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J-Lab
J-Lab's Jan Schaffer sees a bright -- but very different -- future for news organizations. |
Today the Newspaper Association of America published on its Future of Newspapers blog a thought-provoking article by
Jan Schaffer, executive director of
J-Lab.
(Full disclosure: J-Lab is a client of mine.) It's called
Construct Your Community's Info-Structure, and it's well worth a read. Here are a few excerpts:
"Smart news organizations ...are concluding it's time for a new core mission, one that repositions the newspaper in the community and revisits knee-jerk practices.
"That mission calls for building an overarching local 'info-structure,' one created to support new definitions of 'news,' new participants in content creation and interaction, and new pathways for news and information. News organizations need to construct the hub that will enable ordinary people with passions and expertise to commit acts of news and information.
"...This new mission is requiring journalists to embrace new partners, validate supplemental news channels, and support -- without always controlling -- a vibrant local newscape. Denouncing these alternative channels of information as not 'real journalism' will no longer work."
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From there, Schaffer gets into the nuts-and-bolts of how news itself might be redefined: "Heading into the future, news becomes less of a concrete deliverable -- a story or package of stories occupying some form of real estate online or on the printed page -- and it becomes more of an
ongoing process of imparting and learning about information."
What role can professional journalists play in this vision? Says Schaffer: "Use your Big-J journalists where they can really add value. Professional journalists should focus their expertise and skills on doing investigations, identifying trends, building databases, holding public officials accountable and articulating the master narratives in their communities."
But news orgs need to think beyond employing journalists, too. Here are some of the roles Schaffer sees expanding:
- Can do-ers "instead of those who whine about what they can't do."
- Computer programmers to build searchable databases or news games.
- Collaborators with "the sensibility to see the possibilities of working together instead of moving into kneejerk competitor mode."
- News analysts to "trawl incoming information looking for Big-J opportunities."
- Tribe expanders: "Journalism in the future will come from many places. We should contribute to the momentum of the best and most responsible efforts and recruit them for the info-structure."
What do you think of Schaffer's vision?
(Thanks to Vikki Porter of the Knight Digital Media Center for pointing out Schaffer's article.)
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