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Finishing the Knight Fellowship: 20 Journalism Visions

It's been a fantastic year of learning and discovery at Stanford University.

As my dream year comes to an end, we held an event to explain in "Ted Talk" fashion what we've been up to.

I'll link to videos when they are posted. But here are some pictures. Also, the Knight Fellowship has redesigned its website to include our project pages, our new blog Knight Garage, plus all the background you need about this storied journalism program.

Columbia’s j-school will launch The New York World » Nieman Journalism Lab

Columbia isn’t the first journalism school to be experimenting with semi-standalone news sites: NYU runs the The Local East Village in conjunction with The New York Times; CUNY’s J-school runs a network of Brooklyn-based neighborhood blogs (which also run on the Times’ site); Mizzou students staff the Columbia Missourian. And on and on. Each experiment deals in its own way with balancing the twin necessities of educating students in the conservatory model — mixing the freedom to experiment (creatively) with the freedom to fail (privately) — and of educating them in the communal realities of an increasingly digitized information marketplace. For Columbia, a site that focuses on accountability journalism — something that, as a product and a mindset, so neatly aligns with the J-School’s mission as an institution — strikes that balance almost (almost) implicitly.

via www.niemanlab.org

So interesting to see J-Schools moving more and more into online coverage of local communities. I do hope they fly high -- though as I wrote earlier about the public radio experience at universities, it isn't always a great fit.

Dude, Where’s My Car Radio?

The movement to legislate radios into cellphones has been a major focus of industry attention for some time now, energizing debate between broadcasters and the consumer electronics industry.  But the real battleground may be on four wheels.  It’s taking place in the cockpit of that valued piece of metal that will be sitting in your driveway or garage in just a year or so - or maybe right now.

Radio needs a new strategy for cars – and it needs one now.

via jacobsmedia.typepad.com

The Jacobs are indeed the thought leaders in radio today. Here Fred steers the talk back to Pandora where innovation -- and disruption -- is rampant.

Failing Flat on My Face

An admission of failure.

At least I know I'm not alone. A bunch of us journalism wayfarers have (once again) succumbed to David Cohn's "Carnival of Journalism" invite in which we all blog about the same thing. This month's #jcarn topic: #fail.

Here's David's cute little call to action:

The Set Up on My Downfall.

I'm living large here at Stanford, doing the Knight Journalism Fellowship. Spring quarter comes around and I sign up for another exciting class at the Graduate School of Business. Seriously, I love the GSB almost as much as the Law School. Seriously seriously.

Only this time, I decide I want to use the class to launch a project like everyone else is always doing around here. How fast I can put something together?

Two weeks into the Strategic Management: Social Entrepreneurs class, I present my pitch to my classmates.

Now before I describe the debacle, let me stress what a formidable group of people will be sitting in judgment. These are MBAs... Sloan Fellows... the cream of the non-profit up-and-comer crop. And I'll be competing against a slew of other non-profits looking for a team from this class to help them.

So, after working earnestly on a slide deck and feeling pretty good about my concept, I present the following pitch to the class. I'm going to present it fully -- because I'd like your opinion on where I went wrong.

"Designing a Citizen Radio Amplifier"

SLIDE 1: Title
My name is Mike Marcotte. I'm a news consultant for public broadcasting. And currently I'm in my last quarter of the Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford.
In the fellowship, I've been working on solutions to challenges that face journalists at local NPR news stations.
What I want to tell you about today is a social innovation model I'm tentatively calling "The Citizen Radio Amplifier"

SLIDE 2: NPR
Who here listens to NPR?
The fact is most people hear NPR through a local "member" station. NPR is a national network comprised of 268 member stations that operate almost 900 broadcast towers.
In the journalism world, the NPR network is considered a marvelous success story.  While other news outlets have been suffering financial losses… and job losses…. NPR is growing…. and now serves over 33-million people per week... a number that has doubled during the Internet era.
Most of this audience is attracted to NPR's high quality news and information service

SLIDE 3: MISSION
The NPR stations are all non-profit organizations with similar missions:
They support democracy and civil society by providing local communities -- and the nation -- with free content and other services that are responsive to local needs.
Their diverse funding model reflects their value to diverse stakeholders: from listening subscribers, to special donors, corporate underwriters, government and institutional grantors, and purchasers of media services.

SLIDE 4: PROBLEMS
The problems facing public radio are many. Some from within, some from without.

Public radio's inner problem is that it cannot grow fast enough to meet the outer problems of a changing world.

The outer problems include the greater collapse of the traditional journalism model and the subsequent loss of fact-based, accountability journalism in state and local affairs.

Of course there's no shortage of information and data. The problem now is the glut of information and challenge of filtering it.

Moreover, there's the rise of the what's been called "journalism of assertion" and the polarizing discourse of talk radio and cable news channels which has created a desperate need for a safe space for more thoughtful communication.

SLIDE 5: NEEDED
With that context, we come to where the state of the thinking is today. One of the most influential white papers to come out in decades, on the state of the media, was the 2009 Knight Commission Report on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy.

This report -- and a series of follow-up papers that flesh it out -- has emphasized the need for "strong information intermediaries" in local communities.

The Knight Commission specifically urges strong philanthropic support for mission-driven institutions in journalism (plus education, government and other civic groups) to embrace new media but in a way that assures a healthy information ecosystem.

SLIDE 6: STATEMENT OF NEED
I translate this into the following statement of need:

"Local citizens need the NPR system to grow in sophistication and capacity -- to better help them manage information, their communities and their lives."

