“Sure that guy’s crazy, but I can’t even talk to him,” he recalls.

This journalist says, for all its flaws, the internet equalizes that.

Matthew Ingram follows by discussing the value of using citizens as stringers, and teaching them journlistic tools.

This could be applied around the world.

“We can learn from them,” says the CBC guy.

One journalist who was sent to Afghanistan to teach Pashtuns to use vid cameras talks about how dfficult and expensive the process is.

“Why can’t we tell that story?” says a woman.

“Because no-one advertises in Afghanistan.”

The woman, who practices local news, says that crowd-sourcing local people for her job at CityTV is like pulling teeth for her.

“People like to see things on fire,” says Ingram.

“Flaming potholes,” suggests somebody else.

“The online news element becomes an afterthought. Reporters want to talk about more.”

“That’s the opportunity of the internet,” says Ingram, suggesting the currently less profitable web portion which could piggyback onthe currently more profitable mainstream media like papers, radio and TV.

The question the lingers about how soon to move on internet. Wait until it’s more profitable?

Now is the time to do it, says Ingram, when economic circumstances are killing mainsream media.

“They’re reallyholding our feet to the fire now. Now is the time to do it.”

TV reporters don’t have time to write blogs, says a television producer.They spend most of their time riding around in cars to get 30 seconds of footage.

“But why do you need 10 people to go cover a story,” says a CP staffer, pointing out that her company is the largest online news provider. The economic downturn is the best thing that has happened to news media.

“News for me is something that changes every two seconds,” a woman says.

I can’e believe I’m blogging this.

“Now a story had no real end,” says Globe tech blogger, Matthew Ingram.

But how do we make this profitable, the question comes again.

“Newspapers didn’t use to be profitable,” says Ingram. It was something that people financed because it had value, he continues.

“I think they need to be responsible to their readers, not their shareholder,” someone points out.

“That’s a deliverable,” someone calls out to Neil Ward, who’s frantically trying to write key points under the heading “deliverables” on a whiteboard.

Should people make more of an effort to expand on storylines and not just repeat?

“Are we even in the news business?” says Ingram.

Evans – at least in the coffeeshop, the chatter is contained. If it’s so accessible as at canoe, it’s impossible to escape.

Newland – perception of validity. It will become clear that you can’t take chatroom gossip as Gospel.
Wikipedia is always brought up as a dubious source.

Norris McDonald- we don’t have any commenting on any crime stories. Ingram agrees “We just can’t take the risk”

Nick Pron points out that Globe only wants the “nice” comments.
“Aren’t you afraid you’re going to lose your standards?”

Newland – the moderator’s voice can clearly be heard

Ingram – our biggest problem is that our writers and editors don’t take part in the online discussions. Newland points out that this is exactly what Peter Gzowski did.

Ingram currently trying to write a code of conduct for all G&M journalists. Typically tell you what not to do, not good at telling you what to do.

Evans – divide between journalists who blog and straight-up bloggers/opinionists.
Ingram and Newland say that dividing line is imaginary eg. Jan Wong story that Globe was sued over: a news story but clearly written as a column.

New social media tools largely self-moderating.

McDonald – why can’t we have commenting on crime stories? Old media instincts click in, a couple times a day, you have to shut down the commenting section as it’s overwhelmed. McDonald admits that online moderators censor when things veer off discussion and turn personal

Graves – CBC’s position on moderation is far too conservative and he would like to open it up more. We need to be conservative because we’re branding it and monetizing it. Graves thinks it would be a better service to the public to be a wider service area and not be affiliated with CBC News

Branding – when affiliated with CBC, Globe, Star, etc there’s an inherently conservative base in order to protect the brand.

Ingram – Moderation is impossible. There’s a loss of control because you feel you need to read every comment and respond. Benefit to doing away with comment moderation: build a relationship with readers and they become the moderators voluntarily.
How do you get money out of that? Not there yet…

Ingram – If we can’t figure out how to make money out of building strong relationships, we deserve to go out of business.

Newland – People will invest in communities they feel safe in.

McDonald – at some point it’s accepted that we’re going to have to start charging something for our content.
Ingram – disagree. We never charge for content. We sold access to our readers to advertisers.

Evans – perhaps a web package like a cable tv package? bundle your interests

Evans – does anyone who posts anything in Facebook step outside the private sphere?

Ingram -(the Globe) pulled photos from the accused’s facebook site.

Fairhurst brings us back to the photo of Jordan Manners’ mother collapsing in front of the school. As soon as she walks outside, she’s fodder for the camera.

Accused in Stafford case has public profile (if in London network)

Eg. Photo of Rhianna beat up by Chris Brown generated a lot of negative feedback – editor posted on twitter “does this cross the boundary?”

Evans – it’s okay for us to say we have a standard for our own behaviour

Ingram – the community needs to be the one to say what’s ethical and what isn’t. Going back and forth on what to do with comments: am I a gatekeeper or am I generating an important discussion?

Newland brings up Rabble.ca – an open discussion for Canadian politics? No. Progressive discussion. Not what he looks for in a comment section.

Facebook

Qik

Calais

Blogs

Goal of World at Six – trying to get a little more than a quick hit. e.g. Margaret in Libya looking at the role of the

CBC looking to update manual a few times to ensure that everything is application not only to radio and television but also to online content. eg. CBC used to never embed journalists and now they do in Kandahar, now have some user-generated content

Morley Safer – on blogging and citizen journalism: good journalism needs structure; blogosphere every nut with a keyboard.

Canoe Editor-in-Chief disagrees and Ted brings out his trusty Elements of Journalism.

Gary Graves wants to know what the problem is. He says we are the aristocracy and the revolution is happening. This revolution could destroy economics. The crisis is “What’s in this for us?” Different from what’s happening to the Establishment, environment, etc.

Matthew Ingram: flashpoint of journalistic ethics – practitioners must maintain a separation from those they cover. Fairness and transparency need to come out of this.

David Newland of Canoe.ca considers himself much more of a blogger than a journalist. used to be that journalism was a means to “stick it to the man” whereas now, journalism IS the man.

We frequently make the distinction between columnist and reporter, but both are considered journalists.

Heather Evans – we’ve put our own rules on blogging. At CBC, journalists first, bloggers second.

Ingram – the tools don’t necessarily define what you do, but help choose what you do. Is there something about a blog that makes it better than a regular print column or story. Bloggers tend to be better with corrections and updates. Use corrections as an excuse to update and expand. Positive for both readers and journalists.

David Newland – clear that there are more voices and greater participation has been enabled.

Nick Pron – Where were the bloggers when Tori Stafford was taken?

David Newland – mentions bloggers at London Free Press who were shooting a livestream to lfp.com and canoe.ca with a chat window embedded. Crucial. It’s not exactly blogging, but it’s an avenue for new voices to be heard. People feel they can participate now.