From Stacy Lukas
For the past few months, I’ve been involved behind the scenes in a very exciting project that will change the face of journalism forever. It is called uwemp (a conglomeration of the words “you, we, me, empowered”), an open-source media company offering experience-based content in a new concept called “dialogue-based journalism.” Our writers provide feature and profile articles on people and organizations changing the world we live in today. All content focuses on experiences—challenges, setbacks and lessons learned—that have led to sustained success.
My friend Stacy Lukas is working with them. Which I find ironic because I am working with another company called FWIX (feeds with in the mix) both of these organizations are trying to be the next form of journalism.
FWIX is a blog aggregation service which grabs the most trafficked blogs relevant to the city . FWIX created an iphone app to tell you the hot spots in the city. When I used this app I did not see how this was working. The app just told the person the location of the story and failed to say where the hot spots were.
Everyone is thinking journalism is dying. Which is why people are blogging when they are let go from a newspaper. Instant publishing allows them to print their own stories as they see them. TMZ winds up breaking the Michael Jackson story.
So what do you think is the next wave of journalism. A blog aggregator, traditional journalism in a new form, or a group effort? What do you think will change the communication industry forever? Will journalists and PR people get along because of the changing landscape?
Hey, thanks for the ping! 🙂
I don’t think it’s really an issue of journalism “dying,” it’s changing. Evolving. Which is what any industry needs to do in order to stay “alive.” Newspapers seem to be dying, but I don’t think all newsprint-things will die. I do believe that alternative weeklies like the MetroTimes have a long life ahead of them in print.
With technology being instantaneous now, people expect interaction in the HERE and NOW, whether that’s with getting their news a minute after it happens and then sending it on to their friends, or whether it’s a different form. Different forms of journalism have always existed, and uwemp and fwix are new incarnations of older models. In uwemp’s case, it’s feature and profile writing, much like a magazine; with fwix it’s like a news digest, which means that they’re not even in competition.
That said, wherever journalism is going, the fundamentals of writing and journalistic style and integrity still need to be in place in order to retain credibility. And PR practitioners and journalists are so incestuous these days, bouncing back and forth between the two fields, that the line is blurry. It’s not a question of them “not getting along” because of the changing landscape, it’s more a question of remembering who’s who and what their job was in the first place!!
Awesome post Jamie! I totally agree with your closing assertion and that is that Blogging is the metamorphasis of journalism as we know it: not the death of it! Blogging is putting traditional journalists out of business however which is great for us (the people) who want news without a stuffy corporate spin.
Though we are now seeing an influx of paid bloggers for news sources, we will ALWAYS have the cut throat freelance bloggers that do it for the fun of it and call it exactly how they see it.
Journalists who have lost their jobs have been blogging as well. They have been giving the freedom to say what is on their mind. Which under the old model they could not say. Given the evidence and sources they have and to print such story (maybe political in nature) they could not do.
Now they can print whatever they please! Which is good if you are covering a political story and you feel your story is right and you have the sources to back it up!
Now, Techcrunch is a totally different story. I don’t think you should publish illegally obtained documents.