ScribeLabs and ScribeMedia.org are happy to announce the launch of The Future Journalism Project.
Following the FJP
Project Background
This Web-based video series will explore the present state, current disruption and future possibilities of American journalism from a variety of perspectives.
These include four major investigatory themes described below.
Journalism Education
Traditional Journalism schools teach broadcast, print and radio. Over the last decade they’ve included concentrations around the lines of “New” or “Digital” Media. Continued segmentation appears inadequate when compared to the cross platform demands of practicing journalists. So how should current and future journalists be educated? Apart from traditional study (ie, reporting, ethics, etc.), what skills should they acquire, and how are — or can — other disciplines, such as computer science, augment their education.
Journalism Practice
It’s no longer enough to be a print, TV, radio or Internet reporter. Instead, these disciplines are merging and practitioners must be skilled in each. Newsrooms themselves are evolving in both the technologies they employ and the speed with which they need to produce new content. If cable brought in the 24-hour news cycle, the Internet brought about the minute-to-minute cycle.
Markets are changing as well. While major news organizations attempt to cover local, national and international news, a number of new initiatives are focusing on the hyper-local.
How are these changes, and the fact that journalists and newsrooms are being asked to do more with less, affecting journalism? How many news organizations are prepared?
Journalism Business Models
If our current digital age can be seen as one of immense disruption and opportunity, journalism — and especially print journalism — has taken a major hit. Countless newspapers have closed in the past few years and those that remain struggle to stay afloat.
Many attempts to come up with new business models have been discussed. Some hope updated subscription models or charged delivery through new platforms can pull the industry out of its doldrums. Others believe that traditional revenue models must be revisited in their entirety. Still others think there is no way out except to flip to non-profit models endowed by foundations and grants.
The questions are many, but what are the answers? And is there light at the end of this very dark tunnel?
Journalism and Democracy
It’s long been a cornerstone belief that a strong democracy needs a strong, independent and free press, but where did this idea come from and how was it formed?
Will American democracy and politics change in the face of weakened journalism institutions? And with an already low public opinion about its nation’s media, does the American public really care? Should they? If so, how are the stakes made known to them?
The Documentary
ScribeMedia.org plans to explore these topics through interviews with journalists, educators, publishers, advertisers and civic leaders in order to outline the stakes and provide a wide perspective on the current and future state of journalism in the Unites States.
Filming for the Future Journalism Project begins during Summer 2010, and the series will be released online as independent, yet interrelated, segments beginning in the Fall.
A traditional documentary will also be created, pitched to major television outlets and played to film festivals across the country in 2011.
About the Producer
Michael Cervieri is an Emmy Award winning producer, Co-Founder of the digital media collective ScribeLabs, and Executive Producer of the organization’s publications. These include ScribeMedia.org which focuses on the business, technology and culture of digital media and SMAC.us, a contemporary arts, architecture and design publication that was selected as an Official Honoree of the 2009 Webby Awards.
Michael taught as an an adjunct professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism from 2006-2009 before transferring to the university’s School of International and Public Affairs where he created and now teaches a course on Internet and Mobile communication technologies and strategies for NGOs, non-profits, governmental agencies and citizen journalists.
Follow Our Progress
You can keep up to date with our progress by following either Michael’s Twitter account, or the ScribeMedia Twitter account.
