RJI Five Past/Five Forward -- Participant links, ideas, resources

Here are links, ideas and resources from and for participants in RJI-Five Forward. You should also follow the #rjifive Twitter stream for additional ideas

WHAT IS JOURNALISM? -- Well timed for our gathering, the Columbia Journalism Review is out with its Sept/Oct cover story and editorial: "What is Journalism for?". It features a short essay by New York University professor Jay Rosen on the concept of "awayness" and more than a dozen solicited quips from noted "journalists" with their take on defining the craft. The package also includes an editorial, "Divided we fall"

WHY DOES JOURNALISM MATTER? -- When some 100 journalists, technologists, academics and citizens gathered March 1-4, 2009 at The Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., documentary videographer Melissa Cornick asked that question (VIEW TWO-MINUTE VIDEO). The participants were part of the Journalism That Mattersgathering, "The New News Ecology." For more info about the 2009 event, go to the wiki page or the JTM event home page.

DO WE NEED JOURNALISM TO ACTIVATE? -- RJI Five virtual participant Peggy Holman, director of Journalism That Matters, makes a bold argument in a new set of essays. She argues we need journalism that not only informs, but also engages, inspires and activates us to be free and self governing. How does this square with the notion of "we print, you decided" or the notion of journalist as standing complete to the side of action? READ HOLMAN'S REQUEST FOR RESPONSE.

NATIONAL CONVERSATION ABOUT PRIVACY? -- On June 17, President Obama sat with PBS interviewer Charlie Rose for a wide-ranging interview which included a discussion of the Edward Snowden NSA disclosures. In an our excerpt of the transcript, Obama called for a "national conversation ... about the general problem these big data sets because this is not going to be restricted to government entities." How do we help Obama to promote that conversation? FULL VIDEO of Rose-Obama interview / White House-edited video excerpt

HOW TO KEEP JOURNALISM PROFITABLE -- RJI Five partiicpant Pekka Pekkala, a Finnish journalist and USC-Annenberg scholar, is working on a book about how to keep journalism profitable.

ARE SUBSIDIES AN ANSWER? -- Robert McChesney is a media scholar who's work goes beyond the academy. A co-founder of the non-profit FreePress.net (Free Press staffer Josh Stearns is with us at RJI Five) he argues the Founding Fathers intended postal subsidies for circulating newspapers as a recognition of the "public good" function of journalism. Explore his argument.

JOURNALISM FOR A NEW GENERATION? -- Henry "Buzz" Wurzer joined RJI for the "Pivot Point" gathering in August, 2012 in Chicago and is a collaborator on the CircLabs news-personalization project. Family commitments prevented him joining us for RJI Five. In a short essay, he offers his input from afar. Key point: Why can't the news industry use digital technology to provide a check on government "in a manner and tone directed to the younger generation?"

FOCUSING ON CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE -- Newspaper-industry analyst Ken Doctor, a frequent RJI collaborator, offered a key insight in in a Wired.com analysis of the Bezos Washington Post purchase. He asks why news organizations haven't yet figured out how to deliver a NetFlix for news or an Itunes for news ... "how is it customized on the fly?" / READ KEY DOCTOR EXCERPT

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