Jahanshah Javid

Anonymouse

To follow these rules, a journalist may need as much mental dicipline as in a martial arts craft. For example, even a spectator can spot a "white belt" citizen journalist when the practitioner confuses political advocacy with reportage.

Ari if this is the

Ari if this is the case then why does JJ say

Contrary to what most Iranians think, journalism is a craft. You need to learn certain sets of rules, styles and principles in order to become a journalist. Kashki nist. ?! 

Now why can't it be Kashki?!  In fact JJ's description applies to ALL crafts, be it flipping burgers or pushing wheel barrows!  Can anyone push a wheel barrow day in and day out? What craft is Kashki?  That'd be a nice craft to have!

Everything is sacred.

I don't anonymouse

I am just Fozol!! 

Mr. Fozolie

Anonymouse

This is above my

This is above my intellect!  But it'd be interesting to know who among us considers himself/herself a journalist. 

Everything is sacred.

Internet has changed things yes but the jury is still out

Here are some scattered thoughts:

• Murdoch seems to be getting support from hard up newspapers in his drive to charge for content.  (Delayed) News will remain free. Public service sites like the BBC will remain free.
• The speed and quantity of news is simply fantastic.
• Good quality journalism is needed to make sense of it.
• In the mediocre world of politicians that are all becoming alike, we need good journalists to challenge their bullshit. The standard joke in the UK is that journalists are the effective opposition. Bloggers do not have the means or  resources.
• Blogging and micro blogging may be in some instances a necessary part of information gathering but corroboration is a problem.
• The beauty of the Internet has been the removal of monopoly on knowledge. At the same time the Internet is full of junk. Its proliferation has made it harder to find diamonds in the rough.  Above is not a rant but a statement of fact.

JJ

Humanity is correct, you MUST see that place[Hard Rock Cafe].

Thanks Humanity, that brough some beautiful old memories.

-YT 

Internet journalism is in

Internet journalism is in its infancy and evolving. One major difference with an traditional journalism is that of accuracy of the news.

A professional and trained journalist will not publish story based on hearsay, until he/she can prove the credibility of the story. That is of course asides from misinformation and propaganda that some news organization engage in. An honest trained journalist is hard to manipulate, by powers to be. However an untrained journalist is open for manipulation and bias.

We have seen this phenomena in this very site. Either through malice or unknowingly news can get circulated in the internet that are totally baseless. One positive aspect is the personal touch as you mentioned. The touch that more and more of traditional news organizations, due to their organizational and political alliance are losing. 

One once said[Who ever owns the information owns the minds] Such is the story of Rupert Murdock.

-YT 

Dear Jahanshah

In this world of duality that we live in, one can never truly have a total, and completely inpartial form of journalism.

The best one can do, is to present both sides, and let people decide where the Real Truth lies.

As the great Mythologist Joseph Campbell used to say, "life is truly a game that we all need to participate in: either on this side, or the other ...."

And, as the saying goes, let the chips fall where the may

Tks :)

P.S. If you get a chance, visit the Hard Rock Cafe' at Hyde Park Corner .. That was my hangout thirty (30) years ago when I was a student in London .. Cheers!

I thought

journalism is a service, providing information and news.

AGAIN some cultures and communities still prefer to read the conventional way.

And are you making sense? Well journalism is a writing/prodcasting service, but then every job has to have a new name. How can it be a craft if it is all digital? 

But the guy in sabte asnad says

There are 3 Taraneh Mousavis:

-40 years old and left Iran and never returned.

-2 years old.

-25 years old was born in Paris and lives in Paris.

So who is the one who lives in Canada and visited about 2 years ago????

the mind boggles

when some one like Nazy gives IRIB any sort of credibility with regard to the Taraneh Mousavi story. this is the same media that made the Gene sharpe cartoon and claimed that Neda was killed on the orders of the BBC correspondent!!

I don't know if the story of her death is true or not,  but based on what has factually been recorded by Independent HR groups about what has happened to all the other people that have been killed or arrested the likehood is that the story has some basis.

Doubt the original story all you want but please don't base it on IRIB and the laughing sister in the interview. this should be particularly esay as Taraneh is alive and well in Vancouver!! that is before the CIA gets to her and makes her disappear!!!!

It reminded me of Kindle!

I know many writers who are afraid of Kindle and hate Amazon for making this new device to read books!

After reading your blog, I found a similarity between Kindle/writers and Internet/journalists! I personally think that as long as the writers keep telling their stories, what is really important is the content of what is written, and not how it is read. So, for the journalists should be the same. Maybe the form and the presentation has been changed, but our need to know what's going on in the world has even increased (like an urgency).

