“Cyberombudsmen” The Future of Media Accountability

State of the Media 2013 financially challenged editorially weakened more susceptible to political pressures fragmented audiences age of “information deflation”

Flaws of Conventional Media increasingly on the defensive public hungry for different sources of information increasing pressure to provide “infotainment” = trivializing the news victim of aging business models

Existential questions: Can you have journalism without journalists? If so, do you need an ombudsman? Why can’t “letters-to-the-editor” or unpaid bloggers do the job? Internet: savior and villain of media…

Bloggers: The Benefits New perspectives Fresh thinking Not constrained by the newsroom culture Very cheap…

Bloggers: The Downside What are their standards? Who holds them accountable? HDWK? (“How do we know?”) False information? Opinion, not fact-based reporting

Ethics for Social Media - Profs Be honest and fair Minimize harm Understand the difference between “public” and “private” Be accountable Beware of making deals

User comments Set up standards Be clear and transparent Set up pre-publication mechanisms Tie the rules to the key word search Be watchful for post-publish feedback

Cyberombudsman More pro-active Less isolated Playing “offense”, not “defense.” Being the “porous membrane” link among citizens, journalists and the web Being a true agent of “citizen democracy”

Job qualifications Wisdom of journalism Independence and sound reason Skills on applying standards Analysis on text, video, audio Internet literacy Ability for ‘cyberombud networking’

Challenges online Print columns springboard to ‘webtalk’ Engage fully in social media Involve ‘cybervigilantes’ User-fed ‘hate speech tracker’ Intermediation for teaching, criticism Cooperate on wider ethical guidance