Comments on: Crowdsourcing News: What Happens When the News Really Matters?

By: Rob Hyndman

Rob Hyndman — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 16:31:54 +0000

Well, that’s fair comment. But I think part of my point was that if they were trying harder it would be easier. Boots on the ground, etc. John Burns gets it, no doubt. But we’re trying less. We have fewer dollars to train people to do it. Maybe the understanding will come in time - maybe one of the things we’ll see with this here Intarweb, at least among the reporting / opinion-forming classes, is an integration of perspectives, or at least, with the easier access to foreign voices, a deeper understanding of other perspectives. But I suspect it will at least take time. I’m not sure.

One other point I didn’t mention is that of course the large organizations serve a branding and signalling function as well. Generally, I know I can trust the competence of whomever WaPo or the NYT puts on the piece. Well, except for that Judith Miller thing again, and then there’s that nasty little episode with Jayson Blair. But still and all, there is something - a lot for me - to that. In a 5 million channel universe, trust becomes that much more important. So I go looking for content that carries the brand. It’s not all I read. But for reading that really matters, it’s what I look for first, and I’m inclined to trust it more.

With the major brands progressively disintermediated from the media function I have to deal with the multiplication of brands. Everyone is their own brand - a brand of one, more or less. But I don’t think I can manage 5,000 brands at the same time. Is an algorithm going to replace the job the brand does for me? Maybe eventually. Techmeme is off to a good start, I suppose. But there’s a long way to go.

By: Mathew Ingram

Mathew Ingram — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 16:20:28 +0000

I would agree. I think it would be ideal to have both. There’s no question that someone from the NYT or whatever has the writing chops and skills and access that a blogger wouldn’t have, but I also think it’s hard (if not impossible) for a foreign journalist — however well-educated, well-trained and experienced — to duplicate the kind of voice and perspective that an Iraqi or an Afghani citizen would have on a war they were involved in.

By: Rob Hyndman

Rob Hyndman — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 16:09:50 +0000

Well, I did mention one Iraqi blogger as an example. But in the main I don’t see how the amateur can come close to the professional in terms of ability to relate to context (there is a larger world to link into - one that makes sense to the reader’s frame of reference) or quality of writing, or even raw ability to get the story, for that matter. Especially when it comes to investigative work, or work that requires a really smart person with really deep experience to unravel.

By: Mathew Ingram

Mathew Ingram — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 15:26:06 +0000

Not that Seymour and John and Sydney aren’t great, Rob, because they are — and obviously having a large organization behind you really helps when it comes to the satellite phones and armed escorts and whatnot — but wouldn’t we benefit from having “citizen journalists” or whatever you want to call them on the ground as well, like Salam Pax was in Iraq?