Augmented Journalism

Claiming the name was one thing, publishing a couple of blogposts was a second. Dumping my whole TrueSlant-hitory on it an incomprehensible third.

In other words:

1. I claimed this platform a year and a half ago, knowing that a fusion of old fashioned journalism with modern style blogging could lead to something with “augmented value”.

2. I published a couple of maybe interesting thoughts and tried to ignite a discussion on other platforms. Which didn’t work out at all.

3. After the – most unfortunate – removal of trueslant.com (for which I was a blogger) from the Forbes-network, I had to dump my 100+ blogposts somewhere. And because I thought augmentedjournalism.com had gotten into a permanent state of sleep, I thought I might as well use this platform as a dump spot. Which I did, as you can see below…

But now I read this blogpost on owni.eu, and doubt has conquered my brain once again. It might not have been such a bad idea after all. So what now? Revamp this thing? Give it away? Invite owni-staff on it? Get active again? Or just fall asleep for ever?

Just tell me.

Journalism has to reinvent itself. It sounds almost like a mantra, not only because it is practically the only thing new bloggers and old journalists agree upon. Journalism has to reinvent itself. Indeed, it has to. But up to now, that’s where the common understanding stops. Heavily disputed are questions like how, when, in what, and even why.

If you look at the best qualities of the blogosphere and those of the world of the classical newspapers, then one thing is sure: combined they would be able to restore the reputation of journalism. But then again, you only have to read Jeff Jarvis’ Buzzmachine to know just how divided both worlds actually are.

The world has known the concept of augmented intelligence since the 1960’s, recently we all discovered augmented reality, what we now need is Augmented Journalism.

So let’s take the strong investigative roots, in depth reporting and power of the facts from the old world, and combine it with the transparancy, interaction, speed and connectivity of the new one. And moreover, let’s finally place the involved, knowing and interested audience on a pedestal and work together for even better results. Augmented Journalism is where bloggers and reporters meet and society can benefit from the best practices of the two of them.

Augmented Journalism is all about a stronger relationship between journalists and their audience. Journalists must stop being the all-objective ivory tower bystanders who bring the facts as they occur and who give (or don’t, if they are not willing to) an incident the label “news”. Journalists – as bloggers have understood – should be part of society and open for the input of participating members of society. They should stop regarding themselves as the only true gatekeepers of the news & opinion business, and start giving the context needed to keep society rolling. In short, professionals and amateurs can come toegether in the process of journalism, but only if both can adopt a new attitude. In the end, Augmented Journalism shall be rewarding and might even be a way to get the business back in journalism.

The plan is to write a book on Augmented Journalism, and give the visitors of True/Slant an active part in it. True/Slant is offering its audience – being journalists, bloggers or none of both – to participate in the very process of writing: framing the playing field, improving the thoughts and all together reaching a sustainable definition of Augmented Journalism.  It will hopefully result in a book that is built upon the knowledge of many and in that way will be the first proof of Augmented Journalism’s power.

True/Slant’s subtitle is saying: “News is more than what happens“. Augmented Journalism is too.

UPDATE: see also augmentedjournalism.com