#PINCamp13, What does news as a conversation really mean?
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This document discusses making news media more interactive and inclusive of audience participation. It questions whether newsrooms are genuinely prepared to invite feedback from audiences and engage in two-way conversations, or if they only want to control the agenda and message. The document advocates for continual, specific, and genuine invitations for audience input and shared control over agenda-setting between newsrooms and audiences. However, it notes newsrooms may not be willing to follow up or be prepared to handle feedback that does not align with their goals.
#PINCamp13, What does news as a conversation really mean?
- 1. What news as a conversation really means Joy Mayer | @mayerjoy mayerj@missouri.edu
- 3. Heres something four-year-olds know: a screen without a mouse is missing something. Heres something else they know: media thats targeted at you but doesnt include you may not be worth sitting still for. They will just assume that media includes the possibilities of consuming, producing, and sharing side by side, and that those possibilities are open to everyone. How else would you do it? Clay Shirky, Cognitive Surplus
- 4. Wheres the mouse? Consume. Produce. Share.
- 5. Mutualisation at The Guardian = a constant invitation Model from @MegPickard
- 6. Mutualisation at The Guardian = a constant invitation Model from @MegPickard
- 8. Our invitations tend to be segmented.
- 9. How can we make our invitations continual? specific? genuine? easy?
- 11. Is the interaction inviting, talking and listening really part of our newsroom culture?
- 13. If we tell users we want to hear from them, are we prepared to follow up? Are we willing to share our agenda- setting duties?
- 14. Shared control. Vulnerability. (like a real relationship?)
- 15. Are we asking for feedback?
- 16. And do we really want it?
- 17. But what if users want to talk about something were not prepared for?
- 18. But what if they have needs that dont line up with ours?
- 19. But what if their ideas or suggestions are bad?
- 21. What if they dont want what we think they should want?
- 22. Are we as focused on meeting their needs as we are on enabling them to meet ours?
- 25. What will happen if we hand them the microphone?
- 31. How do you make the mouse more obvious? How do you help your newsrooms see the value? Is your newsroom ready to listen?
Editor's Notes
- #3: Explanation is here: http://joymayer.com/2012/04/07/wheres-the-mouse-my-favorite-shirkyism/
- #5: Such a key principle of PIN how can people interact with and inject themselves into what we do? How are our processes and products social? Collaborative? Open?
- #6: Diagram from Meg Pickard describes the attitude at the core of the Guardians invitations.This is at the core of how my team and I now approach journalism.
- #7: Its a conversation, not a lecture. Less about stories that get published. More about an ongoing back and forth. That bottom left is key for the strategies of PIN.
- #8: Three Little Pigs ad: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2012/feb/29/open-journalism-three-little-pigs-advertBe a change agent. Get people in your newsroom to open up. Ask the question for so many stories. How can this approach get to better journalism?Changing attitudes in the newsroom. Get the buy-in. Culture. Find the like minds and point to the success. The kind of journalism thats possible through it.
- #9: Key turning point in that video is when a user tipped the newsroom off about the inhaler video. That happens best when theres a standing invitation to interact when journalists are accessible and open.How can we build invitations into more of what we do, not have them as a separate element?
- #13: How often, and how specifically, do we ask readers to tell us what they want to know? What if we were more structured to answer existing questions?The flip side, though, is that we have to be ready for what we get. What if we get questions we dont want? What if users misunderstand what were asking? What if we have to chase things we dont think are interested or important?
- #18: Following a story on social is a kind of feedback.
- #19: Huge success on one level she took me up on my offer to get in touch with ideas.But also so, so inconvenient, and not at all when I intended when I invited story ideas.
- #21: Do we really want to know? Are we asking the right people?Too often, we pat ourselves on the back for having issued the invitation.
- #22: And sometimes, invitations go nowhere, when were sure they should have worked. Are we willing to let go?
- #24: Speaking of community, ProPublica is creating them, not just joining them. For meaningful crowdsourcing and continued conversation.There are FB groups locally, to focus on specific ideologies, priorities, interests, etc. If they meet in person, we feel obligated to listen. Why not online?Seattle Times doing it with people who graduated from high school in a certain year, for an economic impact story.
- #25: Future audience. They shared our stories. They let a few of us into their group. Theyre planning to submit a story for From Readers. They feel heard and connected. This is where they talk. The new shoe leather reporting find the community.
- #26: The next slides are two examples of what happens when you open up discussion with no idea what will come next. Show up and listen. Be willing to hear from them.Can they help solve a problem? (And how could I have gotten them in the PIN?) The how could questions from yesterday.