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."
tagged guardian internet journalism media news newspaper online times by codhner ...on 23-JUL-09


