AMY GAHRAN: The Right Conversation

Tips for Working with Citizen Journalists

The media landscape is a whole new place. (Click image for more.)

NOTE: This post is my "handout" for a talk I'm giving this afternoon to several members of Green Media Toolshed, a service that helps nonprofits attract more media coverage.

The media landscape keeps getting more complicated. It used to be that there were news/media organizations on one side which supplied the public with selected information -- and PR/communications pros on the other, trying to convince the media to carry their messages to the public.

Now, everyone is talking to everyone. At least, many important communication and media trends are steadily moving in that direction. The citizen journalism phenomenon is a growing part of the media landscape. In some places and on some issues, citizen journalists can be quite influential.

Here are a few key things PR/communications pros should keep in mind about the emerging field of citizen journalism and the diverse community drawn to this avocation...

Tools of Engagement: Links and Notes for Discussion

Minnesota Public Radio got a lot of things about online community right with this "Idea Generator" project.

As I mentioned yesterday, tomorrow I'm giving a session about online political coverage called "Tools of Engagement: It's a Conversation, Stupid!"

I've been collecting a lot of "string" for this talk, and I won't pretend I have it thoroughly organized. That's fine -- I tend to mostly improvise my sessions based on what the attendees need and want most at that moment.

Here, then, are a bunch of links to site I'll probably want to mention tomorrow...

Online Political Coverage: Communities Matter More than Elections

View of downtown L.A. from my hotel window. This town looks better at night.

I'm in Los Angeles right now, where on Thursday I'll be giving a session at a Knight New Media Center seminar on Election '08: Covering Politics in Cyberspace.

My session is called: "Tools of Engagement:  It's a Conversation, Stupid." No, I didn't come up with that title, but I really like it. My audience will be a mix of journalists, online-media pros, geeks, and political experts. I hope they're ready to talk, because I don't really do lectures; I start conversations.

I'll admit, in my journalistic work I've generally avoided covering elections -- for good reason. Generally, the way most news orgs handle that assignment bugs the hell out of me.  The press conferences, the pundits, the posturing, the race metaphors... in all that, communities, issues, and the real workings of government tend to get pushed into the background. It feels fake and even counterproductive to me. I'm tired of it, and for the most part I tune it out.

That's not to say I tune out politics. On the contrary, I follow certain aspects of politics very closely: local, state, national, and international. And I do note how elections affect the politics that interest or affect me. However, I don't believe elections should garner the lion's share of political coverage.

It seems to me that the best political coverage is ongoing, not cyclical. Ideally, coverage of elections or other political events should support and enhance the public conversation about issues and communities.

To accomplish this with online political coverage, I think we need to get our priorities straight. Here are some thoughts on how we might do that, so we might collectively avoid turning the 2008 election season into a complete three-ring circus...

Accounting for Community: Thoughts for the BlogHer Business Summit

                                               

Stig Nygaard, via Flickr (CC license)

"Toto, I don't think we're in Boulder anymore..."

I'm in New York right now, and on Friday afternoon I'll be on a panel at the BlogHer Business Summit that I'm really looking forward to. Here's the official blurb from the conference program:

An RFP for the Measurement Industry

Where is the blog measurement tool that could measure more than "eyeballs," more than "authority" via inbound links, and could begin to approach measuring influence and relevance? [The panelists will] scope out what is, is not and ought to be available.

The panel will also include Edelman PR's Elizabeth Lee and LiveWorld's Jenna Woodul. Jory Des Jardins, one of the BlogHer founders and a gifted blogger in her own right will be moderating.

Gee... No pressure...

Frankly, I've been stressing a bit about this session. For a long time I've felt I was missing something very obvious about this topic. I've been worrying that I'm going to get up in front of an audience of people I respect and look like an idiot. Perhaps I'm about to do just that.

Regardless, something just occurred to me. I'd like to hear what you think about it...