ben_postMedia have only scratched the surface in assessing their value to the world. To better understand and deliver that value, we need to improve how we measure the true impact of journalism. Analysis technologies have never been more abundant and accessible, and can almost do what we need, but better tools are needed.

Certainly, there is tech-based impact measurement already happening in the form of Web analytics, social mentions and related metrics. There are dashboards to let us watch it all in one place. But these measure impact on attention. The model and technology are still very nascent for measuring impact on behavior and policy beyond the website, the TV program, the mobile app.

Automating impact measurement, therefore, would be powerful. [click to continue…]

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These days, I’m depending heavily on tech podcasts to stay current. I figured I’d list some of my new favorites here.

My big dive into tech podcasts is really a means of survival. It turns out that having a baby disrupts everything. Who knew? Well, that includes disrupting the time I have to devote attention to things I can read, click and touch. [click to continue…]

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Let’s rethink citizen journalism

by bencolmery4 on December 19, 2012

in Media Literacy

It’s time to finally get citizen journalism right.

The problem with “citizen journalism” is that it insults professional, paid, rigorously trained, working journalists to equate them with people who often have only a modicum of training, or none at all. It also encourages news organizations to think citizens can be a cheaper alternative to professional journalists, which could degrade the quality of journalism. This, in turn, puts the citizen journalists in an awkward economic position, as some organizations believe they should not be paid. And unpaid content contributors are considered by many to be exploited.

==>Read the rest of my post at IJNet (and subscribe to IJNet, because it is awesome).

Also, if this looks familiar, it’s because it is a streamlined and hopefully clearer version of my earlier post here titled, “It’s time to finally get citizen journalism right“.

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How to harness mobile voice for news

October 31, 2012

Voice technology has tremendous potential for engaging citizens in news. That was the thinking behind the meeting – called Turn Up the Volume: Bringing Voice to Mobile Citizen Journalism – which the International Center for Journalists organized this month at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in Italy. We brought together a diverse group of journalists, technologists and media [...]

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It’s time to finally get citizen journalism right

October 15, 2012

It’s time to stop calling it citizen journalism. That was one of the big takeaways from the meeting on mobile citizen journalism I helped organize at The Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in Italy this past week. The consensus was that we’ve all been calling it – citizen journalism – the wrong name all these years. [...]

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A quarter for your news? Why NOT a video game paywall model?

July 26, 2012

I’m not crazy about paywalls. Mainly because it vastly dilutes the concentration of quality searchable content on the Internet as a public good. Yeah, producing news isn’t free. But, it feels like there should be another workable business model that keeps content open. I mean, if Google can turn advertisements into useful content, can’t news [...]

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Blog not dead. Just been busy. Promise

June 21, 2012

You come to a point, as a blogger, where your blog’s activity is, um, hurting, and you need to make sure people know your blog is not dead. I am at that point. Sorry, world, I have just been busy with work and baby. And mostly baby. At least in my normal blogging hours. If [...]

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