Media Future: Issues, Ethics & Trends

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March 27, 2001

• Show 10 minute video from IFRA: "Tomorrow's News"
• Discussion Questions:
  1. Was the video realistic? How so?
  2. What was missing in "Tomorrow's News"?
  3. What do you see as the role of media librarians/archivists in this digital future?
  4. Do you see any differences or similarities between media archivists and media researchers? Give examples.
  5. Compare "Tomorrows News" with the video shown earlier about news media librarians, "Unsung Heroes"
  6. Other comments? Questions?
• Trends:
  • Media Convergence (print, TV, and Internet)
  • Metro ("street") Free Papers Increase & Impact
  • Copyright/Licensing issues (Tashimi lawsuit in U.S.),
  • Digital Media Collections (development, cost, maintenance)
  • Marketing Media Archives (text, image, sound) to Diverse Audiences
  • Continued Professional Education for News Librarians and Archivists
  • New Professional Roles for Librarians and Archivists: "Knowledge Base" Managers?
• Research Accuracy
  • Who is responsible? Who cares?
  • Quotation: In journalism there is always a tension between getting it first and getting it right." By newspaper columnist Ellen Goodman, Boston Globe, 1993.
• Database Quality (Responsibility of vendors, IT/MIS staff, librarians? Who?)
• Professional Credibility (Are librarians trustworthy? How can one know? What are the standards, if any, of excellence? Do certification requirements exist for media librarians & archivists? )
• Technical Expertise (Division of labor or cooperation? How do librarians identify, acquire, improve technical skills? What are the new emerging technologies? Do we need to refine our indexing, abstracting skills? Are the new Web technologies an extension of existing skills: evaluating, organizing and presenting information?)
• Media Reliability (Do news librarians have a role here? Or does it belong just to journalists & editors? If so, what might it be? Any examples?)
• Economic Constraints (Are news organizations losing their influence? Are they competitive? Will reducing news/research staffs help the corporate bottom line to the detriment of news credibility and quality?)
• Continuing Education (Who is interested? Who pays? Who believes it is important? What are the benefits? Where can valuable training be obtained?)
• Merging/Morphing of Media Roles (Are journalists, editors, and researchers jobs becoming interchangeable? If not, is there a growing overlap between these professions?)
  1. From "Morgue Clerks" with minimal education and training where the job was primarily clipping and filing news articles with occasional quick reference questions.
  2. To Archivists who were better trained, with more professional experience in managing media archives but still focusing on archiving media; reference skills and tools increasing.
  3. Moving on to Reference Managers who increasingly came from library science backgrounds; formed the basis of highly skilled editorial reference relying upon online databases and specialized reference tools both print and online. Archival maintenance evolved to digitization of clipping files and later to photo and graphical electronic archives. At this level, because of their increasing expertise Reference Managers are beginning to appear in daily news staff "budget" meetings.
  4. Progressing to greater, more complicated research levels, beyond "ready reference" toward Investigative "Super Searchers". These media researchers came to media research with computer skills, database management expertise, polling experience, statistical knowledge, and spreadsheet sophistication. They frequently became part of journalistic "special investigative teams" along with veteran journalists and editors. Typically continued their training alongside journalists at such workshops and seminars sponsored by Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE) and National Institute for Computer Assisted Reporting (NICAR). Sometimes known as "Information Specialists" or "Public Documents Researchers."
  5. Currently emerging as Database Editors. This level of news researchers is experienced with all types of databases as a user and is now capable of developing sophisticated in-house Intranets and database storage/retrieval systems. They are at the core of the organizations "Knowledge Base" becoming its "research button" for the corporate Internet content. Intranets have been called the "informational backbone of the media organization." KM build working relationships with other departments such as IT in order to create, maintain, and improve access to critical, diverse electronic information sources. Highly involved with quality control of data resources and the stability of archival storage. Also part of the emerging in-house computer training and research programs for journalists and editors. Database editors are becoming integrated with the entire news staff.
  6. Just beginning to appear as Knowledge Managers for the media organization. At this level, KM is an essential part of the total corporate information strategy. Media are in the information business and as such they require skilled knowledge visionaries able to market to the public and specialized sectors the wealth of data that is their core business. Media archives are becoming strategic assets for corporations. KM works with microfilm companies, email providers, digital outsource companies, commercial data vendors, arranging licensing of proprietary information that is increasingly becoming fee based. They cooperate with network administrators and top management in developing policies affecting public access to media archives. KM is becoming part of the company's revenue stream.
• Database Copyright and Licensing Issues: Marketing the News Product for Profit. (What will happen to old media archives? Will these older technologies - early full-text news databases -- continue to exist, be converted to other digital formats, or will they become obsolete and hence inaccessible?)
• Promoting News Library/Research Skills, Services, Products to the In-house News Staff & the Public (including academic libraries, not-for-profit organizations, etc.)
• What will the news media libraries of the future look like? Who will staff them? Will there be a designated place for a "centralized media library/archives" or will it be a news research facility without walls?)
• Who will be the news library/archives' clients of the future? The same ones as in the past? Journalists, editors, photographers? Or will clients expand into other media departments such as advertising, circulation, network administration? Will services, free or fee-based be offered to the public such as students, scholars, lawyers, business people? What are the constraints? Will the library/archives become profit oriented?
• Summary, comments, questions, discussion.
  • "Where do you see yourselves and your job in one year from now, March 27, 2002?"
• Experiment with additional Web authoring tools (images & graphics & icons)
• Review database searching protocols.
• Prepare final Web site.