The Journo-Manifesto: A Cyber-tal Media Ethic

PREAMBLE: The Journo Manifesto

Every individual of every age, origin, orientation, and description deserves multiple inalienable human rights including the fulfillment of all basic human needs; the freedom of thought, action, and movement; the pursuit of self-actualization in all of its manifestations; and the freedom to seek, engage, create and share ideas in all forms through all manner across all frontiers.

There are real and measurable, tangible and intangible, financial and otherwise returns (ROI) to individuals and society generated by the investment of resources (human, financial and resources) to news gathering efforts. Current and future investment of resources into news gathering efforts are so severely threatened by technological, economic, political, and market change forces that the future sustainability of a free press system is in clear and present danger. 

This existential threat to a free press system marks the death of incrementalism, and the advent of mega change at the macro level including transformations of the press system’s revenue models, content, audience, channel, production, personnel, legal environment, and technological developments.   

These transformations must be vigorously pursued through the creation and stabilization of partnerships among media-related organizations from local to global levels; the galvanization of educational efforts targeting both the production and consumption of news; widespread litigation; redistribution of journalism-based revenues; sweeping marketing and publicity campaigns; and systemic political changes.

WE BELIEVE: The Journo Manifesto

The INDIVIDUAL is the ultimate or fundamental unit of analysis whose overall health and well-being is the measurement of the supporting society’s level of sanity. 

The INDIVIDUAL, regardless of capacity, is charged with service to self and others to maintain harmonious, fruitful, and engaging environments for individuals and society.

SOCIETY is the informal organization of individuals for the sole purpose of insuring the collective health, well-being and freedom of expression through mores and institutions.

The SOCIETY’s IMPERATIVES include: freedom>slavery; knowledge>ignorance; health>sickness; independence>dependence; solvency>destitution; order>chaos; expression>silence; cooperation>competition; engagement>isolation; entertainment>boredom.

The STATE is the formal organization of individuals at varying levels (global, national, regional, state, local) for the sole purpose of insuring individual health, well-being and freedom of expression through institutions and laws.

The STATE’s IMPERATIVES include insuring individual and collective health, the well-being and freedom of expression through responsible security, representative legislation, efficient and humane management, a fair and equitable judiciary, fair taxation, open commerce, and development and maintenance of structural resources (education, transportation, utilities [water, energy, information], medical, etc.).

That INSTITUTIONS are specific and unique, formal and informal, entities required for healthy individuals/societies/states for the purpose of fostering health, education, economics, political engagement, entertainment, media, religion, the arts and others.

That MEDIA INSTITUTIONS are independent entities organized to fulfill societal and state journalistic functions (gathering, curating, editing, producing and distributing news and information) in written, visual, audio or digital formats to provide information, entertainment, accountability, analysis, marketing avenues, and engagement.

That MEDIA THEORIES explain various press system orientations such as Authoritarianism, Libertarianism, Social Responsibility, Soviet Communism and Developmental media systems that suggest theoretical synergies that can support alternative strategies (Seibert et al).

That TYPES OF MEDIA are continuously redefined by technology, and currently include print (books, newspapers, magazines), broadcast (radio, TV), cinema, photography, Internet (websites, blogs, social media, podcasts, video), other.

That certain MEDIA RESOURCE NECESSITIES are required for sustainable media systems including revenue, content, audience, distribution, production, trained personnel in all areas, and legal support of press freedoms, and access to, and expertise in, emerging and supporting technology (Hollifield).

That JOURNALISM is the profession of gathering, curating, editing, producing and distributing news in written, visual, audio or digital format in a timely and truthful fashion.

That JOURNALISM activities (gathering, curating, editing, producing and distributing news) must be free of political, social, cultural, and economic restraints.

That ETHICAL IMPERATIVES OF JOURNALISM include truthfulness, fairness, balance, objectivity, advocacy, accountability, transparency and respect of privacy.

That LEGAL IMPERATIVES OF JOURNALISM include press access, prior restraint, defamation issues, and protection of sources.

That a JOURNALIST is person of varying levels of training engaged in various aspects (gathering, curating, editing, producing and distributing) of the journalistic process.

That a JOURNALIST is entitled to fair remuneration for his/her journalistic activities, and must be free of political, social, cultural, and economic restraints.

