Robert Paterson's Weblog

CNN - What next after Dobbs?

Try this test - You are looking for a date. You look at the personals and you see people who state that they are:

• An NPR listener
• A Fox News Watcher

My bet is that you may not like one of these in principal or the other - but that even more than claims to beauty, youth, etc that these two labels tell you more about the person than any other data point. If you are either one of these yourself - you can be assured of compatibility - the pillow talk will work!

Now - here is the CNN bit. Imagine that the personal ad said this:

• CNN Watcher?

What would that tell you? Maybe that they are a news junkie? But I don't think it tells me much about who they are.

I think that this is a serious problem for CNN. Lou Dobss leaving is in this context a huge opportunity.

My fear is that CNN was looking at tow tracks that take them to oblivion:

• Entertainment Tonight
• Fox

Dobbs was a bit of both of these tracks.

They take CNN to oblivion because Fox owns its place and its people and the ET audience will not pay the bills.

Where can CNN go? Who can be its tribe?

I think that there is a a Tribe out there that is under served. It is the old CBS News tribe. The Murrow POV - I think that this is what Ted Turner had in the early years. You could have the world explained to you by the very best journalists on the ground. On the ground in the US and in the world at large.

NPR has a chunk of this Tribe but there are many who feel that NPR is too far to the left of them. NPR may dispute this but the reality is that many feel this to be true so it is. There is a tribe that don't want Fox and they Don't want all of NPR.

In the US it is not a huge mass market - but it is a market that is worth a lot.

The mass market is outside of the US and it is up for grabs and it ties into a more defined market in the US.

Billions in the world outside of the US know the brand of CNN. Most of these people have no local news that they can trust. Most have a cell phone now.

There is a potentially a huge audience for quality local/global news globally - CNN has the brand and the infrastructure to capture this. They used to have this in the old terms of reference - if you wanted to get your message out you used CNN. CNN could get all the great "Gets".

The real deal is a global link up between decision makers and people who care.

The US Real News market is at least as big as NPR's audience - over 30 million - and there must be a billion or so outside the US.

The mass market in the US - where CNN has been focused is a death trap. It's all Balloon Boy all the way!

Am I smoking dope?

Update - Just in John King will take over the slot - 

Mr. Klein added, according to an employee who transcribed the call, “Having made a statement that we’re all about nonpartisan journalism and outstanding journalism, we have to live up to that. We have got the hardest mission.”

Mr. King will remain the anchor of “State of the Union” until early in 2010. CNN did not identify a replacement for him.

Only 10 months ago, CNN rebuilt its Sunday morning schedule around Mr. King, giving him four hours for interviews and debates. The channel’s media criticism show “Reliable Sources,” hosted by The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz, is now shown within “State of the Union.”

In a clear contrast to the outspoken Mr. Dobbs, Mr. King, a former Associated Press writer, is known for his straightforward style. CNN called the forthcoming 7 p.m. program “a definitive political hour that goes well beyond the surface of the day’s top stories to provide in-depth analysis and context to key political movements in Washington and across the nation.” CNN’s chief competitors at that hour are Fox News Channel’s Shepard Smith, a news anchor, and a political commentator, Chris Matthews, on MSNBC.

“John embodies what we are striving for at CNN -– he is steadfast in his objective and nonpartisan political reporting and has the passion for chasing down stories that really matter to Americans,” Mr. Klein said in an e-mail message to staff members.

In a statement, Mr. King said, “There is a lot of noise and conflict in our political discourse, which is fun to cover, but I’m convinced from my travels that people also thirst for more details as well as insight and context. I’m looking forward to combining those conversations with top newsmakers, smart reporting and expert analysis.”

How to handle the "News" of the Swine Flu

Most of the headlines about the flu make people even more helpless and fearful.

Here is how KETC in St Louis is handling it with one of their key partners - the Red Cross

Good advice where ever you live.

It's all about helping people help themselves rather than just panicking them about things they have no control over.

It is about offering context so that they can look at the risks themselves.

It would be great if CBC PEI and the Guardian would get together and help mobilize the broadly based resources on PEI and offer the same kind of help to all of us here.

The Flu - No Panic - Just Help - KETC extends its community model to flu

Living With the Flu - Our Goals

By KETC on October 15, 2009, 9:04 am

H1N1. A combination of two letters and two numbers very few people knew seven or eight months ago, but now have taken on an ominous meaning for many. As we enter the 2009-2010 flu season, most in the St. Louis region—and across the country—are wondering what will happen and how they and their family can best prepare for “Living With the Flu.”

To help our community during this time, KETC is using our capabilities on-air, online and in the community as the region’s trusted public media organization to connect residents to H1N1 prevention and immunization resources through a network of trusted community agencies. Watch our broadcast for tips on how you can prevent the flu and what to do it you or someone in your family is infected. We’ll be posting information and links to resources here, and we want to hear from you if you know of resources we don’t have here.

