Journalism 101 Reynolds School of Journalism September 2010

A regime of control over what content is allowed to emerge from the production processes in print and broadcast media; the controllers (journalists, editors, owners) of these media…control the gates through which content is released to their audiences. (Axel Bruns, Gatewatching, p.11)

News organizations have to limit the amount of information they gather and distribute; they cant gather and report everything. We all use filters to organize and limit the amount of news and information we process

The question is whether our filters are deliberate, accessible and open to adjustment Or whether they are unconscious, out of our control or systematically arranged to prevent certain ideas from reaching the public

Censorship acts as a gate to prevent certain ideas from reaching the public This Iranian-Canadian blogger was just sentenced to 19 years in prison for blogging about Iranian politics:

This is Banned Books week. Excerpts of banned books will be read tonight at 6 pm in the Knowledge Center Banned Book Reading In this weeks Sagebrush, VP Steven Zink says they are considering temporarily shutting off areas of Internet access on campus to reduce music piracy

Favors some groups over others, some places more than other places Promotes some ideals more than others Covers some kinds of news more than other kinds Is influenced by economic concerns

In the newsgathering stage In the news publishing stage In the response stage

Gatekeeping differs between books, newspapers and magazines (pull media), and radio and television (pull media). What is the Web? Cell phones? ipads?

Alters the gatekeeping practices of journalists The question of what is appropriate always lingers Our involvement in a story can change things forever

Large number of news outlets Low barriers to entry 24/7 availability Global access to sources

Secrets are very difficult to keep Anyone can publish any time Control moves from the publisher to the audience, from the source to the receiver, from the institution to the individual

Gatewatchers observe the output gates of news publications and other sources in order to identify important material as it becomes available We need order, surveillance, warning systems to alert us; information for action, decision making; culture for connection and community

Enable individuals to select their own set of gatewatchers to follow, read and share Gatewatchers can be citizen editors, professional journalists, experts, friends with similar interests We also perform our own gatewatching of primary sources

See the videos posted on our wiki site (under Sept. 29) Sept. 29 Heres the most basic:How to use TwitterHow to use Twitter

A human rights journalist working for Mother Jones magazine Mac McClelland tweets her reporting experiences She is in Haiti covering the aftermath of the earthquake; violence against women is a terrible problem in the temporary tent camps (Interviews with victims)HaitiInterviews with victims

The journalist, who will write an in-depth story for Mother Jones magazine, is tweeting about her experiences of reporting in (Twitter account)Twitter account She twittered an interview she conducted with a rape victim, including going with her to the doctor

Mother Jones editor, Clara Jeffrey, gave her approval for the journalist to tweet the story.Clara Jeffrey

Journalist level: She had to decide whether to use Twitter or not Editor level: She had to decide whether to let the journalist twitter or not Distribution level: Haiti and Twitter have to decide whether to block communication Receiver level: The receiver has to decide whether to subscribe to the tweets or not

1. Its the responsibility of the individual journalist to avoid sensationalism, possible exploitation 2. Its the responsibility of the news organization to avoid potentially offensive or harmful communication 3. Its the responsibility of the individual to set his or her own filters

Get in a group of like-minded students Share your reasons for why you support that particular level of filter. Have someone record the reasons. Have someone volunteer to articulate the reasons to the rest of the class. You have ____ minutes to do this.