By Sharon Fain
Student Writer
The Knight Digital Media Center hosted an Oct. 1 discussion titled "It's a Conversation, Stupid: Blogs, Wikis, Social Networking, UGC and Journalism," which featured representatives from top online news media. The discussion was led by a panel that included USAToday.com executive editor Kinsey Wilson, Yahoo! News editor-in-chief Neil Budde, CNN.com vice president and senior producer Mitch Gelman, and Newsvine CEO Mike Davidson and moderated by assistant managing editor for interactive at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Michelle Nicolosi, and media "conversational" consultant and editor of Poynter Institute's Web Tips column Amy Gahran.
Key issues addressed ranged from the nature of online vs. offiline media brands, issues of authentification and trust, to revenue sharing with reader-contributors.
The situation in Myanmar provided a timely example of the importance of user-generated content as official media are denied access to that country. Panelists agreed that without the images sent from cell phones and digital cameras by those outside of the official mainstream media the story would have lost its impact and importance with audiences. However, authenticating the images and stories became a concern.
“Myanmar presented the biggest challenge because identifying people [as a trustworthy source] can be problematic,” Gelman said. “We have to balance the possibility of being wrong with the importance of getting the images out.”
Audience members, including online media representatives from OCRegister.com, NPR and the Wall Street Journal Online, as well as students and faculty from the School, were also asked for feedback by the panel on current online issues. The event was webcast with other online journalists participating virtually.