We are all going to be living with the flu this year, but by staying informed and being prepared, we call all try and prevent the spread.

via livingwiththeflu.org

Once again the news is filled with panic headlines. It's 1918 all over again - a National Emergency - Huge line ups for vaccine - Not enough vaccine - Kids dying and so on. Just like good old Channel 7 New in Buffalo with a fire every night! Come back Irv Weinstein.

This approach to news just confuses and frightens - after all when we hear this kind of thing, we are left helpless. There is nothing that we can do.

At KETC, we decided to behave differently when the mortgage crisis struck. We are not even a "News" station. We decided to see what we could do to HELP. One of the challenges was that we didn't know what to do either.

So we did something quite novel, we went out into the community and found out about the people who did know what to do - we helped bring them together and we gave them a voice and we connected them to a lot more people than they could have been connected to on their own. It worked. worked so well that now over 70 stations are doing this in the 32 worst hit cities in America.

So this clip above is the next step. The Flu is like the economy. A TV station can shout "fire" in a crowded room or it can find help. This time we have a bit more experience - we already have relationships with a lot of community resources - we have learned how to give the community a voice and to connect people who don't even watch our channel to the help that they need.

Public TV in particular has been criticized for not really serving their local public with news. Here is a snip from a new report:

The study, posted on the Columbia Journalism Review website, can be found online through this link: 

After surveying the field for news chops and innovative thinking, Downie and Schudson conclude that too much of the money spent on pubcasting is directed to maintaining local television and radio stations and not enough to independent news reporting. “Overall . . ., local news coverage remains underfunded, understaffed and a low priority at most public radio and television stations, whose leaders have been unable to make or uninterested in making the case for investment in local news to donors and Congress,” they write.

But I think that the term "News" is too narrowly defined. Surely what people need locally is not more Irv Weinstein headlines but more context and connection?

KETC is doing this without blowing up the station. What has happened is that the work of the station is evolving into this connector role.

The really hard work was in "seeing" this role. Once we got it - the rest has happened naturally.

Disclosure - I am an adviser to KETC

Posted via web from Rob's posterous

Are journalists bloggers etc - A false question - follow up to CBC PEI Debate

This debate is being conducted beyond PEI with great vitriol - why I was impressed by the manner of the discussion here. Peter I think that there is in fact no line really in what we do but only in the label. Some bloggers comment - some follow stories as journalists do. Where is the line and why the passion?

If we look at schools we see the same line. A “real” teacher has to have a Teaching degree and get paid working for a “real” school. The explicit assumption is that only such a “professional” training and only such an “accredited” organization can safely “teach”. Of course this is utter rubbish. Most good teachers have a natural ability and learn to be really good by teaching. The actual course work for a B of Ed is merely a guild barrier. Good teaching does not need a school either - another guild barrier.

Journalists at the heart are only story tellers.

I say only not in a deprecating way but to define what it is that they do. So are good bloggers.

A myth about journalism is that they are careful about the truth. This may be true in a micro sense but has never been true on a macro sense. Newspapers etc exist to sell advertisng space and to pay their owners. Nothing wrong in that per se. But as we have seen in our own lifetime, they have a deep systemic bias to the status quo and to pleasing those in power.

One of the aspects I enjoy about the press in the UK is that no one pretends to be unbiased. Each organ stakes out ground and speaks to that. Here in North America, the bias is cloaked.

More recently even the micro facts - balloon boy etc - are not checked. But the passion to draw the line is fuelled mainly by the reality that the old media is dying and is lashing out and looking to protect itself. A natural response but still nasty. They claim that they have been undermined by losing revenue to Craigslist and attachment to Google. But if you look at the numbers, they have lost their audience and their readers.

I think in our now very complex world, the “News” offers only a commodity headline - Flu!!!! Risk!!!! Get Vaccinated!!! - Market’s Up Buy Buy Buy Markets Down Sell Sell - More Killed in Afghanistan More Killed More Killed - Michael Jackson/OJ/Jay Lo As they lose resources, this frantic search for headlines gets worse and the cycle continues. As they lose circulation and ad revenue, they are faced with their systemic costs.

The paper, the studios, the union rules, the guild practices. They all totter now. In reality, papers and stations will close all over North America. Canwest cannot even give their stations away! Thousands will lose well paying jobs. Those that are left feel cornered and have to lash out - it must be someone else’s fault - those Bloggers!

The debate at the CBC was polite, but I live with this every day in the US where passions are high. Why so high?

