New and Old Media, Participation, and Information

March 1

The profusion of low-cost media production and distribution has led to the rise of an alternative citizen-led media sector. Is this a passing fad of enthusiastic amateurs or the beginning of a fundamental restructuring of the way media and news are produced and consumed? Will the current trends lead to more information, better information, and better informed people or to an infinite stream of unreliable chatter? Will it lead to a more politically engaged populace or to an increasingly polarized society that picks its sources of information to match its biases and ignorance?

Readings

• John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney, The Life and Death of Great American Newspapers
• Media Re:public Overview - Read at least the executive summary
• Knight Commission Report on Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy - Read at least the executive summary, recommendations and conclusions
• Nieman Journalism Lab, Four crowdsourcing lessons from the Guardian’s (spectacular) expenses-scandal experiment
• Sunlight Foundation website - just look around the site to see what they are up to
• Pennenberg, WikiLeaks' Julian Assange: 'Anarchist,' 'agitator,' 'arrogant' and a journalist

Optional Readings

• FTC Staff Discussion Draft, Potential Policy Recommendations to Support the Reinvention of Journalism - just skim it
• Leonard Downie, Jr., and Michael Schudson, The Reconstruction of American Journalism
• We The Media, Dan Gillmor (the Introduction is a good start, so to speak)
• Jay Rosen, Bloggers vs. Journalists Is Over
• Shirky on Social Media