Journalism That Matters, Skills That Matter

Journalism that Matters was a two day conference to ask "what happens when all that’s left is the

journalism"?

I initially wasn’t going to attend. But from the proper prodding of Leonard Witt and Steve Peterson, and the amazing follow up of Bill Denismore, I found myself traveling to D.C. (which was so hot, I thought my skin would melt) with an air of excitement.

Aside from an initial panel, which included Boss Rosen, it was an unconference. To my knowledge it is the only journalism unconference, which is something I’ve been screaming for at the top of my blogging lungs

for a long time.

That alone was interesting to me. I’ve been to many unconferences before, but they are flooded with geeks, hackers, designers and very few journalists. It was interesting to see the demographic of journalits (older white men) participate in something that I usually only see web 2.0 entrepreneurs do (get on their knees to write out a session they want to hold).

Leaving Journalism That Matters I have a new faith that entreprenurial journalism is not dead. The craft of journalism is alive and well. It just isn’t being done by traditional journalists.

Throughout the conference the question was asked "What is going to support journalism"? My response: What are journalists going to support?

Journalism is happening all around us. I’ve even argued that social news sites are acts of journalism. Journalism doesn’t need support. It’s flourishing on the Internet. But journalism as a profession is in a stall — because it isn’t joining the chorus. I hope we do before the crescendo hits.

(more after the fold)

Are journalists even being prepped for this type of environment?

There
were lots of journalism professors in the audience. One of the better
sessions I went to was a discussion by Peggy Kurh about what we need to
teach young journalists and it provided a chance for me to go on a rant
that has been brewing for some time.
In pro-am journalism the role of the journalist is to act as a
community manager, guide and moderator.

Journalism happens in a space
they provide — it happens through them and not by them. This is a skill set that is new to journalists. And we aren’t teaching it. But we need to. Desperatly.

You can see the (messy) notes that we took on this session here.
So we move onward from here. Did we change journalism forever? Probably
not. But a network of people that want change is growing and they are
an open group that shares their knowledge and ideas. This is the spread
of open source ideals to journalism and it can only help.