|
The
Science of Journalism |
|
One Man's Opinion -- for what it's worth To: Dan Conover - dan@danconover.com Cc: Ken Doctor - kdoctor@gmail.com Cc: Mathew Ingram - mathew@gigaom.com Cc: Tim J. McGuire - (Address unknown, please forward) Cc: Jeff Jarvis - jeff@buzzmachine.com Cc: Jay Rosen - jr3@nyu.edu Cc: Dean Starkman - dean@deanstarkman.com Cc: Clay Shirky - (Address unknown, please forward) Cc: Dave Carr - carr@nytimes.com Cc: Doc Searls - dsearls@cyber.law.harvard.edu Cc: Dave Winer - dave.winer@gmail.com Cc: Glenn Greenwald - GGreenwald@salon.com Cc: Paul Krugman - (Address unknown, please forward) Cc: Bill Domhoff - domhoff@ucsc.edu From: Doug Skoglund - skoglund@pdmsb.com Date: Friday, Jun 08, 2012 Subject: My Way LXXXVII - Semantic Economy?? Welcome, Dan Conover, to my little group. I found you through a Mathew Ingram post, "What happens when a newspaper is just another digital voice?" -- and I quote: That's the problem in a nutshell: once your newspaper has been stripped of the magic of print -- the same magic that makes you far more appealing to advertisers than the amount of time spent with your medium would seem to indicate -- you become just another digital voice among thousands or even millions of other voices. Then you are no different from the Huffington Post, or Buzzfeed, or a Twitter-driven news source such as News.me or Prismatic. In fact, you could actually be seen as worse in some ways, because you are a single voice. Right on, Dan Conover, right on -- focus on the elements -- one hell-of-a good starting place -- but nowhere near enough to find solutions. But you have something all the others lack -- and that is purpose, with goals -- you have your Semantic Economy. Now, I'm not certain that I understand the precise details, and I don't have to, at this point in time, because you have to go through my goal to get to yours. I just want to save Journalism as a very important part of our democracy and the gatekeeper that is preventing science (my field) from doing it's job for the same democracy. In your post, "Sustainable quality," you wrote: Here's the important takeaway, and it's something I've been writing about for years and will keep touting until it happens: There is no bright future for journalism on the cheap. The answer to our current glut of junk info cannot be more junk info, and the reason that more companies should be moving toward a sustainable model of less frequent, higher-quality print publication paired with efficient digital-first journalism is because (for some of them) it's the only practical option available today that includes the words "quality" and "sustainable." And, you go on to write: .. I alternate between varying flavors of despair and annoyance. Wow -- talk about frustration!! So, let me suggest that you, Mr. Dan, spend more time learning about the present tools so that you can productively supervise the professional tool builders while they do their job. Obviously, Dan, you can read some of my previous writings through the Archive listings at the end of this post -- and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. I have no links because I am plowing new ground myself. My primary justification is a working knowledge of The Scientific Process and it's application to Problem Solving -- the basis of 60+ years as an engineer turned programmer. To be continued (I Hope) Doug Skoglund skoglund@pdmsb.com This page posted at http://ifihadmyway.com/myway087.htm |