Ad agency starts up online newspaper, "community journalism" ensues

[Paul Balcerak]

I found this column by The Seattle Times' Jerry Large pretty interesting.

For those who don't feel like following the link, here's the gist: An ad agency in Orting, Wash. has created an online newspaper to fill the void of the recently folded weekly, the Orting Gazette. The stories are written by community members and edited by employees at Carr Knowledge, the ad agency in question. Any reader complaints, questions, etc. go straight to the writers and it appears that there's no editor-in-chief or anything like that (other than, of course, the ad agency at large, which as the owner has ultimate control over the content).

As Large comments, the site, "isn't the solution, but it is one solution, particularly on the business end."

I don't think, on a network like Wired Journalists, I need to start railing about all the ethical pitfalls of a project like this — we all know what they are.

What concerns me particularly, though, is that the Orting News Web site does nothing (at least at first glance) to distinguish itself from a traditional newspaper.

I don't mean to come across as an elitist or anything; I think it's great that the Orting community has found a way to fill the void their newspaper left. I'm also well aware of the fact that as far as the law — i.e. the Supreme Court — is concerned, there's really no difference between a journalist and your average citizen. Still, if a bunch of armchair psychologists started up a site dedicated to giving mental health advice or a group of unordained Catholicism enthusiasts started offering religious guidance, people would be completely up in arms.

I'd love feedback on this.

[Mike Orren]

"Still, if a bunch of armchair psychologists started up a site dedicated to giving mental health advice or a group of unordained Catholicism enthusiasts started offering religious guidance, people would be completely up in arms."

Um, but being a journalist doesn't require a PhD or an ordination ceremony the last time I checked.

What color sackcloth should this publisher use to "distinguish itself from a traditional newspaper?"

Sure, I'd like to see open comments on every page and a clearer "About" page or tagline ID-ing the agency and its client list. But having done a quick clickaround, this isn't a shill rag.

This reminds me of the debate I have with capital "J" Journalists about having parents with a beef cover a suburban school board meeting. Is it ideal? No. Is it better than not having any reporting? Absolutely. Temper it with some transparency and open dialogue and it's a pretty close second.

[Paul Balcerak]

Well see, that's my other idea: Instead of trying to pull off this whole "fair and balanced" or "objective" reporting routine, why don't we all just agree that some papers will slant one way and other papers will slant another? Half the people in this country feel like that's how things work already. The only problem is that every community or area would need two papers (at least) and most places are lucky to just have one. (I'm not joking here, I think this could actually be a halfway decent idea.)

As for the whole PhD/ordination ceremony argument, you raise a good point, but I still think a journalism degree is important in the way of ethics training. Then again, maybe I just wasted five years of my life. That's right — five.

[Brad King]

Hey Paul:

I've been working with editors and publishers for the past year, trying to explain the convergence of technology, journalism and society. One of my memes: if you don't embrace, somebody else will -- and when that happens, you won't get a seat at the table.

The fact that an advertising agency has started something like this -- which sounds very cool in the limited description -- isn't exactly the type of scenario I thought about, it's much worse than Google or Microsoft getting into local news.

As for ethics, I earned my Masters in Journalism -- but that isn't where I learned the ethics of the trade. I learned that from my peers and my bosses. It's possible to learn OTJ without getting a degree.

[Paul Balcerak]

Brad:

"One of my memes: if you don't embrace, somebody else will -- and when that happens, you won't get a seat at the table."

That's a good point and I do like the idea of "regular people" contributing to news sources. It seems like a lot of the bigger metros have been hiring on citizen bloggers and citizen reporters for some big events (political caucases, etc.).

You also make a good point with your comment about learning ethics in the field. Nevertheless, I think there's still value in persuing journalism from an academic standpoint.

I hate to keep beating the same drum, but Jerry Large has a follow-up to the column that inspired this whole discussion and makes another comment that I like: "I think the variety is great as long as we maintain some common points of reference, like good ol' daily newspapers."