I'd give us an F in "media" right now

The last paper issue of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer rolls off the presses tomorrow.

The Seattle P-I has become the "first major metropolotan daily" paper to make the switch to an all-online version. Psyched as I am to explore a quickly evolving field, I'm also worried about the integrity of news. I love the Internet. I live the Internet. It has brought about about some of the most innovative, daring stories that wouldn't otherwise be covered by the mainstream media. It encourages transparency and fact-checking. But it leaves quality control to the "general public," and when that happens, digg.com is born. Read some background on why I left digg.

From the Seattle P-I article:

Jay Rosen, a professor of journalism at New York University, said Hearst's moves in Seattle will be closely watched.

"For large metropolitan dailies, what they are doing right now is not sustainable," he said. "They don't see how they're going to continue in anything but a downward spiral."

So, he said, there "will be a temptation" on the part of other dailies to make the all-digital shift.

In part, though, Rosen said that will depend on what happens in Seattle.

While Rosen said he doesn't make predictions, he said that if a news operation has a limited staff, "the smart thing to do is not pretend that you have everything, but to link to the best that's out there. If you are better at linking to everything that is important, then that is a basis for user loyalty."

In Sociology 1H I was outed as one of the few open Conflict theorists through some magazine-style multiple choice trickery. Unlike magazine tests, however, this one was pretty accurate: all I see in this great shift is a transfer of power. Without an obvious standard for information, it seems a given that huge numbers of people with access to tons of it at their fingertips would make sure nothing too egregious gets through. But I don't see that as the case.

The real power of the Internet (versus print journalism) is to control not what makes the news -- if you want a story reported, you can ensure it gets out somehow or other on the Web -- but how many people get to see it. Power makes people nuts. Power weakens the truth.

We need media-savvy readers. We need people who look beyond the Yahoo front page for AP headlines. If local is the new emphasis, we're going to need to trust locals to cover themselves responsibly to broadcast that to the rest of the world.

The only way to help the revolution along is to educate young students on journalistic integrity, proper skepticism, and responsible media absorption. An equivalent to Mt. SAC's JOUR100: Mass Media and Society class should be a requirement for elementary or middle school students. We need to make the media -- biases, ownership, industry standards -- as basic as math and English to our young kids, so that they enter the world able to view online outlets -- soon to be their main outlets -- with the same wary eye we view CNN and FOX. We need to teach them how to make and read the news by preserving journalism's core: to tell the story as it happened.

Let's see how Seattle pans out. My fingers are crossed.