B-con: journalism session

Led by Scott Rosenberg of salon.com (his preparatory notes for the session are here).

I'm updating & re-saving this post as the conversation unfolds.

Issues raised by people in the room:

What is "standard journalistic practice"?  Is it still relevant? Does one continue to exist and should it in this new era of blogging?

Issues of journalistic standards: the process of journalism vs. the tools and technical formats.

Question of objectivity: is it relevant? Or should we focus more on transparency and knowing where your biases are?

The line between journalism and advocacy and p.r.

Is there something special about journalism? Should those aspiring to be doing journalism use a specific label showing they adhere to certain "standards" - whatever those are?

One person from a p.r. company: "blogs communicate the interest of actual users and readers."

How can blogs maintain their independent voice as an alternative media and avoid the mainstream media's insularity .

How blogging is helping to bring out the individual voices of journalists.

The tools for newsgathering are now on everybody's computers. So how do you use those tools in ways that are responsible.

Question of bloggers rehashing internet sources and not doing original "legwork" - the difference between blogging and news reporting?

Local blogging: covering issues in local communities that local mainstream media simply isn't covering.

Value in the meta-analysis of being one step away and not having "stockholm syndrome" relationship to the people you cover (example as Pentagon journalists).

We should not be looking at the situation as "either-or" but rather as a mesh. How blogs and professional journalism can complement one another.

From the AP's Jim Kennedy. Blogs show that finally the audience wants to talk back. This is a great opprotunity for the media and its audience to hold conversations. The zero-sum, "us vs. them" is not useful.

Scott: maybe the better way to look at it is "it's just us."

Dave Winer: making generalizations about bloggers is not useful.

Common problem for both bloggers and pros: the difference between opinion and newsgathering.

Jay Rosen: its through arguments and debates that many people get interested in certain news stories.

J.D. Lasica - insularity of mass media vs. inclusiveness of blogs. secrecy of the news room vs. transparency of blogosphere. citizens must start taking back our media and one of the ways we can do this is through blogs.  (see "ourmedia.org")