation of local journalism centers in five regions. NPR and PBS stations in each region will collaborate on covering key issues, including immigration, agribusiness, the economy and health care. They will jointly hire about 50 multimedia journalists.

[...]

The funding initially targets the Southwest, the Plains states, the upper Midwest, upstate New York and central Florida. Proposals also are being accepted from stations in the South and Northwest, and Harrison hopes to expand the effort.

It will involve 37 local stations, though at least 100 applied. To date, 13 radio stations, 13 joint ventures operating both radio and TV outlets, and one stand-alone TV station have signed on. Stations were selected on the basis of a business plan that included an outline for becoming self-sustaining within two years.

"The idea of pulling together radio and television for content that is broadcast and online this is going to be our template going forward," Harrison said.

The Corporation - already the single largest source of funding for NPR and PBS - will provide $7.5 million of the investment for the project, while the stations involved contribute $3 million.

Preparing public broadcasting to fill in for failing private media is a great move on behalf of American citizens. Though just part of a larger effort, providing Americans with substantive coverage of issues (as opposed to personality) is an important step in increasing civic engagement.

I'm finally starting to feel better and catching up on things today. Here's some must-read stories from the last week of 2008:

• Jose Antonio Vargas writes that politics is no longer local, it's viral, in his latest piece making the rounds among the technorati. He hits the nail on the head when he writes:

  Looking back, I realize that it was on that Thursday night that a new political reality was cemented in my head. In the past, we've thought of politics as something over there -- isolated, separate from our daily lives, as if on a stage upon which journalists, consultants, pollsters and candidates spun and dictated and acted out the process. Now, because of technology in general and the Internet in particular, politics has become something tangible. Politics is right here. You touch it; it's in your laptop and on your cellphone. You control it, by forwarding an e-mail about a candidate, donating money or creating a group. Politics is personal. Politics is viral. Politics is individual.

  And we're just getting started.

• Also in the Post, Eli Pariser of MoveOn writes that both MoveOn and Obama are tapping into the same thing - people power and the voices of ordinary Americans.
• Over at Open Left, Chris Bowers has an excellent plan to help activists to take advantage of the first Democratic President and friendly congress in over a decade. This is something all youth organizations should be following, and contributing to.
• According to PEW, when it comes to where American's get their news, the Internet has surpassed all mediums except television.
• Want to work for the new administration? Filling out a form on Change.gov is only the first step. The Politico has a rundown on the sophisticated strategies that advocacy organizations and interest groups are using to influence the hiring process.
• Finally, The New York Times notes that as teen unemployment skyrockets, so is teen violence. The paper calls on the Obama administration to address the problem.

Sunday reading material:

• The New York Times concern trolls a bit, as they explore whether or not Obama should worry because youth might be disappointed by his responses to the realities of his political situation.
• The GOP thinks they have young voters and that they will continue to add more once young people leave college -- "the bastions of liberal indoctrination." You'd almost think this was a parody.
• A note from the editor of the Jackson Free Press analyzing the movement for change in Mississippi and the demographics behind it.
• Bucks County, PA has launched an effort to increase the number of Millennial tourists with a new PR campaign.
• New Media versus Old Media in Denver: A conference attendee describes the conflict.
• A slightly ignorant analysis of the Obama campaign's use of technology and whether or not his "friends" will turn out to vote.
• What is news? The difference between Millennial news and Boomer news and how it impacts questions of Millennials' knowledge of public affairs.
• Another overview of "Generation WE" (or Millennials) and its impact on politics.
• The apparently necessary annual profile of incoming Millennial college students.
• The AP marvels at the diversity of the four candidates on the tickets of the two major parties.