30 July 2010

To create a "new news" publication we need a reasonable basis of trust between audience and authors to get past the land-mines of modern journalism.

News takes us around the world. It takes us to places we have never been to talk with people we may never meet. But is it wise to trust an unfamiliar voice into unknown territory?

Craigslist is a perfect place to learn this lesson. Craigslist sellers and buyers alike must blindly trust the rest of the crowd on a shallow level. Each person risks just enough trust to get their deals done. The money and the goods usually change hands in a public place to help prevent a mugging. One listing I read asked for the transaction to actually take place at a local police station!

Mistrust can go from healthy to paranoid quite easily. But if I knew and trust you, and you knew and trusted someone else--then they would inherit a little of the trust I have for you. Friends of friends are better than strangers. That is why Facebook works.

Facebook, the reigning king of social networks, is now 500 million users strong. But it is interesting that trust issues are dogging Facebook's expansion.

So, the "new news" formula needs to have a social networking aspect. It is not just for the sake of friendship. It is a matter of trust.

Mistrust spreads more quickly than trust. If a friend is burned by a scam, then you become wisely wary. Snopes.com and UrbanLegend.com achieved modest fame by working to prove or disprove old wives' tales, forwarded emails and other tall tales.

This works on a certain level for rumors. But how can a news publication's community pass on a healthy mistrust for misinformation? Also, how can reporters be kept publicly accountable for mistakes while not being left at the mercy of anonymous internet "trolls" who simply throw firebomb messages and leave?

It will take trust to build trust. Reading reports requires trust. That concept is from the old news model - journalism 101. And it is crucial.  But in "new news," the reporters and publisher has to also trust readers by allowing them to join the news publication's community.  

Commenting and rating articles and their creators are the first rights we want to entrust to our readers. These tools give each reader a voice into our news publication.

But to enjoy lively discussion and keep net trolls away, readers will have to trust the community with their real names. Their names and pictures will be kept off the open internet. But fellow members of this budding new news community will know each other. Each party has to extend trust to receive trust.

It can work if we nurture the network properly and use technology to provide proper checks and balances. It is more than tech...and more than talk. News culture can advance with the right catalysts.

Technology will allow new opportunities for news reporting. But it is not the destination--only the means.

 

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