(Steve Duke)

My colleague Limor Peer wrote last week about our research into teens' online news consumption. The study shows that most teens don't go online to get news, but will read it if it pops up in front of them and catches their eye.

I asked my freshman journalism students a corollary question: What do they think qualifies not just as news, but as journalism.

This group is different from the 65 teens who participated in our research. They are mostly 18-year-olds, so are on the distant shore of their teen years. As a group they are extraordinarily bright, and because they are journalism majors, are more interested in news than average teens.

Nonetheless, their perceptions of news and journalism shed light on the young audience we want to reach, and on the continuing, sometimes dismissive comments by professional journalists about bloggers, "citizen journalists" and other user-generated content.

Students weren't asked for uninformed opinion. They prepped for the discussion by reading a chapter in Elements of Journalism by Robert Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel on what the authors perceive to be core standards of journalism; a chapter on where Americans get their news by Robert Entman in The Press; and this provocative essay by Mark Phillips in which he accuses traditional journalists of suffering from "Big Ego." Finally, they listened to this equally provocative NPR segment of "Justice Talking" in which guests Jonathon Last, online editor of the "The Weekly Standard," and Jay Rosen, associate professor of journalism at New York University seem to share the main points of Phillips' argument that anyone can be a journalist.

Here's a sampling of what the students said:

• "I believe that anyone who provides the public with newsworthy information is a journalist."


• "Blogs are a form of journalism even if they are less formal. Blog contributors that give original information, interviews, video footage, or photographs do count as journalists."


• "I believe that many traditional journalists are eager to define what makes a 'real' journalist because they are territorial and afraid and not open to the possibility of change in their trade. Many traditional journalists are threatened that ordinary citizens with no formal training can, with the help of technology, do the job that the journalists themselves have been groomed for."


• "We live in an age where perspectives like the one advanced by Debra J. Saunders in the Phillips article denotes a sorry, outdated, even self-righteous picture of delusion. Instead we should embrace this new era of opportunity and collaborate in providing the public with more sources of information than ever before ..."

Despite the tenor of these quotes, the students weren't ready to accept the notion that anything and everything counts as journalism. They see intent as a key qualifier:

• "... bloggers that are trying to benefit the public with news would be journalists."


• "The term 'journalist' should not come with clout that supersedes anyone else who has correct information that is meant to educate the public."


• "I think that most blogs are merely vehicles to make the bloggers' opinions known, rather than to inform the public."

And standards and ethics are important to this group:

• "Only people that intend to inform the public and use the ethics that Kovach and Rosenstiel discussed can be considered journalists."


• "Perhaps transparency, originality, humility and other goals Kovach and Rosenstiel recommend can be characteristics of both professional journalism and spontaneous journalism."


• "There is a certain code of ethics that must be followed by any journalist ... and those rules stress honesty, integrity and … unbiased truth. ... anyone who consistently presents information following these standards is ... a journalist."


• "The desire to present the public with all possible facts and information, free of bias, and in an honest manner, is the essential making of a journalist, traditional or not."

And these students give the public credit for enough intelligence to sort the wheat from the chaff:

• "The public is not given enough credit. ... some blogs provide less credible information, but many people understand there is this risk when using the Internet as a source."

Understand that my student discussion is not scientifically sound, unlike the research Limor wrote about. It's a conversation with a group of bright, self-selected news consumers who want to be journalists. However, in some ways the nature of the group makes their views even more valuable. These students have a vested interest in professional journalism being viewed as distinct from information provided by "amateurs." Nonetheless, this age cohort has an expansive view of what counts as legitimate news.


By Steve Duke (s-duke@northwestern.edu)
Steve Duke is managing director for training at the Media Management Center and Readership Institute, and an associate professor at Medill.