I can’t imagine what the folks in New Orleans at large and of the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper specifically must be going through as the devastating Hurricane Gustav bears down on their beloved city.
The newspaper staff’s heroic efforts to cover the destruction and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina without even the most basic tools journalists require (electricity, phones, a printing press) earned it a 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, a prize it shared with the Sun-Herald of Biloxi-Gulf Port, Miss.
Just three years after the horrific scenes from the Superdome, the destruction of so much of their city by Katrina and the still ongoing rebuilding, the city is once again hours from being hit again.
NOAA image of Hurricane Gustav bearing down on the Gulf Coast.
What I remember from monitoring the newspaper’s 2005 coverage of Katrina was its powerful use of digital media to fulfill its civic mission to both inform and inspire a community shaken to the core.
Without the ability to publish a physical newspaper, the editors, reporters, photographers and other professionals poured all their passion, expertise, efforts and professionalism into an entirely digital product, NOLA.com, that became the information lifeline for so many affected by the storm.
The New Orleans Times-Picayune found itself with no presses, trucks or newsstands and, as the waters rose, no office or staff. Two of the city’s TV stations lost their studios and transmitters. And they all lost their audience.
So New Orleans’ biggest media outlets were forced to flee to the internet, where they did incredible jobs reporting this overwhelming story to anyone online anywhere.
(Jarvis is also the former editorial director of Advance Internet, the corporate parent of NOLA.com, according to Mark Glaser, writing for the Online Journalism Review).
I remember some of the innovations the newspaper rolled out, such as publishing a PDF version of itself on the Web every day until it could find out-of-town presses to get a newspaper out.
Another was the heavy use of the blog format by staff members to provide instant updates on the events of the day. Photo galleries and online videos were also heavily used, years before other outlets adopted those elements on a broad scale.
Glaser called the newspaper’s online efforts “the watershed for online journalism.”
NOLA.com is known more for its MardiGras.com site and its live webcam, but now has become Exhibit A in the importance of the Internet for newspaper companies during a disaster. When the newspaper couldn’t possibly be printed or distributed, the NOLA.com news blog became the source for news on hurricane damage and recovery efforts — including updates from various reporters on the ground and even full columns and news stories.
One editor at NOLA.com even “turned over his NOLA View blog to his readers, who sent in dozens of calls for help. Those calls were relayed onto the blog, which was monitored constantly by rescuers, who then sent in teams to save them,” Glaser wrote.
The sites are full of timely breaking news reports, blogs, and ways for readers to submit photos, stories and videos, even a storm tracker.
Through some amazing challenges, the folks at the Times-Picayune have blazed a digital trail for all of us who aspire to inform our communities in good times and bad.
The just-ended Democratic National Convention and next week’s Republican National Convention have clearly marked the arrival of the citizen journalist/blogger onto the biggest political stage.
As recently as 2004, only 35 bloggers were issued credentials to the Democratic event, but that’s up to 135 who got in this year, according to the New York Times. And the Republican event will have even more blogger coverage, with 200 credentials given out.
These also will be the first YouTube conventions, as (can you believe it?) the viral video network didn’t even exist in 2004, the NYT said.
The Advertiser was extremely fortunate to have former politics editor Jerry Burris filing both columns and updating a blog directly from Denver. His unique perspective on the events was both authoritative and immediate, informed by his decades of covering the political scene and propelled by the power of the Internet to instantly broadcast his thoughts.
Jerry’s writing and knowledge of the political landscape puts him leagues ahead of most of those newcomers blogging from the conventions.
So why make a fuss over the citizen bloggers? Aren’t most of them, at best, either uniformed, if well-meaning, civilians or, at worst, partisan hacks with an ax to grind?
But to view the people who will have traveled, mostly at their own expense, to the conventions is to miss the point of where new media is going.
Increasingly, the major events of the day no longer will be interpreted, digested, repackaged and chronicled exclusively by a limited (although certainly expanding) number of “news outlets.”
