evolution

The last session of the Citizens Journalism Academy, a joint venture of the World Company and the KU School of Journalism, was last night, and these are my thoughts on the proceedings.

To my knowledge, nothing like this had ever been tried before — where the major local outlet for news, news photos, and news video got together with a group of typical citizens and encouraged them to participate in the news process in this way. Both the World Company (the local practitioners of journalism) and the KU School of Journalism (the local trainers of journalists) are to be commended for it.

The main thing I took away is this: I learned that there is a core of journalists and journalism faculty — at least in this area — who “get it”. They understand the power of the blogging medium. Some outlets in the area (the Capital-Journal, possibly the Eagle lies in this category) pay lip service to the idea but are clearly making a feeble attempt to look “hip” in an era when newspaper subscriptions are plummeting. Others (the Star, and I can name five local bloggers I’d rather read for alternative content than the Pitch) appear not to take it seriously. The World Company and the KU School of Journalism can say that they take blogging seriously, but when the World Company CEO and the KU Dean of Journalism show up with journalism faculty and managing editors to have serious discussions with bloggers and potential future bloggers, we know that they are serious.

I also learned that there is a core of journalists and journalism faculty that are fed up with the punches their chosen profession has been taking in the mouth — deservedly so, in my opinion — and have decided to do something about it. That “something”, in this case, was to allow “average citizens” such as myself a peek behind the curtain to see why journalists who take their craft seriously do what they do.

I learned that many journalists are as disgusted by the national media, both print and television — for which I have little but contempt — as many of us are.

I learned that I’m not such a bad judge of what is news and what is not after all, and that I’m not such a bad judge of what should run and what shouldn’t after all. In many of the exercises which required me to make such a decision, I found my own decisions — as well as the reasons behind those decisions — were not so far off from the experienced journalists in the room.

And I learned that journalism practiced properly is both a lot of work and a sight to behold. Our society will not function without it. The fact that there are journalists and journalism faculty who want to distill that experience for bloggers and potential future bloggers shows that they “get it”.

There are those now who will tell you that the rise of partisan blogs and blog-style sites like dKos or the Freep have fractured rather than bonded this society, and at this particular point in history, they may have. But I see a future — coming quickly now — when everyone else “gets it” too. Serious people will seek out serious sources for serious matters, and blogs will bond together rather than fracture society — much as the pamphleteers of Revolution-era America did. Heaven knows we need folks like them again.

I learned that those folks do exist, and that they are waiting for the right time to speak their minds. They have been given tools by the CJA to do so responsibly. Hopefully they learned from the CJA what I learned four and a half years ago — that the time for that is now.

ALSO: I shouldn’t say that these are “final” thoughts. The World Company and the KU School of Journalism have pledged to do this again next year, and a few selected from our number will serve as advisors for the next time. (I am not one of these.) Also, I met a couple of my regular readers in the flesh, and made a few more as well, so I doubt very seriously that this will be the last contact I have with the members or the organizers of the CJA.