The conversation then opened up among the panelists with McKean, following up on McCracken’s point, asking whether or not good journalism would always rise to a place of prominence on the Web. The panelists agreed that that would depend on whether or not traditional news outlets find a sustainable business model for online publication. Johnston and McCracken were optimistic, but Garfield said the model would “never” come. There was some discussion of micro financing a partial, but perhaps inadequate, solution.

McKean opened the floor to questions. Bill Sobel of SobelMedia, a digital media connections company, told Garfield a story about how he’d met a Comcast executive at a urinal and complained of his parents’ poor service. The next day a truck arrived at his parents’ home to fix the problem. Garfield replied that his site, Comcast Must Die, is “a string of 40,000 urinals,” on the Web. Then Jeff Jarvis stood up to ask McKean if he and Consumer Reports considered Popken and Consumerist to be their competition. McKean replied that by sheer size, Consumer Reports was a much bigger operation, with 100 journalists and 150 product testers. Ultimately, though, the two publications are operating on different business models. The decision in 1997 to make Consumer Reports’ Web site pay-only was “gutsy to say the least,” McKean said, “but it as turned out to be phenomenally correct.” Since then, Consumer Reports’ site has grown to 3.2 million subscribers. “The pay model is actually viable,” McKean said.

Before concluding, the panel turned to brands. Some thought they were “obsolete,” but others argued that only their nature had changed; in particular, it is now possible to build and/or destroy a brand much more rapidly than in the past. The conclusion of the conversation seemed to be that there is room for professional and amateur consumer reporting in some areas to exist symbiotically (with certain exceptions in critical markets like healthcare).

Case Studies 1 & 2

Gayle Williams, an associate editor at Consumer Reports, took the stage next to introduce two speakers to present case studies. The first was Steve Rubel, vice president at Edelman and author of the PR industry blog, MicroPersuasion, who laid out six trends in the blogosphere:

1) “The Cut-and-Paste Web,” by which consumers demand access to information anytime, anywhere via mobile devices. “If you don’t go where they are,” Rubel said, “you’ll never be relevant in their lives.”

2) “The Attention Crash,” by which individuals now have access to far more information than they are capable of processing.

3) “Digital Curation,” by which there is a growing role and need for information “curators” online that can find, sort, and display, as Rubel put it, “what’s art and what’s junk.”

4) “The Numerati,” by which traditional media, entrepreneurs, and PR companies can “mine” the Web for data and use analytical tools to more effectively build “media properties.” Data on reader and audience interests is underutilized, Rubel said. But whether or not using such information results in “a better editorial product is a very big debate.”

5) “Collaboration,” by which the “Web is not just a platform for communication, but for action; it’s a place where stuff gets done.” There are many levels of engagement with audiences: from open to controlled, from
communicative to collaborative.

6) “Hacker Journalists,” by which there has been a rise of programmers in the newsroom who are familiar with Web site management and digital media operations. They are “cross-trained in programming and journalism,” Rubel
said and are well worth hiring.

Diane Farsetta, senior researcher at The Center for Media and Democracy’s PRWatch.org and producer of their “No Fake News” campaign, delivered the next case study on “exposing the spin” online. The Web’s first problem is
anonymity, Farsetta said, because “it makes it easier to misrepresent your identity.” She then listed a number of seemingly independent Web sites that were, in fact, created by business groups with a vested interest in swaying
consumer opinion. These included RottenAcorn.com, UnionFacts.com, FishScam.com, and The Center for Consumer Freedom.

Though not necessarily involved in those sites, companies ranging from Burger King, to Sony, to Wal-Mart have misrepresented themselves online. The Web also connects marketers to bloggers, Farsetta continued. PayPerPost.com, for examples, pays bloggers to place reviews on various Web sites. These are similar to Video News Releases (also known as VNRs) put out by PR firms, which some broadcast outlets misrepresent as original, unbiased reporting. If such practices are going to become more common, Farsetta argued, they should be clearly labeled as “sponsored reviews” or pre-packaged news.

Some companies, such as Ford, Dove, Kraft, Crystal Lite, and ConAgra, have created their own online communities, which offer product tips, finders, and a lot of publicity information. But if you read their privacy policies, Farsetta said, you will see that the companies are collecting and sharing your personal information as you participate in their communities. Even the United States Department of Defense’s regional command centers have hired journalists and created their own “news” sites. “There is a lot of blurring of roles,” Farsetta said, “a lot of uncharted territory, and a lot of vested interests taking advantage of that grey area.” Reporters, she concluded,
must work to raise “online media literacy.”

Panel Discussion: The New Age of Citizen Journalism

After a brief lunch break, the conference resumed with a panel moderated by CJR publisher Evan Cornog titled, “The New Age of Citizen Journalism: ‘Can’t We All Just Get Along?’” The two-member panel included Jeff Jarvis, a media and news blogger for the Web site BuzzMachine and director of the interactive journalism program at the City University of New York, and John Darton, who worked as a reporter, editor and foreign correspondent for The New York Times for over forty years. Cornog asked each man to “lay out the case for the other side,” with Jarvis touting traditional media and Darnton digital media.