Dawnsinger

Part of my rants and hopes before attending a journalism summit at the University of Massachusetts later this week: 

It's time for professional journalists to snip away the trappings of elitism and define exactly what makes us important.

We're long past the day when a large company was needed to buy a press. Long past the day when a large company was needed to hire a newsroom. The glib answer to the internet is that "professional journalists" will always be needed. Indeed? Who says? We are not assured of that; even among ourselves, we have trouble justifying our existence. Much of what any news medium does is just being the middleman. And we've seen over the decades how many middlemen have fallen into irrelevance, while proclaiming their unique value.

I submit the once-common service-station attendant, who landed behind the convenience-store counter as full-service stations faded away. Yet once, it was claimed that cars would fall apart if an expert did not fill the tank, wash the windows and check fluids. Indeed.

I submit bank cashiers who insisted they added valuable customer service to the experience of withdrawing cash. How could anyone trust their finances to a machine? Indeed.

I submit travel agents who insist they add valuable service, as opposed to Expedia and Travelocity. Indeed. I suspect that few people heading for this conference arranged their travel through an agent.

I submit newspapers that insist their aggregation of classifieds is of incomparable value to Realtors, auto dealerships and job-seekers. Indeed. A dangerous claim in many markets, and wishful thinking in most.

I submit the typesetter, who lost his job with the advent of direct cold type from the newsroom. And the composing room, which disappeared in the face of pagination. And the darkroom technician who was replaced by Photoshop.

Middlemen all, whose jobs have become largely irrelevant. And now we professional journalists are watching a surge of technology and universal digital empowerment that draws our future into question.

Just to be clear, I believe professional journalism brings value to the table. But in the new information economy - and ecology - what is its role? Is it enough of a role to support itself economically? Stripped of its gatekeeping function - because the gates have been forever smashed open - and its economic premises, what future does professional journalism have? Rote answers will not save us.

And if professional journalism continues to exist in the long run - how will we work with the torrent of newly powered "civilian" journalists?

One assumes that many people lost their livelihoods as America moved from horses to automobiles. An intriguing exception is an carriage-building shop that created horse-drawn vehicles in Ohio. Rather than rail about the superiority and traditions of carriages, this shop saw the future and moved into the construction of automobile bodies. And that one-time small shop became one of the legendary marketing slogans of General Motors: Body by Fischer.

There is in this, perhaps, a lesson for professional journalism.

I hope this conference will help set the agenda for finding the answer for all of us.