Now That's A Commitment To Openness

Guest blogging for Jay Rosen, Spokane Spokesman Review Editor Steven A. Smith details some of the efforts his paper is making to open up its process to the public. It's further evidence that this whole "transparency" thing is more than just a passing fad.

"Transparent newsroom." Just another buzz term? I don't think so. Consider these examples from Spokane:

-- All of our daily news meetings are open to the public and we promote that opportunity on Page One several times each week. Those participating in morning critiques often remain afterward to talk with editors about issues that concern them. Invariably, we learn something worth knowing or get a tip on a story worth pursuing.

-- Eight citizen bloggers representing a cross-section of political and social views critique the paper daily in an online feature called "News is a Conversation" Staffers can respond to the citizen posts; so can other readers. This generates an ongoing discussion of our news coverage, including our priorities, core beliefs and daily decisions.

-- Perhaps the most interesting experiment will come later this year when we begin Webcasting our morning and afternoon news meetings, inviting observers to participate through real-time chat-style interaction.

[wintermute1-2009]

Sounds enlightened. I have to admit, I was shocked the first time I saw CNN, I think it was, inviting two somewhat opposing bloggers via webcam into a group newsthink program. Very innovative, just the novelty of that is worth something, but then they have a lot more time to fill than CBS. Still, there are programs of yours long enough to do this. I watched a lot of streaming video of your New Orleans affiliate linked off this website during the hurricanes, so bandwidth no longer seems to be an issue. And webcam technology at the consumer level is pervasive and not technically forbidding. Heck, I used it 5 years ago for several things. ;-) I can just see one of you guys sitting in the meeting with your laptop open, saying, "Here's an interesting comment from Peoria."

[ronmwanga]

It's a good idea. Externalizing the whole process of ethics in journalism to as wide an audience is IMHO the teleological end of journalism's role in a democracy in the age of the internet.