Dispatches from the 2007 ONO Conference

by Organization of News Ombudsmen, http://www.newsombudsmen.org/harvardreports.html

Roundups of panels from the May 21-23, 2007 Organization of News Ombudsmen (ONO) conference are available here.

The Wednesday, May 23 morning session was entitled, “Is There a Shared Watchdog Role for the Public, the Blogs & Ombudsmen?” and was moderated by CCJ Executive Board member Geneva Overholser. A summary written by C.B. Hanif of The Palm Beach Post features interesting comments from Jeff Jarvis, self-described "Blogger Guy" and Buzzmachine blogger. Jarvis said during the panel that he had become "un-enamored of the term 'citizen journalism' in favor of 'networked journalism.' Seen that way, he said, the less stories become after-the-fact review, the more journalism gets done by more people, and more and better journalism gets done. 'So it is more a pre-news than a post-news process,' he said.

"Jarvis also suggested a distinction between the institutional and the personal voice of the ombudsman."

"'Speaking on behalf of all the bloggers in the world,' he quipped, 'we distrust the institutional voice and trust better the human voice. The more we represent that personal voice, the better...'

"Regarding the issue of how people will be able to distinguish between traditional media, there are many layers of this, Jarvis said. He cited a study in which only 30 percent of bloggers said they think they do anything related to journalism. 'It's hearing people talk, what they think,' he said. 'Another layer says if you're going to be involved, the standard is credibility. If you don't use your name, I'm not going to respect what you have to say as much, but I'm still going to let you say it.'

There are a lot of people who want to help, he said, and there are a lot of people who think traditional journalists don't uphold their own standards..."

Click here to read more from Jarvis and others about blogging, and summaries of other ONO conference panels including those entitled: "Ombudsmen in the Digital Future," with Alan Rusbridger, Editor, The Guardian; and "Russian Journalism After the Murder of Anna Politkovskaya" with Andre Richter, Director, Moscow Media Law & Policy Institute.