Digital news faces its future
Will news change after the UK phone hacking inquiry?
It’s sorry days for the British print press, currently under the scrutiny of the Leveson inquiry. The ongoing investigation into who knew what about phone hacking is hardly Fleet Street’s finest hour.
But when it wraps up this week, what follows will be just as eagerly watched by the new wave of news content creators – political bloggers, citizen journalists and online newspapers like Huffpost – as by the traditional newspaper press.
Can you regulate online news?
Any attempts to ‘regulate’ print media after Leveson will need to take account of digital and social news publishing, which are now mainstream practices by news organisations. But this raises big questions.
What about blogs from press contributors, or the personal blogs of journalists? Will these be put under scrutiny of a press watchdog? What about anonymous posts or tweets made from newspaper pundits while off duty? What about Wikileaks, Guido Fawkes, and sites that publish from overseas?
Newspaper editors have been out in droves over recent weeks to protest against calls for new regulation. They’ve been joined by grand old men like Washington Post ace Carl Bernstein and Nick Davies of The Guardian, the guy who broke the phone hacking story for the paper, who’s been called in front of Leveson this week.
Regulation of news providers, abhorrent as it may sound to press purists and freedom of speech devotees, poses some big workability questions. Regulation would require an all inclusive redefinition of exactly what is, and who makes news.
It is clearly impossible to regulate every online article, blog post and tweet published in the name of news, so presumably regulation will be confined to recognized print press institutions. But defining what falls in and out of the regulator’s scope for ‘news content’ could be harder than it looks.
Carl Bernstein sees digital future for news
The lines are blurring. Newspapers are using more streaming media, creating content that is closer and closer to what TV news providers broadcast (TV is regulated separately to print). Distinguishing news by its format is no longer a viable distinction.
Speaking recently at The Guardian’s phone hacking debate in London, Bernstein talked about the future of news. “It doesn’t belong to the old dinosaurs like us,” he said, motioning to the great and the good of the world’s newspapers, “this is the last slap of the dinosaur’s tail.”
What happens now?
Once the inquiry has heard more evidence this week from more big names like Alistair Campbell, Anne Diamond and Charlotte Church, it will pause to reach its verdict. For news operations of every tilt, there is only one question.
After Leveson, what will tomorrow’s news look like?
See the Leveson inquiry witness list
Tags: Carl Bernstein, citizen journalism, content, content strategy, Fleet Street, Guido Fawkes, Huffington Post, LBi, Leveson Inquiry, online newspapers, phone hacking, political bloggers, social news, The Guardian, Wikileaks
