Could Kindle 2 save the newspapers?

In a couple of days Amazon will launch a new big-screen ("reads like paper") Kindle 2 operating on an automatic 3G network.

Amazon offers Kindle subscriptions of 58 periodicals including the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and the New York Times.

Putting two and two together, Brad Stone of the New York Times wonders if the Kindle might turn out to be a knight in digital armor. Perhaps it could save newspapers. Perhaps newspapers could use the Kindle to

"hit the reset button and return in some form to their original business model: selling subscriptions, and supporting their articles with ads."

More here.

Picture courtesy of RedOrbit

Also see: The one American business Buffett won't buy "any any price"
And: Journalism's future may lie in multimedia
And: Scholars call for tax credit for buying newspapers
And: Should the newspaper industry get a bailout?
And: A sustainable model emerges: Use collective intelligence but fact-check with journalists
And finally: Can selling news via the Web save newspapers?

The one American business Warren Buffett will not buy "at any price"

As a 13-year-old in 1943, one of Warren Buffett's first jobs was to deliver newspapers.

Thirty years later, the Warren Buffet-owned Omaha Sun became the first weekly ever to win a Pulitzer.

Today, what is the one American business Mr. Buffett says he will not buy "at any price"? Newspapers.

[Mr. Buffett's] view on the future of the newspaper industry is dismal. "For most newspapers in the United States, we would not buy them at any price," he said. "They have the possibility of going to just unending losses."

As long as newspapers were essential to readers, they were essential to advertisers, he said. But news is now available in many other venues, he said.

More Mr. Buffet at a Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting.

Image courtesy of BusinessWeek

Also read: A sustainable model emerges: Use collective intelligence but fact-check with journalists
And: Can selling news via the Web save newspapers?
And: Newspapers' closure adversely affects political engagement, study finds
And: Newspapers, a pillar of civic journalism
And: Scholars call for tax credit for buying newspapers
And finally: Should the newspaper industry get a bailout?

Indian editor says citizen journalism is "all baloney"

Shekhar Gupta, editor-in-chief of the Indian Express, has scoffed at citizen journalism as "all baloney."

"Show me a citizen lawyer or a citizen doctor and I'll show you citizen journalists."

Instead, Mr. Gupta says, a "golden age" would dawn for India's legacy media thanks to a younger crop of "competent, digitally-savvy journalists" who valued "accuracy, fairness, and credibility."

Mr. Gupta, who is popular for hosting a quirky televised interview show in which he strolls outdoors with his interviewee, was addressing convoking students of the Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media in Bangalore on Saturday.

Find a report here.

Picture courtesy of paidcontent.org

Update 05/04/09: Not exactly "citizen lawyer/doctor" but CNN today runs a story on the growing tribe of "citizen scientists"

Also see: Asia's social media use zooms
And: Can citizen journalism restore a sense of autonomy?
And: Criminal charge slapped on Orkut activist in India
And: Some thoughts on citizen journalism and Mumbai
And: Community blogs, "a new breed of watchdog"
And: Citizen journalism will complement "public media 2.0," says white paper
And: Hyperlocal Web journalism meets "civic, intellectual and social needs"
Finally (*phew!*): A sustainable model emerges: Use collective intelligence but fact-check with journalists

"Newspapers are the principal pillar of civic journalism"

Ian E. Wilson, the recently retired Librarian and Archivist of Canada, tells Randy Boswell of Canwest News Service that there is

something more in reading a newspaper -- with the stories juxtaposed piece by piece on a page. It's not just the headline, it's the ad, it's the comic strip, it's the news, it's the analysis, it's the coming events. It's the totality of that -- seeing the whole community.

Mr. Wilson has an opinion about blogs vis-à-vis civic journalism.

"Good journalism is essential, fundamental to any society, and we can't expect it's going to happen through blogs," [Mr. Wilson] says.

Wilson sees newspapers as the principal pillar of civic journalism, the wellspring of news and influence and opinion-shaping for all other information purveyors. "The kind of investigative, background material" found in newspapers, says Wilson, along with agenda-setting, enterprise reporting and "analysis and interpretation providing context to today's news is, I think, a role that absolutely must continue."

More here.

Picture courtesy of Jean Levac

Also see: Civic journalism as CCJIG defines it

"10 worst countries to be a blogger"

The New York headquartered Committee to Protect Journalists has posted a list of the "10 worst countries to be a blogger."

Feel free to check out the list. Feel free to feel outraged. Feel free to feel helpless.

So how did CPJ pick the ten from the world's 195 independent countries?

