Monday, April 24, 2006

Last Thursday, the mega-popular videoblog Rocketboom featured an interview with the prickly genius who played a key role in developing many popular new-media tools (such as feeds, OPML and podcasting), Dave Winer.

Here's my favorite quote, and I love it because it's so controversial: "Amateur is not below professional. It's just another way of doing [media]. The root of the word amateur is love, and someone who does something for love is an amateur. Someone who does something to pay the bills is a professional. The amateurs have [more integrity than] the professionals. If you're an amateur you have less conflict of interest and less reason not to tell your truth than if you have to pay the bills and please somebody else."

I think this basic question -- what constitutes integrity in media? -- cuts straight to the heart of the discomfort that many traditional journalists experience when they consider the booming field of citizen journalism and grassroots media.

We journalists generally prize integrity. Certain core values and practices of traditional (professional) journalism -- such as objectivity, accuracy, corroboration, avoiding conflicts of interest, transparency, editorial oversight, etc. -- exist in order to enhance our integrity and thus earn the audience's trust.

Adherence to an ethical code is, indeed, one important way to view and practice integrity. But it's not the sole definition of integrity. According to the American Heritage Dictionary (via Dictionary.com), integrity also means: "The quality or condition of being whole or undivided; completeness." This, I think, is the aspect of integrity Winer was getting at when he mentioned the importance of "telling your truth."

Often traditional journalists object that when unpaid amateurs do journalism for love and not for money, they're prone to violating the core journalistic tenets of objectivity and avoiding conflicts of interests. The amateurs will probably write about issues they have a passion for, and they may even be directly or indirectly involved in the story.

That's true. However, passion and personal involvement are part of life -- why shouldn't they be part (just part, mind you) of the news, as long as that is made very obvious? Why not offer a more complete version of the news by including coverage from both amateur and professional perspectives? If done well (and yes, amateurs can learn to produce high-quality news content), I suspect audiences would find such an integrated approach to news even more engaging and relevant. Rich context counts.

What do you think? Please comment below.

...Anyway, don't think Winer is down on journalism. He did mention in this interview, "It would be nice if journalism 101 was a requirement for every college freshman." I'd take that even further. Personally, I'd make journalism skills (along with critical thinking and media literacy) a fundamental part of K-12 education.

(Thanks to Dan Gillmor for the tip on the Winer interview.)

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