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Beware of that crazy Internet (and bad advice from professors)

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“When I was in college, a professor said, ‘Beware of the Internet.’ Everyone and anyone is a ‘journalist’ or ‘writer’ because of it. Six years later, I owe the Internet a big hug, because before my memoir Rattled! there was Storked! on glamour.com. But I do consider myself a real writer, and my stories are genuine.”

That quote comes from well-known blogger Christine Coppa. She has been making a living off of her blog and now has a book out based on her blog. She’s very fortunate that she didn’t listen to her professor.

I can’t help but wonder how many aspiring journalists received sage advice like that only a few years ago. Imagine how much that has impacted the journalism industry? Worse still, many journalism professors still don’t get the power of the Internet and openly believe it will be (or has been) the downfall of journalism.

That’s a shame. So what if everyone is a journalist because of the Internet? As we are seeing right now in Iran, the revolution will be tweeted.

Bloggers like Andrew Sullivan are helping to make sense of it all. In fact, the mainstream media has been woefully inadequate when it comes to covering Iran and the recent election. Thank God for Twitter, blogging and social media.

When everyone becomes a journalist, we’ll be a more active, engaged and informed citizenry. When everyone is a journalist, corruption will find it tough to incubate; tyranny will have no place to hide.

There is still a place for professional journalists. Citizens can help report what they experience in their lives, but journalists can still put together the trend and analysis pieces. Professionals can also curate citizen content.

The Internet is a win-win for everyone. Well, accept the corrupt, the despotic, the tyrannically, the unethical.

It’s clear, however, that students should avoid the Internet at their own peril.

What should the Online Ethics Seal be officially called?

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We need your help naming the Online Ethics Seal.

The Online Ethics Seal has been the tentative name. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be the finalized name. In fact, many of you have said don’t like the connotation that a “seal” brings.

Maybe this is more of a code of ethics. Or, maybe it’s more of principles to aspire to. Or maybe it’s an ethics policy.

This is what the name we come up with must convey:

  1. The seals that are produced encompass a wide array of online products. We make no distinctions between The New York Times, a Typepad blog or a new media Web startup.
  2. This whole process is voluntary. We are not certifying anything. We are simply coming up with an open-source, free system to help Web sites formulate ethics policies. This is also a system to help users quickly identify the ethics that a Web site has.
  3. This process is all about transparency. We want to make it easier for our users to understand what we do. This isn’t about ranking sites, casting judgement or anything like that. It’s just about being open about what we do.
  4. This is not a blogger certification process. Yes, bloggers can adopt the seals/codes/whatever but this process is not aimed at them solely. Nor does this process hope to reign in blogger. Rather, this is aimed at anyone producing non-fiction content on the Web. It’s a service that benefits both content producers and consumers.
  5. This benefits participating organizations too. Most established print news organizations have an ethics policy. Those policies, however, can be time consuming and difficult to produce. We want to make it easy for online startups to be able to customize a policy for themselves.

Remember, Creative Commons is our inspiration. So, help us come up with a good name for this project!

I can’t wait for the future of print newspapers

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I don’t believe print is dead.

Far from it. I just believe, however, that most print products are trying to compete with online products. The fundamental problem with most print products is that they are trying to do it all (especially breaking news), instead of concentrating on what they do best — analysis pieces and enterprise stories.

Print can be a great medium when it concentrates on its strengths. The Economist does a fantastic job of this. It is not trying to break news — print can no longer do that — but rather it is trying to take a look back at the news and provide context.

Too many print products want to be a recap of yesterday’s news. Anyone who truly follows the news has already seen and heard the big news. Smart print products don’t try to outdo the Internet and mobile — that’s a losing proposition.

I subscribe to National Geographic, and it works really well as a print product because it is filled with in-depth enterprise and analysis pieces (and much of what I read in NG I don’t regularly come across in other news outlets). It’s the very kind of content that makes perfect sense in print. I don’t like reading long stories on my computer (let alone mobile device), and it’s those pieces that National Geographic does best.

I also subscribe to the Sunday Washington Post. It’s a good product. It’s not great, and it’s not an Economist or National Geographic-class print product.

I enjoy sitting down with the Sunday Post and reading the enterprise and feature stories in it, but it’s a still a product predicated on the other six days of the Post. There just aren’t that many analysis pieces, and it’s not the most serious piece of journalism.

That’s why I have a proposal. The Post (and all dailies) should make a second Sunday paper. Instead of being like the Sunday Post or Times, it should be like the Economist. This is an edition for people who get their news online, Monday-Saturday.

This edition’s mission is to provide analysis and context. It’s not going to be filled with light-weight feature stories. It’s not about the Sunday Comics or all those circulars.

This edition is about giving people a different level of news that they don’t get on a daily basis. It’s a serious edition. In fact, most Sunday editions are rather light and fluffy when it comes to news, and a lot of the stories really aren’t that important.

I firmly believe, however, this new, second Sunday edition is the future of printed products for newspaper organizations. It’s an edition that recognizes that people primarily get news online and know what is going on in the world. This edition is not a recap of old news — it’s providing depth, context and new information that gets missed in a rapid-fire news world.

I do think much like the Economist, this new edition would work better in magazine form. It’s a radical idea, but it’s the kind of idea that makes sense in an online world, and it’s the kind of product that would grow — not shrink — circulation.

One day this will be the future for smart newspapers, and eventually it replace the original Sunday paper. And then eventually it will be the only print product produced by newspapers.

I’m never going to subscribe to a daily newspaper again, but I would be the first to subscribe to a product like this. It’s a product that recognizes the reality on the ground and embraces change.

The Internet is the greatest thing to ever happen to journalism. When more journalists and publishers recognize that, we’ll start making print products that really matter and work for people.