OurPDX shared links for November 23rd: The WMTM Roundup

Here, a round-up of the posts generated thus far from the firestorm that was the We Make the Media conference on Saturday.

First, the Preview

• 3 Questions with We Make The Media’s founder | Digital Journalism Portland
  Abraham Hyatt writes: "This Saturday, a couple hundred journalists will gather in Portland to talk about a much-ballyhooed topic: nonprofit news organizations. The event is called We Make The Media. It’s an idea conference, a chance to explore what it would take to create a new community-driven news project here in Portland.

Then, the Fallout

(Cliffs Note version: there was a ‘digital divide’ between the Twitter corner in the back of the room live-tweeting the event. Is it any wonder that almost all of the posts below came from that corner? No, as you’ll see…)

• civics21.org | on cities and citizenship in the 21st century
  Alex Craghead: "The strongest takeaway I have of the conference is that if the proceedings are reflective of the state of media, we are in deep trouble. Throughout much of the conference I felt as if I were stuck in 2002. People — usually older, white, male employees (or former employees) of dead tree media — were talking about how they wanted to revolutionize media by including things like websites, YouTube videos, and the like."
• thoughts from the spiral | We Make the Media conference
  Jennifer Willis started out dispirited — “I sat down in the front row and found myself being lectured to by a handful of graying — but well-meaning — seasoned newspapermen." But by the end of the day, she'd found her connections — “Just sitting in the "Twitter corner" at the conference yesterday, I felt bolstered in my own Tweeting. I gave voice to ideas and opinions that I otherwise might have kept to myself, too shy to share. That reticence — whether stemming from fear, isolation or other factors entirely — has been my biggest hurdle as a professional communicator."
• The Next Journalist | We Make the Media
  Becca picked up on the tension, but has a positive take on it: "I suppose when you put that many smart, vocal people in a room you're bound to have some clashes of personality. I certainly came away with a better understanding of the range of opinions on a number of topics, and hope others did, too."
• BlueOregon | Without a net: walking the tightrope of talking about race
  Carla tackles some of the elephants in the room: "Some of the attendees noted on Twitter that the group didn't consist of many people of color. This observation was indeed true, as far as I could tell. But what I kept hearing in terms of legacy media structure was that the discussion kept sounding like it was stuck in 1999. The hierarchy of media leadership in the room seemed in a rut that they didn't understand based on old ways of thinking. What interested me was the lack of representation of new media and younger people, instead of race. So I said so, only to be smacked down as an insensitive white woman…"
• 360 Convos | Building a new model may require listening
  Carol's got it in one: "What are we afraid of? What are we not seeing? What do we need to do differently, radically counter to culture, backstream, upstream, jump out of the stream that will rock this world and make rockstars out of investigative reporters, that will nurture citizen journalists to fill needed gaps, that will energize and create an engaged, vibrant community? Maybe listen."
• Reporting 1 Blog | We Make the Media
  Jennifer Petty: "People are worried about the state of the industry, for good reason, but there are people unwilling to change and adapt, which seems ironic for the industry. Parts of the day were frustrating, like the silly voting, which is probably why more than 50 percent of the people left early. The biggest benefit, at least for me, is the networking opportunity it provides. It’s inspiring to see that others are concerned about whats happening and trying to brainstorm solutions. Hopefully some action will come from the conference."
• JOE WILSON | My views on WeMakeTheMedia event – after the hangover
  Joe Wilson's thoughtful take: "But as you will see by reading this and other missives about the conference, just because we have a common love doesn’t mean we won’t disagree, vehemently at times."
• ran.dum.thoughts | What I think happened at #wmtm (We Make the Media conference)
  Marie chimes in with this (spot-on, for me) observation: “Relying on resume recitations as a way of granting authority casts an event immediately on the side of the old power structure for many, including me. It doesn’t mean the person is not wise or doesn’t have something very important to say, it just signals to me that I am expected to be deferential and more than likely expected to be impressed into silence and passivity.”

The Firehose

• Twitter – The real-time #wmtm stream
  Over 1000 tweets (and counting) from the digital minority in the room…

Two Rejoinders

• Abraham Hyatt | We Made The Media: What went right — and wrong

  Abraham falls on the sword in one area, and offers his own take: “As one of the sub organizers who spent the last few months helping Ron Buel and a core group of people create the event, it was both thrilling and heartbreaking to see how it played out…”

  Please read his post, and then help figure out what we do next, won’t you?

• This just in: Crazy Talk (podcast) for 11/22/09 | Will Radik on Making Media; Abraham Hyatt on We Make the Media
  Sunday night’s podcast starts with Will Radik, but switches over to a freewheeling conversation with Abraham Hyatt for a recap of Saturday’s We Make The Media conference. From Dr. Normal’s own account: ” We hash away at the controversy arising between journos of the old and new persuasions. Should we write academic position papers to win a grant or should we adopt the tech start-up mentality, dive right in and do-it-our-own-damn-selves?” If you’re already familiar with the good doctor, you’ll know already where he comes down!

Finally, One Rebuttal

• Still A Newspaperman | “We Make the Media” in Portland
  Keynote speaker Stephen A. Smith acknowledged the critics in the room: "Overall, reaction to my remarks was mixed. I fear I offended some citizen journalists and bloggers, and was savaged on the conference Tweets, by focusing on the need to preserve professional journalism. I stand by that. What I didn’t say but should have said is that professional journalism is a big tent, defined by the work produced rather than by professional credentials, education or employment."

Yes, I’ll have my own take later today, along with a link to last night’s Crazy Talk podcast with Abraham Hyatt. Yes, I was one of the cranky Twitter-ers, although it should be noted that 1. I was in the *front* of the room at first, and 2. I’m way too old and curmugeonly to be tagged as one of Those Young Kids, sadly enough.

Believe it or not, I don’t know that my actual post will end up being a full rant — I’d vote for mostly to partly-cranky now that a good 48 hours have passed!

Related Posts

• November 24, 2009 -- WMTM Redux: Founder Ron Buel Responds (17)
• November 19, 2009 -- OurPDX shared links for November 19th (1)
• November 16, 2009 -- OurPDX shared links for November 16th (0)

Tagged as: @wemakethemedia, We Make The Media, wmtm