The only issue that I see with internet kind of journalism is the reader's thirst to see the proof. The Youtube video of Neda was way more efficient than one million reports/stories/poems/article/ etc... And many people wouldn’t believe any news as long as they haven’t seen its video! 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts (which make totally sense!)

Regarding Taraneh Mousavi:

Regarding Taraneh Mousavi: According to her mother she lives in Vancover, Canada.

This can be easily verified by a good Jouranlist outside Iran.

 I doubt that IRIB is telling us the truth and these claims are only for domestic public consumptions.

//news.gooya.com/didaniha/archives/2009/08/092000.php

Zen and the art of journalism

--copied and pasted in a moment of random research on the nature of journalism

Welcome to "if it bleeds, it leads..."

I couldn't agree more. The current strategy of almost all reporting these days seems to be this:

Day One: Report what happened, (preferably with lots of worried uncertainy in your voice) but make sure you don't say why, or who. We ahve to milk this.

This wil give the boys in the ad sales dept to raise prices, and make teir calls to lock in some big advertisers for the duration of "The Crisis"

Day Two: Keep repeating the what, hint teasingly at the who, but don't even think about mentioning the why.

The sales boys should almost have all the spots bought, so start pacing your reports, check with the competition and make sure they don't fold early and give up the goods on the full story.

Day Three: Damn! Some loser wannabe just broke the full story and blew it for all of us. Lucky they aren't very big, so not that many have heard yet. Hint at the why, but make it sound ominous and evil, as you describe the what and the who.

Pray for another one.

Internet journalism

Yes, you are making perfectly good sense. Internet has changed our world in dramatic ways and reporting and journalism have been affected the most. While it's true that newspaper circulation has dropped to just over one million per month for The New York Times, online hits on the newspaper's thousands of articles and features exceed 20 million per month. New business models will have to be developed to help newspapers make money on the internet. Models such as a flat $5.00/month membership fee are being considered for major newspapers.

The content is a different story. Old school journalistic standards are rigid and by the time a reporter gets through the check list of what to say and how to say it and how to cross check it, the piece becomes bland. That's why people like Op-Ed pieces so much better, because they are searching for that human touch in stories and anlysis.

As an avid newspaper reader, I am forever grateful to the internet for allowing me to access such a large and rich array of information and analysis, personal reflections, and political gossip. I am, however, quite weary of wrong information and irresponsible content which might pass as "real news," affecting more than just my level of good knowledge.

Blog reporting and journalism is not cross-checked and verified, leaving room for so much abuse. An example you and I discussed recently was the case of a reported new martyr during Tehran protests, Taraneh Mousavi. The initial source for this information was a blog on internet which had had only 3 posts by the time this piece of news was posted on it. Within a few hours, two other blogs with even less history supported and re-ran this story. Within hours, Taraneh Mousavi, the young woman who had alledgedly been abducted and imprisoned, raped and murdered became the talk of internet. Her one picture was circulating like crazy, sitting prominently next to Neda Agha Sotan and Sohrab Arabi's.

As a reader, I was marginally concerned then that three days after this disturbing news had come about, no Facebook photographs of her, no accounts from friends and family and neighbors, and no new pieces of information were coming forward on this young woman. Obviously she was beautiful and the initial report said she was into fashion and cosmetics, and such a girl must have tons of pictures with friends and family, much like Neda and Sohrab, Kianoush, and all the other beautiful young people perished during the unrest.

I cautioned several sources about propagating news about Taraneh Mousavi until we could verify that it was true. Other, more educated people and respected journalists such as Mehdi Jami also wrote and cautioned about this topic.

Still, the name and one picture of Taraneh Mousavi has been making the rounds. As you recall, at the time I held that if the unverified Taraneh Mousavi news is added to the already verified and horrifying accounts of other murders, it might taint and dilute the potency of the truth we were seeing. I said all it takes is for ONE of the cases widely publicized to be untrue. IRI might use that one untrue case and try to sweep all the rest of those murders under the rug as "fabricated tales."

Today I saw clips of an IRIB interview with two women they claim to be Taraneh Mousavi's mother and sister, calling the Taraneh Mousavi story a fabricated story, trying to cast doubt on the whole citizen journalism effort. It is still not clear whether the Taraneh Mousavi story is true. But we know many of the other ones are.

I believe as journalism the way we knew it changes and adapts to the way information is accessed on the internet, we must accept that this new dynamic and more democratic journalism has TWO sides to make it work--responsible content by journalists and bloggers and responsible readership by internet users.

Part 1: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=di5PltJ2OFw

Part 2: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzlkQTvVTo4

I hope this has been sufficiently boring to put you to sleep. Goodnight!

Well Said ....

Yes you make sense me .... but of course I am not a journalist