Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Chrsis Lydon on Journalism's future
Chris Lydon ends the year comparing two December Harvard conferences, one a Nieman gathering on narrative journalism, keynoted by Seymour Hersh and Norman Mailer which was sad and pessismistic about journalism's ability to affect change; the other a Berkman conference on "Votes, Bits and Bytes" with "an entirely different energy and confidence."
At the Nieman conference, he sites Seymour Hersh's comments:
The major media that have embedded themselves in President Bush’s narrative have been their own worst enemy since 9.11, Hersh said. And now nobody believes them, about anything. The dignity and privilege of a press pass has been officially discounted almost to zero by the Bush White House, he observed. Hersh’s best sources are being systematically shut down. To many pleas for constructive advice, Hersh suggested, in effect: find another job; journalism is over.
By contrast, here is Jay Rosen at the Berkman conference:
[Big Media] couldn’t adapt their institution to a changing situation. Bush has transcended their idea of a Fourth Estate, a watchdog profession. But ‘the press’ is never fixed. Other people can step up and grab the mantle. The glory of journalism is in social motion. The old journalism is past. The future is ours to make. It’s a very exciting moment. Political journalism is up for grabs, as never before in my career as a writer and teacher.”
Chris concludes:
My own hard focus is on bringing the spirit of the Web to the sound of public radio. We are in the process of constructing a feedback loop that I credit the Berkman Center’s Charlie Nesson with inventing: combining the penetrating power of radio voices outbound, with the aggregating power of the Internet coming back with ideas, information and commentary. There is more money to be raised, and practical brains still to be enlisted in this project, but we have the right allies and a solid foundation under these ideas already.
At the Nieman conference, he sites Seymour Hersh's comments:
The major media that have embedded themselves in President Bush’s narrative have been their own worst enemy since 9.11, Hersh said. And now nobody believes them, about anything. The dignity and privilege of a press pass has been officially discounted almost to zero by the Bush White House, he observed. Hersh’s best sources are being systematically shut down. To many pleas for constructive advice, Hersh suggested, in effect: find another job; journalism is over.
By contrast, here is Jay Rosen at the Berkman conference:
[Big Media] couldn’t adapt their institution to a changing situation. Bush has transcended their idea of a Fourth Estate, a watchdog profession. But ‘the press’ is never fixed. Other people can step up and grab the mantle. The glory of journalism is in social motion. The old journalism is past. The future is ours to make. It’s a very exciting moment. Political journalism is up for grabs, as never before in my career as a writer and teacher.”
Chris concludes:
My own hard focus is on bringing the spirit of the Web to the sound of public radio. We are in the process of constructing a feedback loop that I credit the Berkman Center’s Charlie Nesson with inventing: combining the penetrating power of radio voices outbound, with the aggregating power of the Internet coming back with ideas, information and commentary. There is more money to be raised, and practical brains still to be enlisted in this project, but we have the right allies and a solid foundation under these ideas already.
