Revolutionizing journalism

The September 2007 issue of the PJR Reports, which focuses on the press situation during the dark years of the Marcos dictatorship, is already out.

While waiting for the issue's stories and sections online, you might want to take a look at the contents of our last month's issue.

Here's my story in the August issue of the magazine:

Where three -or more- is not a crowd
A New Way of Reporting the News
by Hector Bryant L. Macale

Faced by dwindling revenues and staff downsizing, should news organizations—the traditional gatekeepers of the news—be afraid of a world where blogs and citizen journalism have become increasingly important?

The future of journalism remains hotly debated among members of the press. Yet, news organizations may yet learn a thing or two from the new trends and techniques in which the news is being researched, reported, and presented.

“It’s a revolutionary moment in journalism. There is room for all kinds of experimentation now,” said journalist Sheila Coronel during her presentation on new trends in investigative reporting before a group of journalists last July 13. It was Coronel’s first visit to Manila since she assumed the post of inaugural director of The Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at the Columbia University in the United States last year.

The first and one of only three Hall of Famers of the Jaime V. Ongpin Awards for Excellence in Journalism, Coronel is a co-founder of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism where she served as executive director for 16 years.

“The business models that supported journalism for the longest time, especially print journalism—which are circu-lation and advertising that allowed newspapers to get revenues—are slowly crumbling and possibly collapsing,” Coronel said, adding, “Many newspapers are losing their circulation.”

Click here for more. For those who have read my earlier post about crowdsourcing and pro-am journalism, this is my story about the issue.

Other articles in the August issue include:

Main Story

Why Boy, Lolit and Cristy are here to stay
The Power of Showbiz News
by Junutte B. Galagala

Other Stories

Media companies find a bigger, richer market
The New News Target: OFWs
by Don Gil K. Carreon

A pro-active Supreme Court leads a conference on extrajudicial killings
A Summit on 'Salvagings' and Abductions
by Jose Bimbo F. Santos

A journalist compares working abroad with working at home
From Both Sides Now
by Patty Adversario

Click here for the regular sections in the issue, including the Monitor section which prominent journalist Jose Torres Jr. earlier wrote about in his blog.