Is the mainstream press out of touch? With newspapers being the manifest representation of old school, it's interesting to note the numbers of newspaper apps downloaded in the past quarter. Starkey certainly has old-school followers in his saber rattle with Shirky and co. On the new-school side (among numerous examples) Gigaom has Matt Ingram break down Fast Company's interview with Nick Kristof, specifically his observations on #occupy and citizen journalism. Kristof and Ingram point out the valued presence of accidental and citizen cameras and phones on the scene at occupy. Nick Kristof is an accredited journalist, with an armload of tenure in the profession, and he's able to use both the traditional press and his immediately available, socially networked tools to do his job from the field - to report. His tweets from Bahrain were valuable professional (informed, verified, neuanced) observations in real time. He's not the only mainstream reporter who's tweeting while filing for the trad deadline. As but one example, C.J. Chivers continues to put out rapidfire tweets and tumblr postings that go beyond his already stellar pieces in the NYT. Accidental and citizen journalists - occupiers and middle-eastern kids, use the same tools. The audience, the news viewers, readers, networkers recieve both reporters work as news. The reporters view their work as news, as the voicing of a witness to history. Who they work for -or don't - in that instant is irrelevant. Journalism in the new era is directly impacted by efforts to control the internet, creating a need for journalists to advocate for better policy in how the tools of their trade are regulated. Arguing the minutia of how the news is reported is distracting energy in our current newsstream. To protect journalists, we should all take a deeper interest in respecting journalism as a collective voice and protect the tools that bring us The News.
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