PressEthic

According to the Seattle Post Intelligencer a new website will be launched tomorrow, called Open Source Media. The website brings together traditional forms of media and links to over 70 blogs.

Open Source Media is being launched by Pajamas Media. Their goal is to embrace ‘the bottom up revolution’ that is citizen journalism.

What is interesting about this innovative news site is that it will combine traditional news sourced from Newstext (which receives its news from AP and Knight/Ridder Tribune amongst others) along with blogs espousing a variety of partisan positions.

Speaking about the contributors to the site, Co-Founder Roger L. Simon says,

When we assembled our team of bloggers, and our editorial advisory board, what I was looking for was people who, whether they were left, right, or center, were sophisticated enough to realize that the old ways in the media are dead or dying.

When Simon speaks about the death of traditional media, he is referring to the changing views towards the journalistic standard of objectivity. Simon is a proponent of the notion that objectivity is unattainable. He explains:

Unlike the mainstream media for the longest time, our writers are quite open about expressing their biases and worldviews. I don’t believe that the unbiased use of language is possible. So therefore, I don’t think unbiased reporting actually exists -- human beings are doing the reporting, and I never noticed an unbiased human being. So to pretend you’re unbiased is such a big lie, it’s almost silly. I’m as biased as can be - but I hope my biases change and evolve over time.

While I’m intrigued by the development of this website and believe the future of news will involve more opinion based analysis. I do believe there is still a place for objectivity in journalism. While an individual might not actually be able to achieve objectivity in their reporting, striving for it is possible. By definition, to claim something is ‘biased’ one must assume there an objective truth.

If facts from a news event are not initially reported from a nonpartisan position, it will only make news happenings more nebulous. I know I would rather read coverage that attempts to explain the story in an objective manner, before I read analysis that attempts to put the news into context and help me develop an opinion. Opinions on issues will only be increasingly polarized if audiences are only ever offered partisan accounts of the news.

I like the idea behind this website (even if I don’t agree with some of the founders sentiments). By combining ‘professional’, citizen blogs and traditional ‘objective’ news media this website is definitely provides a framework for the new media. It allows the news to be critiqued by both media experts and citizen journalists. It provides a forum for three-way dialogue which is very informative.