Bridging Cultures, Bridging Tensions

Slide 1: bridging cultures, bridging tensions: global news production in the age of citizen journalism Global Webbing of Diverging Agendas ELTE, June 19-21, 2008 Lokman Tsui Annenberg School for Communication

Slide 5: focus: efforts to bridge cultures

Slide 6: global news ► whatdo we learn about the world? ► how do we learn about the world? ► what is the role of the internet?

Slide 7: state of foreign news producers content audience foreign reliance on correspondents parachute literacy? quality  and news parachute wires  foreign bureaus coverage  problem of quantity (iraq, 9-11  supply or incidental peak) demand?

Slide 8: global news typology foreign bureaus news agencies, news wires foreign correspondents doing localization, contextualization, translation

Slide 9: global news typology - updated foreign news domestic citizen bureaus agencies news media foreign correspondents + citizen journalists (doing localization etc)

Slide 10: what makes this possible? ► peerproduction (Benkler): internet changes costs of distribution, coordination ► niche cultural products no longer unsustainable ► changes in economics of global news production?

Slide 11: political economy of global news ► news as public good  high barriers to entry  high operating costs  market concentration ► free rider problem  who bears the cost? (cost = time + money)

Slide 12: time and money market state civil society ‘hard’ The Nation, Voice of America Indymedia advocacy Mother Jones ‘soft’ New York Times, BBC, PBS Global Voices advocacy Reuters

Slide 13: global citizen media ► Indymedia  strong advocacy, oppositional  high motivation ► Global Voices  complementary, bridge  low to high motivation

Slide 14: global voices ► http://www.globalvoicesonline.org ► founded in 2004 by Ethan Zuckerman and Rebecca Mackinnon ► editorial team of 33, number of volunteers over 100 ► two branches: rising voices, global voices advocacy ► funded by Berkman Center, Reuters, MacArthur, Hivos, Knight Foundation. ► who reads blogs? GV as a source for Reuters:  africa.reuters.com  voices without votes

Slide 17: bridge blog ► the west and “the rest” ► citizenjournalists and professional journalists ► the public and mainstream media?

Slide 18: global citizen journalism ► new understanding of global news production needed ► new entrants, lower barriers to entry ► civil society as site of production, not just consumption ► complementary, not just oppositional to mainstream

Slide 19: open questions ► credibility ► sustainability (market vs. voluntary failure) ► what is its impact on: ► the institutional structure of global news ► intercultural understanding

Slide 20: thank you ► Lokman Tsui ► ltsui@asc.upenn.edu ► http://www.lokman.org