“No one knows everything, everyone knows something, all knowledge resides in humanity”
Pierre Levy
One field where collective intelligence is re-shaping the professional landscape is journalism. Before online information and communication technologies, journalists alone sourced and collected information for distribution. The newspapers or news stations where the first to know and first to disseminate information. The advent and popularity of digital media means collective intelligence is now being drawn upon in journalism through blogging, citizen journalism and micro-blogging.
Collective intelligence is a term first coined by Peirre Levy and is understood to mean “the capacity of networked ICTs to exponentially enhance the collective pool of social knowledge by simultaneously expanding the extent of human interactions...and new knowledge” (Levy as cited in Flew (2008, p. 21). Journalism is attempting to enhance the collective pool of knowledge through blogging. This type of journalism is relatively new but now mandatory for professional journalists as a means of communicating more information without the restrictions of page space in newspapers or broadcast time on television. The information is networked online, catalogued and archived so information distribution is not inhibited by geographic location or time of publishing. This means a journalist’s blog written about Syrian health conditions does not end up as a discarded newspaper or not watched on the the nightly news but rather the blog is ingested into a global network so as to expand the knowledge of anyone, world wide, seeking detail on that topic. ABC Blogs are expanding social knowledge on issues and also combining resources from radio, online and broadcast so that information is collated and easy to navigate. This new format of professional blogging by journalists is one way in which the profession is adding to the collective intelligence.
Alternatively, journalism is also benefiting from collective intelligence by the rise of citizen journalism. Recently, major news stories from around the world have not been seen first on television stations or in reports by professionals but from information from citizens themselves, uploading pictures and footage from smart phones to social networking sites such as facebook or video sharing websites such as youtube. The buddhist monk’s protest in Burma was unknown until video footage like this was uploaded by citizens which distinctly added new knowledge to the collective intelligence which was then expanded on by journalists to produce reports like this. This is just one case of many we have seen, most notably the uprising in Syria, which became public knowledge through by citizen journalists. The journalism profession is using this collective intelligence now as source for news stories. New information from citizen journalists is followed up on in professional reports so the collective intelligence is expanded as professional news gathers cover stories that they may not have otherwise been able to source themselves.
Another area where journalism is utilizing collective intelligence in micro-blogging. News outlets are continually updating their twitter accounts with links to news and current affairs. As these tweets negate space and time boundaries and to remain relevant globally Australian news outlets continually post international news coverage constantly adding to overall social knowledge. Not only this, but use of micro blogging adds to the human interaction surrounding this intelligence. With information distribution in this format easily ‘re-tweetable’ and linkable to facebook and other accounts, people are able to spread news themselves and also comment on it. The ABC's The Drum twitter account not only publishes material but incorporates audience tweets into its show. Broadcast journalism now utilizes digital television to show live tweets of audience members and allows them to ask questions or ask for clarification on issues and this is then addressed during the show. This type of cross platform interaction is expanding the human interaction around a certain topic. Where information used to flow only one-way, from communicator to receiver, journalism is utilising digital media networks to embrace the two-way nature of communication and expand collective intelligence.
The journalism profession is both a receiver of and contributor to collective intelligence by embracing digitalisation of its profession and incorporating, blogs, micro-blogs and citizen journalism into its distribution methods.
Reference List
About.com. (2012). Journalism: What is Citizen Journalism. Retrieved from http://journalism.about.com/od/citizenjournalism/a/whatiscitizen.htm
Australian Broadcast Corporation. (2012). Blogs. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/services/blogs/
Australian Broadcast Corporation. (2012). The Drum. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/#!/ABCthedrum
Exclusive footage of Myanmar crackdown - 10 Oct 07. (2007). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItPFPJ9c_E4
Flew, T. (2008). New Media, An Introduction. (3rd ed.). Australia: Oxford University Press.
Monks Revolution Continue in Burma. (2007). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJyPnhV_g74&feature=fvwrel
Real Story - Twitter and Journalism. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56nNgh9VVts&feature=related
Wikipedia. (2012). Microblogging. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microblogging
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