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Overholser, Geneva. "On Behalf of Journalism: A Manifesto for Change." Philadelphia: The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. 2009.

Overholser's article follows a June 2005 gathering of journalists and scholars at the Annenberg Public Policy Center, and many of her arguments stem from the discussions at that seminar. While maintaining a realistic and attainable vision of the future of journalism (and practical admission that "journalism as we know it is over"), Overholser argues that journalism is ideally a marshall of democracy and necessary to American freedom and must (and will) continue to exist, just in a new form. By discussing the responsibilities of journalists - as ethical, objective, professional, accountable sources - along with the responsibilities of the public and the government to support journalism in its ideal form, Overholser asserts that "what's needed is wide-open thinking about how consumers use information, and where they are getting it, and how old media companies can fulfill those needs while bringing the best of their traditions onto new platforms."

Overholser's article is comprehensive, realistic, and yet hopeful. Her refreshing outlook is that journalism has changed for good, but that that change is a welcome chance to re-evaluate, throw out the tired and unhealthy aspects of 'old world' media, and recommit to the "core values of the craft." She examines several options for the future of journalism – non-profit status, local ownership, media ownership rules, greater professionalization of 'citizen journalists' by means of agreed-upon standards – and all with the outlook that since the public will demand goof work, journalism will be here for the long haul. Overholser adeptly suggests that the problem with modern journalism isn't in the journalists, but in the public; and we must be encouraging better civics and news literacy education to help the public play their role better. It isn't journalism - the protector of democracy and leader in civic education - that is in danger of death, it is the media news conglomorates, and Overholser seems optimistic that their deaths may not injure democracy much.

"Poll Results – Now that Walter Cronkite has passed on, who is America's most trusted newscaster?" TIME. http://www.timepolls.com/hppolls/archive/poll_results_417.html

This poll by TIME online polled 9409 people asking who America's most trusted newscaster is now that Walter Cronkite has passed on. The results overwhelmingly favored Comedy Central's host of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart.

These poll results demonstrate an interesting shift in America's view of 'trustworthiness.' The fact that Americans place more trust in a comedic news reporter who demonstrates clear biases and includes fictious news intermingled with factual news indicates a significant shift in how we view news. I find this shift in our view of trustworthiness to be closely tied with the idea that citizens now have a right to comment and even influence news (via internet posts and commentary and blogs, etc.). The media culture seems to be shifting from one of serious journalism to a more casual interface that allows comedy and opinion to mix with information and leaves the onus of responsibility on the viewer or reader to discern truth from fiction.

Kramer, Joel. "Lessons I’ve learned after a year running MinnPost." Nieman Journalism Lab. March 19, 2009.

This anecdotal article by Joel Kramer provides insight into some of the challenges to professional online journalism. His brief and readable story of running the online news site, MinnStar, addresses issues such as user commentary, video integration, and start-up costs.

Kramer's most important point for my thesis is his process of screening user commentary with volunteer moderators. As he puts it, "We took plenty of heat from web-savvy readers for this decision. But as readers have watched the quality of comment on respected sites that don’t require real names, many are now grateful for our approach. Recently we published our 7,000th comment. Some sites with looser standards appear to be reconsidering their no-holds-barred policies." This MinnStar policy may or may not be forward thinking, but it is an example of one version of user interaction with news sites. MinnStar doesn't use citizen journalism the way, say, TalkingPointsMemo, does, but according to Kramer, they are exploring possibilities. This demonstrates the lack of an industry standard for harnessing citizen journalists, but emphasizes the growing awareness for policies and methods for intertwining professional quality journalism and usergenerated content.

Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism. "The State of the News Media: an annual report on american journalism."

This annual report from the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism reports on the state of online jornalism. With substantial charts and research, the overview is an accurate discussion of both where many news organizations stand currently and where they may be (and some are) heading in the furture. The report's thorough treatment of both online content and economic viability address both the demands of the public and the needs of news reporting organizations.

The report provides valuable support for my thesis with its statistic and solid reporting. One particularly valuable section is the survey on "Top Issues in Online Media vs. Media Over All." The chart demonstrates that though the top three news story subjects (election, U.S. economy, Iraq War) are mirrored between online and all media, beyond that the statistics vary. Online, users have more say regarding which issues are covered, it is easy to track exactly which stories are most read, most shared, most commented on; in a print newspaper, information is much more general. This chart exposes how media overall may not be addressing the issues that are actually of most interest to their constituents. And, of interest to my thesis, it supports the idea that as more media incorporates methods for users to share and comment and contribute to media stories, the gap between stories that interest users and ones that do not interest them will widen as sites like Digg bring user approved content back to the top over and over, while stories of no interest to readers die after one day (or hour) on the front page.

Keller, Bill. “Not Dead Yet: The newspaper in the days of digital anarchy.” Lecture delivered at The Guardian in honor of Hugo Young. November, 29 2007. guardian.co.uk

In addition to providing an intellectual analysis of the future of journalism, Bill Keller’s address (appropriately for his audience) begins sentimentally, with anecdotes about Hugh Young, The New York Times, The Guardian and journalism as a profession. But halfway through the address Keller provides the meat of his discussion, which is his educated opinion about the future of newspapers and journalism.

Keller's main argument emphasizes that the differences between the investigative reporting of The New York Times or The Guardian and GoogleNews or Wikipedia's "legions of bloggers." "What is absent from the vast array of new media outlets is," Keller argues, "the great engine of newsgathering – the people who witness events, ferret out information, supply context and explanation." Though Keller rightly points out that opinion and journalism are different, he falsely accuses all internet commentors and 'citizen journalists' of being holed up behind computer screens rather than being active human participants in the world. Certainly there are differences between bloggers and journalists, but what Keller seems to mistake is that journalists must be associated with The Times or The Guardian or The Boston Globe in order to be investigative journalists, or even to "witness events," "ferret out information" or "supply context and explanation."

