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Jeff Jarvis, Redefining Journalism.

Jeff Jarvis, Redefining Journalism

Jeff Jarvis, Key Note Speaker at RIT’s Social Media Symposium.

Jeff Jarvis visits RIT to discuss the growing field of online discussion as a new form of journalism, privacy in the online forum, and a call for principles in cyberspace.

December 8, 2010. 12:30-13:15.

“You ain’t seen nothing yet,” Jeff Jarvis, acclaimed journalist and professor at City University’s Graduate School of Journalism, calls into the crowd at Ingle Auditorium at Rochester Institute of Technology. Jarvis, who has been a newspaper journalist, blogger, and author, would be the man to know the “volcanic changes in technology that are sweeping the globe."

Benefits of Technology

Jarvis focused on the benefits of technology and online discussion forums calling the tools of social communication current “snapshots of knowledge.” Various tools such as Facebook and Twitter are part of a larger whole. Assessing newspaper journalism, he chastises the view of perfection as the standard, and instead praises Google, for example, for starting with a beta version and working out the kinks. Like humanity, technology is imperfect and changes and grows with the influx of information and the accessible tools.

Threats to Privacy?

While Jarvis agrees that privacy is an important issue, he focuses more on the benefits of public discussions online as a forum for connectedness and growth. Through questioning and answering topics of national and global importance, questioning the status quo online can leave more room for feedback and multiple viewpoints.

By fearing technology’s ability to delve into the private realm, he warns that great opportunities could be left by the wayside. For example, in Germany, the people went “batshit” over Google street-view, and fought for the “right to be pixilated”. Setting a precedent for pixilation over their private residences, German citizens did not accurately evaluate the possible benefits of Google street-view. Jarvis mentioned the usefulness of finding missing persons in disaster as one possible benefit. Overall, Jarvis message of the usefulness of the public realm in technology did not fall on deaf ears.

WikiLeaks Impacts

Looking at Julian Assange’s scientific journalism, Jarvis also called for acceptance of alternate forms of news, specifically data being newsworthy. “The government should be transparent by default, and secret through necessity,” Jarvis expounded on the status quo of government privacy. Moreover, in the context of Assange’s WikiLeaks scandal, Jarvis calls for “the 8^th continent” while also recognizing a need for principles to rally around.

“Organize Knowledge to Change,” Jarvis embraces change by focusing on the powerful possibilities through cumulative organizational efforts made available by the advent of the Internet.