SLIDE 7: CITIZEN AMPLIFIER
Central to this sophistication and capacity is the station's ability to know its community.

This requires better listening…  better sorting… and ultimately better amplification of what's relevant.

The metaphor here is the amplifer.

SLIDE 8: AMP DRAWING
Everyone knows basically how an amplifer works. Think of your home stereo system.  You have inputs for various sources….    There are controls for selecting what signals to process…  there's usually some filtering process to eliminate noise and interference…  then that particular signal gets boosted in volume… and out it comes for your use.

Now take that idea and put it into the public radio model.

SLIDE 9: THE MODEL
Here are the community voices…  all types…  they're already sharing all over social media… 

And here's the institutition that exists to serve them. It used to just broadcast AT them… but now it is engaged with the community…   listening, exchanging information…   EVERYONE has a voice -- and easy access and diversity are key.

But with this flood of incoming sources… we need a larger, more sophisticated process by which we sort and prioritize…  

Ultimately verifying facts…  mediating controversy…  holding powerful interests accountable…  amplifying that which is vital and relevant… HERE Transparency is key.

And producing the content that supports a more intelligent citizenry.

Note that this cycle is a constantly recurring loop.

Also -- imagine this happening at hundreds of stations -- all networked together -- and you can se the NPR's national and global interest.

SLIDE 10: THE MODEL OVERLAY

There are three main innovations in this new model.
 
1.    the intake mechanism needs to be an advanced database-driven process that is both online and off line (so no one is left behind)…

2.    the editorial decision-making is on a whole new order than what is typically found in the public radio stations today -- both in concept and in staffing and skillsets…

 
3.    and finally the distribution platforms will become more varied and will become increasingly customizable…
 
This model looks logical and simple enough… but I can tell you… to do it well would be a radical innovation. The training element alone is a considerable challenge.

SLIDE 11: INVITE
So that's the idea I'm calling the Citizen Radio Amplifier

I'm looking for a few social innovators to help produce the theory and the structure behind a funding pitch. The funding would aim to create the early project development phase -- a proof of concept.

But the end goal is to develop the project and bring it to the "marketplace" of NPR and its member stations -- with the vision of scaling nationally.

SLIDE 12: CLOSE
I presume the ultimate goal to be the actualization of a service model that appeals and conforms to individual stations, and attracts funding for implementation and sustainability.

This innovative overlay to the existing system promises greater sophistication and capacity to help people manage information… and thus better manage their communities and their lives.
Thank you.

The Reaction

There was no reaction.

That's the failure.

Oh there was polite applause. Okay, but that isn't what I wanted.

I waited a polite moment for questions. Nope. Okay, thank you very much. Next presenter please!

I offered my phone number. I offered my email. No calls. No emails. No team.

There's two parts of this failure -- the opportunity I missed and the presentation I botched.

Taking the latter first, was I just a bad presenter?

Well, there on the floor of the GSB auditorium-style classroom with 40 classmates looking on, I actually felt reasonably comfortable. Though I had to work from a script -- because I hadn't memorized this spiel -- I think I was clear and engaging as I needed to be.

Maybe some tap dancing would have helped? Probably not.

No, the misfire is in the content itself.

For one thing, it's more likely they see media completely differently than I do. And there may be very big lesson in that.

But in the business school sense, this idea was not ready. As a theoretical overlay, it wasn't enough to sway action or commitment or perhaps even interest. It presented a structure but didn't pitch the *thing* itself. Too much metaphor, not enough deliverable.

And that's fair. In fact, I knew that going in -- except I wanted some of those brilliant classmates to join me in creating that set of deliverables. But they're no fools. Come back when your ideas are a bit more baked. We're busy here.

No one's idea is a failure. But translating an idea into a real world solution takes action, teamwork, buy-in, testing, etc. Failure is part of that process. The trick is to get some traction first.

One thing I realize (and the realizations keep coming!) is that the seed of the original idea got lost even in this early level process. That seed notion was this: some people want or need to be heard and want or need the media to help them be heard.

What do you think? Was the "citizen amplifier" concept a good idea just undercooked? Or have I been drinking too much #knightcomm kool-aid?

Invest More, Innovate More, Say Public Media Leaders | KnightComm

Having survived the most serious threat to federal funding in public broadcasting’s 44-year history, the heads of public broadcasting’s leading organizations aren’t quite ready to celebrate.   The 2012 federal budget debate lies ahead and, along with it, the need to continue defending the federal dollars that support the operations of so many local public stations across the country. As if this isn’t enough, public media also face an array of additional challenges, notably the need to raise additional money to invest in building capacity for more serious, in-depth journalism, reach out to new segments of the community and expand to new digital platforms.

via www.knightcomm.org

Excellent summary of event by Amy Garmer. And kudos to Barbara Cochran for the organizing and hosting. To me the highlights of this day were not the network stars but the local innovators. If you click through, and I hope you do, you'll also see my comment about rolling the public media rock up the hill *differently.*

Happy Birthday NPR And ATC! : This Is NPR : NPR

Forty years ago today, on May 3, 1971, NPR debuted its first program: All Things Considered. Join us today for a celebration complete with photos from the archives and avatars for your Facebook profile. Happy Birthday NPR and ATC!

via www.npr.org

I was still in high school and not particularly aware of the launch of NPR. It would be 8 more years before I had a stake in the relay radio system that was in place then. Literally, we'd get tapes from NPR, play them, then return them so they could be recycled. You've come a long way NPR!