That a PROFESSIONAL JOURNALIST is person of varying level of training via schools or professional training engaged in various aspects (gathering, curating, editing, producing and distributing) of the journalistic process.

That a CITIZEN JOURNALIST is an untrained individual engaged, for pay or not, in various journalistic activities (gathering, curating, editing, producing and distributing).

That an INTERNET TROLL seeks to create cyber hysteria, confusion, hate and anger through coordinated cyber campaigns of irrelevant, malicious misinformation posted by anonymous individuals and groups.   

That NEWS, the product of journalism, is current (usually) information about people, events, or places distributed in timely fashion to varying sized audiences in written, visual, audio or digital format.

That FAKE NEWS is the deliberate creation, manipulation, production and distribution of misinformation for political, financial, cultural or personal gains.

That MOST NEWS is primarily produced by traditional, or legacy, newspaper newsrooms, and that other news outlets often publicize, repurpose, aggregate, contextualize, or expand on this original reporting (Holcomb).

The ROI of NEWS or return on investment, is real and reflects the measurement of the gain or loss (financial and otherwise) generated by investment of resources (human, financial, or resource capital) into any aspect of the news gathering efforts (Hamilton).

The OPPORTUNITY COST OF NEWS is the loss of potential gain from investments of resources in news efforts or investments of resources in efforts other than news.

The DECIMATION OF THE NEWSPAPER industry Is so dramatic that it has contracted more than 60% in revenue, readership and professional journalists (Pew), and is described as ‘news deserts’ (CJR) abandoned by a ‘lost generation’ of journalists (Reinardy).

The INTERNET BEHEMOTHS Google and Facebook so dominate the online advertising industry that they account for more than 60% of this year’s projected $83 billion total online advertising, with current quarterly revenues of Google’s $23 billion (up 21%) and Facebook’s $9 billion (up 47%) (WaPo).

REMEDIES: Mega Changes. Macro Level.

The EXISTENTIAL THREAT to our free press system marks the death of incrementalism, and the advent of mega change at the macro level in the areas of revenue, content, audience, distribution, personnel, legal and technological issues.

Changes in REVENUE MODELS include a more equitable revenue distribution among content producers and content aggregators and distributers (Google, Facebook, Twitter); establishment of micro-payments (pay for click) to FB accounts for User Generated Content (UGC); the monetization of FB’s News Feeds for ads served on user’s news feed; establishment of ‘newspaper retail’ space for community access.

Changes in CONTENT DESCRIPTIONS include: make content aggregators and distributers legally responsible for the labeling of ‘fake news’ and managing troller content; personal identification of account/authorship is required; anonymously authored content is not protected by 1^st Amendment; hate speech is not protected by the1st Amendment; stricter governmental control of hate speech; UGC content published on FB news feeds is owned by individual creator.

Changes in AUDIENCE composition include: stronger emphasis on education from early age about multi-platform news production and consumption; media literacy becomes the 4th of the 3 R’s; citizen journalist curriculum elementary on; monetized UGC creators; social media free zones; training in civic service and engagement.

Changes in DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS include: large-scale, cyber aggregators and social media platforms defined as common content carriers mandating responsibility for verifying content’s authorship and veracity; must establish equitable system of sharing any content or traffic monetization through micro-payment accounts; content’s copyright and ownership payments remain with content producer.

Changes in PERSONNEL MANDATES include: recognition that individual employee, manager, contributor, or other is fundamental asset/resource; individual’s well-being is measure of company or organization’s sanity; individual’s life-long dimensions of well-being include economic, psychological, medical, and others; individual is entitled to equitable portion of content’s monetization and ownership; all necessary training.

Changes in LEGAL ORIENTATION include: aggressive legal strategies to insure journalism’s interests and well-being in issues of defamation, content ownership, access to government and public records; protection of journalists’ life, liberty, and financial interests; equitable balance among competing and varying levels of corporate, civic, public and content production interests.

Changes in TECHNOLOGY’s role include: technology is a utility necessary for individual’s and society’s well-being: individuals are entitled to ubiquitous access at fair prices to the constantly improving technology of content production and consumption; the ultimate imperatives of technology: liberation>dependence; inclusion>exclusion; creation>stagnation; knowledge>ignorance; common>individual interest, equitable.