As we continue to see, the variety of viewpoints available will continue to grow, and the ways in which they are distributed will continue to multiply.
As Mark Glaser of the MediaShift Idea Lab blog wrote, it’s not just about the number of bloggers:
But perhaps the more interesting trend at the conventions this year is that it’s more difficult to tell the independent bloggers from the mainstream media bloggers. As traditional media embraces a multi-platform approach, including their audience in citizen media reports, the distinction between who deserves a media credential and who doesn’t has blurred like never before.
He adds:
Perhaps the more interesting question is whether indie bloggers and new media folks are now becoming a part of the mainstream at the same time the mainstream is reaching out and using the tactics of the independents. When the staid C-SPAN network is lauded by TechCrunch for using live-streaming Qik cams at the political conventions, you can feel change in the air for the media.
Marc’s blog contains the most thorough review I’ve found of the breadth of digital media coverage of the conventions, along with some of the most incisive analysis of the changing media landscape. Check it out to see just how varied the digital coverage is. Also, his thoughts on the changing nature of the blogosphere are definitely worth checking out.
Whatever your political views, you can find independent, unique viewpoints from average citizens writing, making their own videos and otherwise expressing their thoughts on the big political events of the day.
I was proud to see that two former colleagues — and a third journalist who worked at my previous newspaper after I left for Honolulu — are the founding members of an effort that will not only report on government waste and fraud but — more importantly, I believe — also teach average citizens how to uncover wrongdoing themselves using journalistic skills.
As more and more news organizations cut back on manpower, could journalists continue to fight government excesses by teaching non-professionals how to be watchdogs?
It’s an intriguing question.
First, the details:
Texas Watchdog is a “news Web site and training center that scrutinizes the actions of government agencies, bureaucracies and politicians…”
It goes on to say:
In addition to reporting on government waste, fraud and corruption on a regular basis, we will offer training – ranging from two-hour programs to three-month fellowships – on how Texas residents can use journalistic skills to keep their local city halls and corridors of government honest. Topics may include, but are not limited to, investigating municipalities, school systems and lawmakers’ actions. We will also examine key state races and vet the candidates’ backgrounds.
It’s a powerful concept: create original investigative news content as a way to establish the Web site as an authority, then use that reputation to attract folks who want to learn how to ferret out government stories on their own.
The Web site says it best:
We … want to be a place where residents can learn more about how to make their city halls and school systems more transparent – and to keep public officials honest.
Anyone interested in seeing citizen journalism development into a vibrant, positive force in our society probably would agree that training is a key step.
So having organizations dedicated to make that happen is a real shot in the arm.
Personally, I’m thrilled to death that former colleagues of mine are part of the venture.
Texas Watchdog deputy editor Jennifer Peebles and city editor Lee Ann O’Neal were both co-workers during my time at The (Nashville) Tennessean.
Jennifer was the state and government editor and Lee Ann was a reporter.
And although our paths never crossed, the Web site’s editor-in-chief Trent Seibert was a political reporter for The Tennessean, arriving after I left in 2004.
I got a Facebook message today that Jennifer would be leaving The Tennessean to join Lee Ann and Trent, and I couldn’t be more proud of her and of the role she’ll be playing in educating folks about journalism and it’s importance to our democracy.
One last note: at least for the start-up phase of the Web site, funding for the project will be provided by The Sam Adams Alliance, described as “a national non-profit organization that strives to educate and inform citizens about political issues.”
Texas Watchdog is also a non-profit organization, one of a number of journalism outlets that are moving away from the for-profit, advertising revenue model.
This is a project I’ll be watching closely. It has promise both for its mission to educate citizen journalists, but also for its funding model.
And I certainly wish my former co-workers the best of luck in their exciting new endeavor.
First you went to the Obama campaign Web site, or texted “VP” to 62262, to sign up for the exclusive heads up via text message with the news of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama’s vice presidential pick.
