A few days ago I received an email from Publish2 announcing a new set of tools that will create “social journalism.” The very next day, an email hit my inbox from a site proclaiming to have created a “first-of-its kind ‘social newspaper.’” Which got me thinking: how much more social can news and journalism get?
Granted, I run a company that licenses software to power social mapping for news and local shopping, so I’m bullish on the concept of collaborative publishing. My new book, Journalism Next, is filled with lessons of how the power of the crowd contributes to better journalism. While it took journalists several years to embrace Web 2.0, allowing visitors to create content, add comments and upload photos, social media has been adopted much quicker.
The painful and often arbitrary discussions in newsrooms on whether user generated content had any place next to “true” journalism certainly loosened the ground. And the motivation of a crumbling business infrastructure has played a role. But I’m still struck by how long it took journalists (years!) to recognize how powerful and flexible blogs are as a publishing platform and how quickly they flocked to Facebook and Twitter.
The new Publish2 toolset aims to help journalists “curate the real-time web,” according to a blog post by Scott Karp. This is exactly the direction news organizations should be heading in and they should be thankful that Karp and his company are helping them keep pace technologically with the HuffPos, Politicos and Techcrunches of the world. Even AOL, which now has 1,500 writers, sees opportunity in competing with (or eventually replacing?) traditional news media. (The company’s evolution from ISP to content powerhouse is a lesson many print and broadcast companies could learn from, too.)
Startup companies see opportunity in the social news space, too. SodaHead, headed by early MySpace employees, shifted its strategy from a create-your-own-quiz site to focus on creating this “social newspaper” site, though it’s hardly “first of its kind.” Apparently the PR people have never heard of Newsvine, which launched in 2006, and the many other copycat sites created since then.
Social media, social networking, social marketing and now social journalism. It’s a social world, for sure, and it seems few people are bowling alone.
Mark Briggs 
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http://www.uemp.com
is another start up out of Detroit which is looking for collaboration as a way of doing journalism.
http://detroit.fwix.com is a website which aggregates blogs to form the latest news.
Good newspapers will continue to lead the way as the primary and most trusted providers of information if in the midst of this chaotic information revolution, we remain accountable, sensitive and responsive to the people of our communities.
I think of it as “viral buzz” on your television, computer or cell phone versus talking with people in person and reporting on the daily life of a community under the local newspaper’s trusted brand name – in print and online.
The (Sumter, S.C.) Item, for example, maintains a public trust that has been in existence for 115 years. We take that seriously, as have many generations of readers. Information is cheaper and more plentiful than ever, but a newspaper’s relationship with a community is built through the mutual experience of good times and bad. Like a family.
At the same time, we must understand how more people – not all people – are getting information in new and different ways. We as journalists don’t have to be experts on it all, but we must know what questions to ask in order to satisfy the growing expectations of existing readers and to gain new readers.
Good writing is at the heart of any successful publication, be it a newspaper, a novel, a blog or a screenplay. People will always respond to compelling stories and ideas.
I meant http://www.uwemp.com
I do agree… Quality content, from valid sources, will always over ride horrible content.
There just needs to be a meeting point. Where all can survive.