In his Buzz Machine blog, Jeff Jarvis recently discussed the possibility how the production and "culture" of journalism would shift if it were produced in a cloud. Producing news in the "cloud" is based on the idea that journalists can essentially create news without a newsroom, instead relying on the tools available online. Jarvis believes that services like MoveableType/WordPress, Twitter, Flickr, Goolge Docs, etc can be used to produce news cheaply and with greater depth than traditional print journalism.

Prior to the availability of these tools, journalism has been limited by what the industry refers to as "hyphenation and justification" summarized by Jarvis as the process of "fitting text to finite holes in print designs." Before blogs and online news outlets were widely available, print journalism was always confined by the finite space available in a printed newspaper. The "dictated" length of a print article also has an impact on the amount of information and analysis that the author can include.

The new model turns the production process on its head. Traditionally articles are produced and published by a journalist without any input from the public. As Jarvis states, the article is then available for the public to "comment on or snark at." The new production model reverses all of that: ideas for articles will first be introduced online where they will they take shape with the public's contribution and the finished article will then be printed.

One of the most beneficial aspects of this production model is the ability to actively use crowdsourcing to produce news resulting in a "profound shift in the culture of news." Jarvis notes that by "putting print at the end of the line...a reporter can start blogging at the beginning of a story...open[ing] up the process to the public" from the very beginning.

Jarvis envisions a world of journalism where a story emerges from an idea proposed by a journalist to the public followed by a series of questions asking the community for its help and input. This process allows the journalist to "share" developments "with the community" as progress is made, while simultaneously using the communities input to "help fill in blanks and make the reporting better."

Crowdsourcing, as this process is sometimes called, is an increasingly important tool in the journalistic world. News outlets like The Guardian and CNN's iReport have started tapping into the publics desire to participate by asking for help in sifting through documents and doing other necessary, but menial tasks that would take a journalist weeks to finish on their own. This willingness and desire to participate on behalf of the public is an important energy that journalists can cultivate. If done correctly, journalists can build an active and trustworthy group of researchers capable of covering more ground in less time than a single journalist working alone.

Once a story is finalized and all the "blanks" are "fill[ed] in," Jarvis believes that all the "bureaucratic details," such as when to publish stories and where to place them, can be taken care of through Google Docs. When everything is hammered out, the finished product can be sent in for printing. At this point, Jarvis admits that things become "more complicated" with technical issues he is not familiar with, but he believes they can all be solved more or less through existing software and online programs.

Despite the unanswered questions of how the paper will actually come into print, there are many benefits to this production model. Hypothetically, this model eliminates the need for a traditional newsroom. While it is hard to imagine big news outlets eliminating their newsrooms, smaller, local papers can significantly reduce their operating costs by using the free tools already available online which eliminates the need for space to accommodate all the editors, publishers, journalists and other individuals who contribute to the production of a newspaper.

The students who created Penn State University's news blog, Onward State have already pioneered the first step of Jarvis' proposed production model. While the blog does not produce a print edition, it relies largely upon the student body for information on what is going on around campus. The blog's editors and writers collect this information and then discuss what they will write using Google Wave and other online tools as a digital newsroom that is always accessible. The constant stream of information and the ability to communicate anywhere at any time has created a rivalry between Onward State and the school's newspaper, The Daily Collegian, which obviously can't print information as fast as the blog can post it. Yet the newspaper derives its value from in-depth analysis that can sometimes get overlooked when posts are produced quickly. On the other hand, The Daily Collegian lacks the participation and voice of the student body that is one of the blog's strongest attributes.

Ultimately, neither completely satisfies the online-first, print-second production model Jeff Jarvis envisions. Eliminating the need for a physical newsroom can produce incredible savings and increase the speed with which information is collected and produced. Yet the strength of Jarvis's model is in the active and "transparent" collaboration that takes place between a journalist and the public. A finalized print edition of all these collaborative articles is a way to ensure that news outlets stay relevant and on-top of things that matter to the public.

Source: Buzz Machine, Mashable