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Is SPJ bad for modern journalism?
I've been a member of SPJ for 15 years. I severed for a number of years on the San Diego pro chapter board, eventually being elected president (though I couldn't finish my term because of a job change).
SPJ is great at promoting its version of professional standards. And I'm 100 percent behind SPJ's efforts on behalf of ethics in journalism. But there is also a "church of journalism" aspect deeply imbued in the SPJ culture.
SPJ is still focused on big-J journalism. My concern is it promotes a mindset that says, "we know better than you, dear readers, so don't bother telling us what you think the news is."
Big-J journalism is antithetical to what being a wired journalist is all about, because the wired journalist knows how to be part of the conversation. It isn't about being part of the priestly class who gets to decide what news is. It's about being a conversation starter, and then a participant in that conversation.
The wired journalist realizes that the audience can gather and distribute news, too, and that such contributions are not intrinsically less valuable than professional contributions.
There's still a lot of resistance within our industry to that kind of thinking. I've been concerned for some time that SPJ does more to perpetuate that mindset, and not enough to try and change it.
SPJ is great at promoting its version of professional standards. And I'm 100 percent behind SPJ's efforts on behalf of ethics in journalism. But there is also a "church of journalism" aspect deeply imbued in the SPJ culture.
SPJ is still focused on big-J journalism. My concern is it promotes a mindset that says, "we know better than you, dear readers, so don't bother telling us what you think the news is."
Big-J journalism is antithetical to what being a wired journalist is all about, because the wired journalist knows how to be part of the conversation. It isn't about being part of the priestly class who gets to decide what news is. It's about being a conversation starter, and then a participant in that conversation.
The wired journalist realizes that the audience can gather and distribute news, too, and that such contributions are not intrinsically less valuable than professional contributions.
There's still a lot of resistance within our industry to that kind of thinking. I've been concerned for some time that SPJ does more to perpetuate that mindset, and not enough to try and change it.
Tags: journalism, spj
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Stephen Rynkiewicz on -
Not sure you could find a majority of SPJ members who would agree to this, or any other issue. Ethics advocacy has stopped short of any enforcement mechanism that would amount to a journalism conclave. SPJ's free-press fighters act as if information should be open for all, not just the anointed, defending bloggers and freelancers outside the MSM. The tension between the free-press and ethics camps is the source of the group's vitality. That, and maybe the partying.
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Permalink Reply by Brea Jones on -
If SPJ were only about Big J journalism, its most recent conference wouldn't have been full of multimedia, blogging and online community workshops. I see this organization as a means to meet people, share ideas and get tools I need to be more effective. I see WJ as benefiting me the same way.
Stephen makes a good point that SPJ supports free press rights for bloggers, freelancers and students. SPJ also puts effort into freedom of information for all people.
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Permalink Reply by Kleske on -
I am on our local SPJ board http://www.sdspj.org and we do a lot with wired journalism and a lot to make sure smaller and independent operations get the help they need learning new things and keeping on top of the trends. The real power of SPJ is at the chapter level. join one, or better yet get on the board and make it happen.
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Permalink Reply by Ron Sylvester on -
As a national board member, I should also point out that SPJ also is starting a "Citizen Journalist Academy," this year from a grant from the SDX Foundation. This will include four seminars, in Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver and Greensboro, N.C. Our hope is to use this program to promote an understanding of ethics and standards of fairness and accuracy among those who may be contributing to our news sites but may not have formal training.
While some of Howard's observations have been true in the past, I've seen a different attitude in recent years, as SPJ becomes more "wired." We're trying to provide some great training that has been lacking on the local level in our newsrooms.
Any suggestions on how to improve this trend, post them, and I'll follow up. I'm not replying here just to boost SPJ. Let's talk about how this organization can drive change into the future. After all, SPJ was the original social network for journalists.
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Permalink Reply by Howard Owens on -
Good response, Ron. If SPJ can help foster change, that would be a good thing.
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Permalink Reply by Ron Sylvester on
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Christine Tatum, SPJ immediate past president, heads the planning for the Citizens Journalism Academies, and she'd like to hear from those who have good ideas about how to move this forward. Contact her at ctatum@spj.org The new SPJ Leads, the organization's email newsletter, describes the Citizen Journalism Academy as a way "to help people who have little or no formal training in newsgathering strengthen their self-publishing projects and/or contributions to a wide array of news publications." Dates are May 17 in Chicago; June 7 in Greensboro, N.C.; and June 27 in Los Angeles.
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Permalink Reply by Pierce Presley on -
While I also see a lot of the big-J focus lingering in SPJ, I would remiss if I didn't mention two things: SPJ has been making (though not without missteps) efforts to include freelancers in its ranks, and it has held and is holding citizen journalism "academies" to try and reach that segment. The first is long overdue and welcome, even if it hasn't been smooth sailing. The second at least moves from "we know better than you" to "here's how to do this in the way we think it should be done."
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