Was it was all a dream? At some point here at the Dubai WEF, as our group struggled towards real ideas for improving journalism someone suggested raising $500 million to create a global newsroom.
It would be populated by journalists who would care only about public journalism, important issues, challenging convention, criticising power.
It would exploit new technology to be networked, including public participation, acting as a facilitator as well as a reporter or investigator.
Of course, there is already some of this out there, but it is unconnected and unscaled. Couldn’t our global newsroom/commissioning hub bring all those in to the network, too?
It could help promote good newsrooms and networks and feed content into other outlets and platforms.
[cue graphics: wobbly time shift effect] [cue sound effect: an alarm clock is ringing]
A dream certainly.
A distraction from improving journalism as a whole? Possibly.
But a serious idea? Apparently.
Wow, that really would be something. I’ll believe it when I see it though.