Democratic Journalism
The citizen can bring our political and governmental institutions back to life, make them responsive and accountable, and keep them honest. No one else can. -- John Gardner
If there is a silver lining to the remarkable and frightening developments in our economy over the past few weeks it may be that Americans will finally wake up the fact of what it means to live in a democracy and participate. For most of us, we've relied on the media to be our watchdog and filter the news to us about what is happening and what it means.
Largely, we've been spectators. But the explosive growth of cheap technology and social media has changed the game and allowed us to become participants in the discourse. Virtually anyone and everyone can be a reporter or publisher of content, but that activity has still been, for the most part, an individual exercise. Of course good reporting entails research, developing sources, fact checking and editorial oversight. But in the end, the story still ultimately stems from one or just a few people's perspectives.
But recently, through the application of social media technologies, we've seen some very interesting experiments in what you might call a more democratic process. For example, WNYC's morning radio show is using wiki technology to crowdsource its show. Producers use the show's 30 Issues in Thirty Days to gather listeners' opinions and votes on the issues the show. The wiki gives the public the opportunity to participate in the development of the show. Another recent example was BusinessWeek's special report on "Business at Work" in its 8/25 and 9/1 issues. That content was largely based on contributions from its readers.
Clearly the democratization of journalism will continue and what it will look like down the road nobody can predict. But it is a train that has started to leave the station and we should be pushing ourselves and our clients to get on board or risk being left behind.
What do you think? Are there other good examples we should be aware of?
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