I think that this is more like the Reformation than any other precedent. A once invulnerable institution who defined their power by claiming to be the only connection to God, whose leader was appointed by God, whose Priests were the only true priests were being assaulted by an idea. The idea was that all could find and converse with God directly. That there was no need for such an institution. That being a priest began in the human heart. Now that is not what the reformed church became but that was the idea that shook the Mother Church.

So as I see it, it’s not really about the bloggers versus the papers or the TV or Radio stations. It is the death of an industrial idea. The death knell for all such institutions. Soon there will not longer be this debate about who is a journalist because there will be only a handful of papers and other traditional organizations and there will be a void. Like planets forming from stellar dust, new institutions will form - many bloggers will find a place in this new system as will a few “journalists”. This will happen soon enough here on PEI.

via ruk.ca

There is a really good debate going on at Peter's blog and this compelled me to launch this response

Posted via web from Rob's posterous

New and Old Media on PEI - How the conversation should go

Ocotber 28 - Minding the Media

Wed, 28 Oct 2009

This time around Guardian reporter Teresa Wright, journalism instructor Rick MacLean and businessman and blogger Tim Banks talk about access to the Legislature's press gallery.

via cbc.ca

Hit the link to go direct to the podcast

Polite, thoughtful, considered, productive - Tim Banks, a leading blogger on PEI - Teresa Wright - one of our best print journalists - and Rick MacLean - who teaches Journalism - hosted by Mitch Cormier of CBC Radio PEI do us all proud as they cover a lot of ground in a short time on how to bring the old and the new together.

Outstanding!

Posted via web from Rob's posterous

The Price of Poor Journalism

So many who defend the media as it is - state that we need them to protect us from the "baddies". Here is Umair Haque's rejoinder to that:

There is relatively little profitability left in the economy outside the financial sector. Wall Street and its subsidiaries now account for over 50% of all income in America. They have done so through a series of de facto coups, as both Simon Johnson and I have referred to them.

Yet, almost no one protected the public interest. Almost no one chronicled Wall Street's excesses. Almost no one kept watch over Washington's capture. Almost no one defended the swelling ranks of the vulnerable. Those few that did were marginalized — instead of lionized — by the industry itself.

Where was the fourth estate when our political, economic, and social institutions were being systematically dismantled? What has happened to our economy parallels what Mugabe did to Zimbabwe. Was the fourth estate asleep while this happened? Like other power brokers, it was negligent — and, perhaps worse, complicit.

If newspapers had protected the public interest like they were meant to, they would be more profitable. Everyone would be better off today — including newspapers — if newspapers had chronicled this transfer of value. Yet, by failing to protect the public interest, they helped create the conditions for the transfer of value away from people who do stuff, to people who speculate on stuff.

These are the poor choices of management, who committed strategic seppuku by trading near-term profit for long-run prosperity. Newspapers are full of awesome journalists who are deeply ethical people who chose journalism exactly because they want to do meaningful stuff that matters. But newspaper management — like the management of nearly every other industry under the sun — traded tomorrow for today. And that's the problem that nichepapers — just part of a larger generation of "M" organizations — are solving....

What have the publishers of our newspapers stood up for? When will they stand up for something greater than profit?

Future of News - Lessons from Giant Pool of Money and Planet Money

Last week, the Giant Pool of Money, won a Peabody award. This was a breakthrough program on many fronts. First of all it was a collaboration between two rivals - This American Life and NPR. Secondly it was web based. Thirdly it was long form. Lastly it took the POV of mystery - not only for journalists but for ALL concerned - including the regulators and the Treasury.

The show shed light for the first time on the complex crisis that confronts us. It gave birth to an entirely new kind of news show, Planet Money, that is extending all the lessons learned by the initiating show.

Here is a video of one of the co hosts - Adam Davidson (The other was Alex Blumberg of This American Life) Where Adam does his best to explain how making this show is changing his perspective on how journalists cover complex stories.

I think that in these few minutes, Adam explains the real revolution that has to take place in news.

He tells of his problem with space and time in conventional journalism. How can you talk about say a problem in mortgage backed securities in just 3 minutes when most know nothing abut them. But this is what people have to do in the time constraints of a audio or Video news program or in the space constraints available in a newspaper. Conventional news simply does not offer the time or the space to cope with complex things.

Linear news cannot inform us about complexity and complexity is our world now.

He talks about the problem of the "Authoritative Voice" the voice of God that is used. As a correspondent in Iraq, he and his wife could always tell the newbies - they were the ones who knew what was going on! It is now quite clear that even Henry Paulson did not know what was going on. So why should any journalist pretend that they did? Adam is saying that the right place for a journalist is to be a seeker on behalf of the public.

Top down voices of authority cannot illuminate complexity either. Only an invitation for conversation can unpack complexity's meaning.

Update - I have added this part on Complexity a day later:

This deceptively simple diagram, made by Dave Snowden, I think explains for the the core idea.

