I'm very happy to report that an update of my paper from last year's AolR conference, "Wikinews: The Next Generation of Online News?", has now been published as the lead article in Scan Journal. I was able to find some more recent statistics, which unfortunately confirm the trends I'd already seen at the end of 2005: Wikinews is stagnating, both in terms of new contributors and as far as content creation is concerned. In my opinion, this is due to a misinterpretation of the Neutral Point of View doctrine, which here leads to a counterproductive aversion to any kind of discussion of news and current events. (And let me be absolutely clear: I'm not arguing against NPOV as such here - Wikipedia's current events section does very good work covering the news, for example, so it can work very well in a news context.) Anyway - read the article in Scan Journal! Here's the issue announcement by editors Chris Atton and Graham Meikle:

New issue of Scan available now

Vol. 3 no. 1 June 2006
Edited by Chris Atton & Graham Meikle

"Introduction: News and the Net: Convergences and Divergences" <http://scan.net.au/scan/journal/display_synopsis.php?j_id=7>

Axel Bruns <http://scan.net.au/scan/journal/display.php?journal_id=69> offers a measured analysis of the Wikinews project, suggesting that the early evidence points to something of a missed opportunity. Bruns assesses Wikinews against some of the best available criteria for evaluating participatory news websites (including his own concept of 'gatewatching'), and in the process provides a concise overview of the key characteristics of the most innovative online news projects, such as Slashdot and Indymedia.

Greg Elmer, Zach Devereaux and David Skinner <http://scan.net.au/scan/journal/display.php?journal_id=72> apply some experimental software tools and research methods to the automated Google News portal. Uncovering the extent to which large commercial news providers are highly ranked in Google News searches, and the degree to which such news is re-purposed newspaper content, the authors' conclusion points to an extension of the reach and influence of the established news media in the online environment.

Lee Salter <http://scan.net.au/scan/journal/display.php?journal_id=70> examines the pressures that impose limits on the kinds of participatory media democracy to which the Indymedia movement aspires. Salter adduces examples from around the world of government intervention in relation to the activities of Indymedia collectives, emphasising the need to consider such alternative Net news projects as embedded within spaces which are not only economically but also politically regulated.

Trish Bolton <http://scan.net.au/scan/journal/display.php?journal_id=71> makes the case for a political economy perspective in assessing the Net's capacity to enable a more plural news environment. She notes how commercial business models are implicated in such much-cited examples of alternative online journalism as Crikey and the Webdiary forum started by Margo Kingston during her time at the Sydney Morning Herald. Bolton also points to the reality that many news blogs and alternative sites lack the resources to generate original reporting.

Megan Boler <http://scan.net.au/scan/journal/display.php?journal_id=73> examines the media event in which Jon Stewart, the host of Comedy Central's The Daily Show, appeared as a guest on CNN's Crossfire and delivered a damning indictment of television journalism. Clips of Stewart's appearance have been downloaded millions of times, and the event was by some measures the most-cited media story in the blogosphere for 2004. Boler traces the Stewart event's iteration through the blogosphere, raising questions about the uses of satire in news commentary, and examining some key ways in which convergent media forms are being used to create new spaces and networks for political discussion.

Taken together these papers offer a sobering corrective to anyone still inclined towards enthusiastic generalisations about the Net's potential.

Arising from this work is a concern with missed opportunities and with the encroachment of the established news media on the possibilities of the Net.

Technorati : Scan Journal, Wikinews, gatewatching, online journalism, open news, wikis
Del.icio.us : Scan Journal, Wikinews, gatewatching, online journalism, open news, wikis