The
Seattle Courant is Seattle's first online daily newspaper. While looking for interesting cartoons on the demise of journalism, I came across this cartoon, which they recently published. Through the cartoon I discovered the rest of the publication. I found that The Courant is a hyper-local publication focussing specifically on Seattle. It is an interesting mix of short story features, local news and cultural writing and reviews. Very Seattle. Despite the fact that the top story this weekend is about whether Sascquatches exist, the publication offers an array of information most Seattlites or those linked to Seattle in some way, may find interesting. Clicking around the site, I discovered some interesting stuff like their 'Layoff Reports,' which track layoffs at Seattle businesses (181 from the Seattle P-I, included). This paper seems to be in direct competition with what's left of
The Seattle P-I. Over on the P-I's front page the Seattle Sounders (a local Soccer team) was the top story. I guess if I live in Seattle reading about Sasquatches and Soccer could be my top priority. I imagine that each of these stories is interesting, but I have to ask, where's the news?
Discovering The Courant through a search for cartoons about newspapers got me thinking though. It's kind of like the the whole internet functions the way newspapers used to. We've had that discussion in class a dozen times now, about how our parents used to read the newspapers for one particular thing that interested them, like sports or entertainment, and then this cool thing happened; they'd discover something else that they hadn't set out to read like international news, a story focussing on politics or a movie review. Well, my cartoon search worked much the same way. I was looking for a cartoon for my blog, and I discovered The Courant, and a bunch of really interesting Seattle stories about Sasquatches, sporting events and city council meetings. But this is where the cool connections came to a halt. That's because The Courant does not seem to link to other publications or really anything else on the Web. So instead of continuing my adventure of news discovery, I was basically circling an information cul-de-sac. This basically shot down my original theory, that the internet is the new newspaper, to pieces, which was quite disappointing. But I think my hypothesis is half true. As the internet becomes more interconnected through links and aggregation, we may see the internet acting more like a newspaper. Meantime we'll have to keep backing out of dead ends, like The Courant. Or, perhaps, some folks may actually decide they like it there an decide to stay.
The Front Page of The New York Times features Roxana Saberi this morning, after Iranian authorities sentenced her to eight years in Prison for allegedly spying. We all know this is bunk. Saberi is a respected journalist who has worked for National Public Radio and The BBC. Saberi was arrested back in January on charges of buying alcohol. Then she was charged for working without press credentials and eventually with spying for the United States. I have been following the case of Saberi with great interest because it concerns me as I get ready to graduate from Annenberg and forge into my own freelance journalism career. Gone are the days when one could sign up to be a foreign correspondent the way one might sign up for the Navy Seals or the Army Rangers. Now you are on your own. And if you get shot in a war zone or arrested by a repressive regime there is no one at home to worry about you and work out the details of medical care or your release from Prison. It is good to see the New York Times, NPR and BBC working together to draw attention to Saberi's plight. But do th
ey have the resources to really get her home? This will be one to watch. In the meantime the world of freelancers is growing and begs for a new association to work specifically on these such issues. The Society of Professional Journalists is one such organization that could step in to fill the void left by the fragmenting of newspapers and the dispersion of correspondents. But SPJ seems more concerned with the things that made the old world of journalism go round -- awards, libel cases and basically celebrating itself. Yes they have a token blog and some ridiculous article about webcasting, but what the journalism world really needs right now is an online community for those of us who are brave enough to actually go out be journalists despite a global economic downturn, the collapse of newspapers and governments who will throw us in jail for telling the truth. Maybe SPJ is like an old newspaper forcing its writers to blog and post some video once in a while, but really not wanting to change much ... as long as the money keeps rolling in. I am a member of SPJ, and I believe it is an important organization. But I had hoped to see more leadership from them as the industry hit these tumultuous times. How about getting together a health insurance cooperative for all of the journalists who can no longer rely on corporations to cover them and providing a networking forum for journalism entrepreneurs? And I believe, member or not, they should be speaking up in defense of Saberi. Instead I see big articles about SPJ turning 100 -- and my thoughts are that they'd better watch out. If they don't make the leap, somebody more innovative might just jump in and do the job they should be doing, standing up for journalists and helping them through this transition ... and they just might start giving out their own awards too.