And then you waited, happy in the thought that no newspaper or TV station was going to feed you the news this time.
Using the technology that’s become part of our everyday lives, and with the assistance of an Internet savvy presidential campaign, you would have the first crack at the biggest political story of the weekend, fresh, unfiltered, delivered straight to you.
But wait, what’s this?
At 6:42 p.m. HST on Friday, the Associated Press, that bastion of the Old Media, moves an alert:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic official says Joe Biden is Barack Obama’s vice presidential nominee.
The news first broke on CNN, a cable channel that does a lot of digital storytelling, but still is a stalwart of the Mainstream Media.
U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., left, talks with U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., prior to the start of the first Democratic presidential primary debate of the 2008 election. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Whoa.
What happened to Web 2.0 and the text alert and the Obama campaign helping you get around all those big media organizations?
You know, the media dinosaurs that have dominated the dissemination of news since the Gutenberg press days, the ones that are horribly out of touch with today’s news consumers?
I guess the MSM still has a few tricks left up its sleeve.
Actually, I’m not sure how I feel about the way the news got out.
Sure, I’ve been a part of the MSM for 16 years, but part of me was very intrigued by the possibility of getting the break on the VP story directly from the source.
When it comes to national political news, I have no more “in” than anyone else, so the idea that I could avoid the middle man was kinda cool.
Well, unless the text message went out and passed me by, it seems even in these digitally advanced days, we still have to wait for the modern-day equivalent of the town crier to find out what’s going on.
UPDATE: Well, it finally came.
At 10:09 p.m. Friday, I got the word, via the promised text message:
“Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee. Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3pm ET on … Spread the word!”
I had to laugh at the request, since anyone who cared about the news had heard it four hours earlier.
To paraphrase one of my favorite movie quotes: “These individuals show what one motivated journalist and his or her digital technology can do.”
(Bonus points to the first who posts a comment with the original quote and the movie it came from.)
It seems CNN, ABC News and other TV outlets are replacing full bureaus — one of which “had three camera crews, three producers, two correspondents, drivers, and a chef in a house with a view of the Eiffel Tower” — with “one-man (or woman) bands” equipped with laptops, Internet connections and cellphone cameras, according to a recent article in The New York Times.
CNN, for example, is sending digital journalists to 10 U.S. cities (not Honolulu, however) as a way to double its domestic presence while avoiding the costs of renting office space, leasing phone lines, and hiring chefs and drivers. CNN is calling them “all-platform journalists.” Really rolls off the tounge, no?
From the article:
At CNN, the new “all-platform journalists,” as the network calls them, will frequently file for CNN.com and the network’s other outlets. In Minneapolis, that person will work from a local TV affiliate that has a partnership with CNN. In other cities, the journalists may work at newspaper offices or other locations.
The article also says ABC placed seven digital journalists in foreign cities, hopefully in an attempt to restart international reporting, which has suffered across the board as networks and other news outlets pull back to save costs.
And this could be just the start:
ABC is considering assigning digital journalists to positions in the United States, he said. NBC has also trained some of its journalists to be one-man bands, even as it downsized some bureaus this year and created a system of hubs where offices in New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta oversee all news coverage of North and South America.
Could one motivated journalist provide coverage comparable to that of a full bureau?
Depends on the mission.
I’m not a broadcast journalist, but if the mission is to get to the news first, transmit quickly and give viewers and Web users an immediate sense of a breaking news event, I have no doubt these lightweight, unencumbered mobile journalists (or MOJOs, as they are sometimes called) can fit the bill.
I guess if people are expecting polished documentary-style pieces with analysis, multiple locations and a “narrative,” well, no, this isn’t going to work.
But the expansion of bureaus foreign and domestic is a hopeful sign in a time in which mainstream journalism is continually pulling back due to costs.
Let’s see if this experiment results in a greater variety and immediacy of digital news.