 

The ever increasing number of links and connections in the world has taken us to a "Phase Shift". We have broken out of a Simple and Complicated World into a Chaotic and Complex world.

Chaotic and Complex events CANNOT be understood by using a linear thought process. Only an emergent process has any chance of establishing understanding. This is why our current Linear News process actually makes us MORE confused.

Only an interactive multi-player conversation can offer "Emergence". So only an online process for news has any chance.

In the first few weeks of Planet Money, I talked with Adam and Laura about their plans and how they might be able to use a web based show. Here in summary is what he told me. In essence they were going to prepare a a big all you can eat buffet. It would suit every taste and would be open 24/7. (BPP was a diner)

• Daily the team would offer up nuggets, small dishes, of current and topical news that they found or that an ever expanding circle of "fans" as per BPP, would send in

• 3 - 4 times a week they would offer up a podcast, a longer form piece - a small audio magazine - this could be and is sliced and diced and added into the main magazines such as All Things Considered, News Broadcasts, Local shows, Morning Edition - what they learned with BPP is that it is better to add great new content into the blockbuster items rather than try and compete with your self. This way PM builds a wide audience by using the network effect. Adam also is a regular guest on the New Hour - thus PBS and NPR are getting closer as well

• Every 6 weeks or so - a long form show such as Giant Money in collaboration with TAL.

• The POV was always going to be - EXPLAIN! The presenters of the show would be representing us. They would start from a position of NOT KNOWING and not understanding the jargon. The irony is that even the so called experts have told Adam that they too have learned from the show. The problem being that they often know a lot about a little but also cannot see the larger whole. So the "VOICE" that we hear is a questioning, uncertain voice. When I say "Voice" I mean literally the timbre of what you hear. The deep profundo voice of God is not allowed on the show. I think key to this voice are Laura and Caitlin who sound like your favorite sisters and not your mother or some Amazonian know it all with power hair. The guys are quizzical and sound a bit like your bright university guy friend who is helping you understand calculus or statistics.

Of course everything is online so it is all available at any time. Hence the "banquet" metaphor.

I find all the hand wringing of conventional journalism a bit lame. 3 minute sound bites, 8 inches of text and the VOICE from the burning bush is actually making the world harder to comprehend.

Don't all the problems that confront us fit this new kind of treatment? For do you really know what do do in Iraq and Afghanistan? Do you really have the answers to health or to energy? Do you know anyone that really has the answer to our education system?

Is not part of our problem that conventi0nal journalism makes it all but impossible to get to the root of these issues?

I think that the limits of "space" and "time" on conventional media do make it worse. These limits reduce all to bits and bites and give a stage and power to rabble rowsers - look at the cheerleaders in the financial sector!

Planet Money will look like the Model T Ford in 30 years time. But it will I think be seen as the Model T, as the expression of an entirely new and appropriate way of approaching the world that we now inhabit. A world that is made so complex by its vast array of interconnections.

As with all things on the web - the real shift is in relationship and hence POV.  The time and space contraints of traditional media drive the top down expert/god POV. This fitted a less interconnected and hence less complex world. But with a hyper linked world, we live in much more complex times. Only a hyper linked way of gathering and offering the news will fit.

That is the revolution.

Hats off to Adam and Alex - to Ira Glass and to Ellen Weiss

What would you do?

Unlike Canadian Banks, Canadian Media was allowed to concentrate and is now in dire trouble. CanWest, CTV and CBC are are hemorrhaging. It is clear that many of their stations, titles and programs will fold.

I read that CTV offered its station in Brandon to the CBC for $1.0 and that the CBC passed.

This has got me thinking. If I was offered our local paper or say the local CBC station (The Guardian is our paper owned by the sickening Transcontinental Group and may well be on the block soon - If CBC was to cut back - surely CBC Charlottetown would be first to go?)

What would I do?

I have been thinking about this all day and so far I have no answer other than I would not take them on as they are - even for only $1.0

So with no other thought than that - what do you think we could do - for while this is a thought experiment today - it has every chance of being a real question before the end of 2009.

How could a community such as PEI or your place take back its media power from the wreckage of the dying system?

How a newspaper dies - The staff tell the story of Rocky Mountain News

Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo. Will this happen to your paper? Might happen here on PEI with the Guardian.

Canwest - The Cancer facing Media Organizations

With $3 billion in debt, the holding company, Canwest, is dying. It will take down the titles too. So will the Tribune group with $13 billion in borrowings.

Is this not the affliction that many papers face? Being owned by people that have borrowed too much is a cancer that makes their local problems of declining advertising and readership into a crisis.

How papers have been owned is surely part of the systemic problem? If they are ever to be revived, how they are owned will surely be a factor?