European Publishers Council. "Hamburg Declaration Regarding Intellectual Property Rights." Berlin: European Publishers Council. June 25, 2009.

This brief statement from the European Publishers Council (EPC) argues for "urgent improvements in the protection of intellectual property on the Internet." Without providing an answer to the problem or even asserting a path toward improvement of the situation, the statement simply places the onus of blame on sites that index their content. Meanwhile, the statement applauds national and internation governments for their efforts to protect international property.

Practically speaking, this statement is fairly ineffectual. Google's response has been essentially, "Go ahead and stop us from indexing your content" – a response that clearly demonstrates how vital news aggregation is to online media. Without offering a solution that will help users find content online while also crediting the correct sources, the EPC doesn't have much weight to throw around. This statement, instead, serves as a thermometer of the rising tension between investigative journalists and news aggregation websites.

Alterman, Eric. "The News Business: Out of Print: The death and life of the American newspaper." The New Yorker. March 31, 2008.

In this article, Alterman discusses the advantages, disadvantages, history, debates, and differing opinions concerning the migration of journalism from print to the internet. He begins by laying the scene, briefly calling on the history of print journalism while discussing current trends and the current bleak state of affairs for print media. The bulk of the article outlines the differences – good and bad – between internet blogging and news aggregation sites and traditional newsroom journalism. Alterman’s main argument centers around the Huffington Post, a political news and gossip website, as an example of the future of journalism. Central to Alterman’s discussion is the role of the reader/consumer of news. Using the contrast between Walter Lippmann and John Dewey's differing ideas of idylic political journalism, Alterman argues that the Internet is the swing from Lippmannesque (boys club, top down media) to Deweyish (public opinion driven, community contribution media) philosophies of journalism. Alterman’s prognosis is gloomy, particularly since he dwells on the fact that many online news sites prefer to aggregate news from print media, heresay and user commentary rather than funding their own investigative journalism.

Alterman’s argument addresses the central theme of my thesis: the difference between traditional journalism and internet-generation journalism. His discussion of 'the mullet strategy' (where websites like The Huffington Post keep a closely edited front page but allow users to fill their subpages with unedited commentary and opinion), is an excellent analysis of how media companies might control but still incorporate public contribtions. Alterman's article also raises an important issue concerning the future of journalism: that The Huffington Post flags stories from other news sources but "shoulders none of the costs" of investigating and writing the story. This issue is indeed central to the discussion, but Alterman's argument falters when he claims that The Huffington Post's hiring of Thomas Edsall, a forty-year veteran of The Washington Post, as its political editor is a "rare" example. For a foward-looking article such as this, Alterman could be expected to see that such hirings might very quickly become industry standard. And as print journalism aficionados move toward 'citizen journalism' sites, their presence will provide credibility and professionalism for the front page, and probably beyond.

McLeary, Paul. "How TalkingPointsMemo Beat the Big Boys on the U.S. Attorney Story." Columbia Journalism Review. March 15, 2007.

This article by Paul McLeary overviews the role the news and gossip website TalkingPointsMemo played in breaking a news story about illegal firings of U.S. Attorneys. The article focuses on the ability of TalkingPointsMemo to bring a story to light in a different way than was possible for traditional journalists. TalkingPointsMemo, McLeary points out, harnessed their online sources effectively to tap a "variety of sources that had been largely untapped by the mainstream press" and to break the story before most traditional press rooms.

The method of journalism outlined by McLeary serves as an example of a possible model for future journalism. TalkingPointsMemo's success with the U.S. Attorney story exemplifies a hybrid method of journalism wherein 'citizen journalism' is combined with an editorial process to create reliable stories quickly and effectively. McLeary points out that sites like TalkingPointsMemo that display a "model of reporting [that] ... straddl[es] the divide between old school shoe-leather reporting and the more aggregate method of Web reporting" are rare, but if the effectiveness continues, the scarcity won't last long.

Kaufman vs. Islamic Society of Arlington, Texas, Islamic Center of Irving, DFW Islamic Educational Center, INC., Dar Elsalam Islamic Center, Al Hedayah Islamic Center, Islamic Association of Tarrannt County and Muslim American Society of Dallas. No. 2-09-023-CV. January 22, 2009.

This court of appeals decision from Texas rules on the case of Kaufman, the author of an online article asserting that Islamic extremists and terrorists were invading Six Flags during their Muslim Family Day. The court decided in favor of Kaufman, arguing that his article did not refer to any of the groups that filed suit against him, and that a 'reasonable reader' would in no way link the groups and implicate the Islamic groups in question with the groups mentioned by Kaufman as terrorist affiliated. The court asserts that "...an internet author's status as a member of the electronic media should be adjudged by the same principles that courts should use to determine the author's status under more traditional media." It's decision classifies Kaufman as an 'online journalist' and argues that his legal rights are thus equal to those of traditional journalists.

Though the court's decision in favor of Kaufman holds little bearing on my thesis, their ruling affects the validity and status of online journalism because it equates it with print and traditional journalism. They argued that a blogger writing without an editor and without performing investigation and substantiation of their claims would not necessarliy be considered an online journalist and would not necessarily receive the same legal rights as online journalists like Kaufman. The questions is, of course, what makes Kaufman a 'journalist'. The court quoted U.S.C.A 552(a)(4)(A)(ii) (West Supp. 2009), arguing that media includes "any 'person or entity that gathers information of potential interest to a segment of the public, uses its editorial skills to turn the way materials into a distinct work, and distributes that work to an audience.'" By this measure, bloggers who discuss news (as opposed to just personal experience and opinion) are certainly included in the realm of online media.