Journalism and the New Social Contract

[originally written two years ago as a talk for a private event. I am publishing now as it is more relevant than ever given our current media and political climate]

Online commenting in the media industry is suffering from embedded skeumorphism. The system is broken. What may have worked 20 years ago is now stagnating under the weight of old structures, technology and limited design and sociological thinking. Media sites are often responding by requiring heavy barriers to entry, charging to comment and of late, shutting down comments all together.

This is shortsighted and self-defeating. This is not the time to give-up. As the creators of this world, it is our responsibility to address these issues and build the media industry we want.

The system is broken. What may have worked 20 years ago is now stagnating under the weight of old structures, technology, and limited design and sociological thinking. As a result society, business, politics and our culture are suffering.

It’s time to problem solve for the desired outcome — effective dialogue, participation, and collaboration — we can no longer simply tack on a comment box at the end of a piece and expect miracles to happen. A fresh approach is needed that is not locked into current schemas.

We are living through major shifts in media creation, participation and discourse — this shifting landscape has resulted in the need to forge new expectations on how we live together as a global community. In essence, we are forging a new social contract. Technology is changing the way we experience and honor this contract, but the contract is not written by technology. Technology isn’t good or bad — the challenge is what we do with it and how we adopt and integrate solutions for our lives.

The current participatory and distributed media landscape requires new design thinking, more sophisticated tools and a renewed focus on human skills to build effectively curated and managed engagement for both consumers and publishers.

This requires a three-pillared approach: People, Design and Tools. Incorporating the best lessons from building community platforms, civil discourse and collaboration — both on and offline.

People: There is currently not enough attention paid to how human behavior and individual motivations migrate and change as people participate online. Examining this issue through a sociological and ‘human-driven’ lens is critical to ensuring we provide the industry with transformative tools for effectively curated and managed engagement.

Design: Comment systems employ rudimentary design schemas. They are an afterthought and their lack of design telegraphs how media organizations view comments and the individuals who participate in them as second-class citizens.

Tools: Exploring fresh approaches to algorithmic solutions based on the way people actually participate online. Building integrated tools that are designed for ease of use and effective participation such as automated triggers on emotion that combine natural language, data analytics, and proactive filtering.

My interest in the web and specifically the socio-technical aspects of the web dates back 20 years. IMHO the web/internet has never been about data and efficiency but connection and community. The “Enter” key is a handshake and promise between users and sites, grounded in real life human interactions and connections. [FYI — There are over 100 episodes of the Tummelvision podcast [created with my wise cohorts Kevin Marks heather gold] discussing these exact issues with many of the smartest minds in the industry].

Quite often I have been frustrated by how often sites, apps and platforms ignore our basic human drivers and the sociological implications of what they are building and tack on rudimentary solutions after the fact –rather than embedding these critical elements into the “social systems” they are building.

We are at a unique and pivotal moment in the Web and media industry, we can choose to innovate or be stuck in old models forever. This is not he first time the industry has discussed, bemoaned, or opined over the need for improved comments and community online — this goes as far back as trolls in IRC channels. The web is not going through a new “existential crisis” — it is simply growing up. At 20 years old, the commercial web is the equivalent of a young adult learning what it means to stand on its own and support itself and figuring out who it is and what it stands for.

As recent events demonstrate, the industry seems finally “social innovation ready”, and open to recognizing that technology has advanced to the point where the true current challenges are the sociological and cultural practices necessary to build tools for participation and engagement. On an almost daily basis, we read of a site or episode of dialogue gone awry suggesting the “trolls are winning”. Exploring methods for fostering effective participation does not mean shutting down diverse opinions. The beauty of the web has always been embodied by its passionate voices. The strongest systems are built on diversity. The challenge is to design methods that highlight, reward and set cultural norms for civil disagreement while tamping down belligerent disrespectful bullying behavior. This is a complex, but worthwhile and achievable goal.

Providing publishers, sites, journalists and contributors with more sophisticated tools for engagement drives readership, dialogue and raises the standard of media and journalism for both consumer and publisher. My fear is that some of the organizations and open-source projects in development [though well meaning] are still approaching this challenge from a top-down overly architected approach. This cannot simply be a reworking of old approaches that have failed.

We need a radical rethinking to provide significant benefits for the media industry itself and more broadly and importantly for civic engagement in general. These benefits include, but are not limited to:

• Developing a more engaged media consumer
• Providing systems and tools to smaller publishers with fewer resources.
• Educating the industry on the frameworks and methods to identify and activate good actors, manage trolls and encourage discourse
• Developing a better understanding of best practices for engaging consumers
• Increased enthusiasm and trust for online participation
• Increased understanding of potential benefits from collaborative and engaged citizens — local activism, civic engagement, support networks.
• Raising the level of online discourse and civic engagement

[Addendum: The recent presidential election and media climate have brought renewed interest and energy to these discussions. I am excited to see Jeff Jarvis Eli Pariser and many other knowledgeable journalists and organizations take a proactive lead on engagement and fake news. I look forward to following and participating in creating the solutions we need going forward.]

Thanks to Clive for inspiration.