METHODOLOGY

In consultation with Internet experts, CPJ developed eight questions to assess blogging conditions worldwide. The questions:

• Does a country jail bloggers?
• Do bloggers face harassment, cyber-attacks, threats, assaults, or other reprisals?
• Do bloggers self-censor to protect themselves?
• Does the government limit connectivity or restrict access to the Internet?
• Are bloggers required to register with the government or an ISP and give a verifiable name and address before blogging?
• Does a country have regulations or laws that can be used to censor bloggers?
• Does the government monitor citizens who use the Internet?
• Does the government use filtering technology to block or censor the Internet?

Based on these criteria, CPJ regional experts nominated countries for this list. The final ranking was determined by a poll of CPJ staff and outside experts.

The "worst" list here.

Also read: Pew study contrasts blogs v. legacy media sites v. citizen sites
And: Community blogs, "a new breed of watchdog"
And: Citizen journalism will complement "public media 2.0," says white paper
And: Hyperlocal Web journalism meets "civic, intellectual and social needs"
Finally: A sustainable model emerges: Use collective intelligence but fact-check with journalists

Press freedom in dire straits the world over, U.N. expresses concern for journalists

Sunday May 3 is World Press Freedom Day.

Only 17 per cent of the world's population lives with a press completely free of government/party control.

According to a Freedom House survey released today, the times grew tougher for press freedom across the world in 2008 for a seventh year in a row.

The muzzling of the press is "particularly worrisome" in countries of "East Asia, the former Soviet Union and the Middle East and North Africa."

The worst rated countries continue to include Burma, Cuba, Eritrea, Libya, North Korea and Turkmenistan. In the Americas, 2008 saw a downward spiral of press freedom in Mexico, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

Of 195 countries/territories surveyed,

70 (36 percent) are rated Free, 61 (31 percent) are rated Partly Free and 64 (33 percent) are rated Not Free. This represents a modest decline from the 2008 survey in which 72 countries and territories were Free, 59 Partly Free and 64 Not Free.

Must-see details here.

In response, United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon spoke (via an aide) in concern for journalists in New York today.

[A]ttacks on journalists remain shockingly high in number and . . . murder and detention are only the most blatant ways that journalists are silenced. Often . . . fear leads journalists to censor themselves. . . . [S]ome Governments are suppressing Internet access and the work of Internet-based journalists and others using the “new media”. . . .

Let us renew our resolve to protect their freedom and safety . . . and . . . proclaim again our commitment to free and independent media as an essential agent of human rights, development and peace.

How many journalists were killed in harness? 41 in 2008, according to the New York based Committee to Protect Journalists. And 11 in 2009 so far.

According to the CPJ "some 45 percent of all media workers jailed worldwide are bloggers," to which Mr. Ban said,

I urge all governments to respect the rights of these citizen journalists, who may lack the legal resources or political connections that might assist them in gaining their freedom.

But there's a silver lining, as always. While the Freedom House study records "twice as many losses [for press freedom] as gains in 2008, with declines and stagnation in East Asia of particular concern" it also reports some regions have made good on their history.

The Maldives made the study's largest jump, moving to the Partly Free category with the adoption of a new constitution protecting freedom of expression and the release of a prominent journalist from life imprisonment. Guyana regained its Free rating with fewer attacks on journalists and a government decision to lift a boycott on advertising in the main independent newspaper.

Ban Ki-Moon portrait courtesy of the United Nations

Also see: "Public journalism has created an extra-press authority"
And: Criminal charge slapped on Orkut activist in India
And: Asia's social media use zooms
And: Can citizen journalism restore a sense of autonomy?
And: Pulitzers, a humbling experience for Internet journalists
And finally: A sustainable model emerges: Use collective intelligence but fact-check with journalists

Can watchdog Netizens bark or bite outside of the Internet?

Some twelve years ago Ronda Hauben and son Michael co-wrote a pathbreaking book which introduced the notional "Netizen."

Today Ms. Hauben has posted a thought-provoking comment, culled from a 2008 lecture based on the book, at the pioneering citizen journalism site OhMyNews. Check it out.

[Michael] Hauben explained that those in government will abuse their power if they are allowed to do so. He proposed that "people need to keep a watch over those in government in order to make sure they are working in the interests of the many."

The question raised, then, is whether the Net and Netizen are able to have an impact on the offline world, on the power of government and of the mainstream media.

More here.

Picture courtesy of cnii.com.cn

Also see: "Hyperlocal Web journalism meets civic, intellectual and social needs"
And: Mainstream media sites increasingly welcome citizen participation
And: Community blogs, "a new breed of watchdog"
And: Citizen journalism will complement "public media 2.0," says white paper
Finally: A sustainable model emerges: Use collective intelligence but fact-check with journalists