citizen journalism and creating new media stakeholders
DESCRIPTION
My presentation on citizen media, the challenges of verification, the possibilities of crowd-sourced verification, and how to create trust between media brands and users. At a panel on digital journalism organized on 14 December 2013 by The Centre for Communication Governance at National Law University, Delhi (http://nludelhi.ac.in) and the Free Speech Hub at the Hoot.TRANSCRIPT
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