Media Literacy 2.0: The Power of NewsTrust

Allowing people to vote on content is fantastic, as long as we remember that journalism is not just a consumer product. The media, although changing, still plays an integral role in our democracy...Rating a story on NewsTrust is not a game - it is an act of journalism because it is a way to determine, socially, what the most accurate, reliable and trustworthy account of a news event is.

How I came to NewsTrust: I often tell people that "I work in citizen journalism." I think a more appropriate explanation is to say that I work to engage readers in the news process. Bringing readers back into the fold of journalism can be very direct, as I experienced with Assignment Zero,  where we asked people to write news stories, or it can be somewhat passive.

Not everyone wants to write stories. Jeff Howe often explained it this way: "asking people to write a story is like asking them to re-write a college term paper." It can feel like homework for many people.

Fair enough.

A much easier way to be engaged in the news is through social news sites.

I have been a huge supporter of these for that very reason. On Digg, for example, you have hundreds of thousands of people who are engaged in sharing content. Many of these are young people - the precise demographic that no longer feel a connection to mainstream media. Yet on these sites young people are engaged in sharing and voting on news stories. In fact, for many it's a game with points, winners, losers and a scoreboard.

While these sites engage people in the news process I fear at times it comes at the cost of certain journalism principles. This is perhaps a subject for a different post, but for now I will say: Allowing people to vote on content is fantastic, as long as we remember that journalism is not just a consumer product. The media, although changing, still plays an integral role in our democracy and it should not be treated like "Digg bait."

As amazing as Digg is and as much of a trailblazer as it has been, social news sites have a future beyond it. The future of social news sites is in serving niche communities. Digg, as it stands, is the National Enquirer of social news sites, Propeller is in a position to be USA Today, Reddit the San Jose Mercury News. Other sites like PhotoVote will serve the photography community, and so on.

Recently I have begun working with NewsTrust.net, which in my opinion has the potential to be the New York Times of social news sites, as in "the social news site of record." Rating a story on NewsTrust is not a game - it is an act of journalism because it is a way to determine, socially, what the most accurate, reliable and trustworthy account of a news event is.

At NewsTrust I will be a contributing editor, helping the community find and rate quality journalism. If you are not familiar with NewsTrust check it out. It is well worth taking a look. Even if you don't want to join the community right away, there is an immediate value just reading the site and getting recommendations on quality news stories to read.

If you do decide to participate you'll get an even greater benefit.

Media Literacy 2.0

I want to think more about the phrase above. I realize it sounds like an empty buzzword, but we are indeed in the era of Web 2.0 and there is meaning behind that term. The first iteration of the web failed becasue it ignored the social aspects of the Internet. Media literacy has been kept back in the 1.0 word, perhaps because journalists have been slow to change with the times, but I believe NewsTrust is a shinning example of what it means to take media literacy and turn it into a social experience.