Speech mea-award

Media Ecology Association Bologna 2016 - Luca De Biase

Media ecology How to be human in the infosphere

http://blog.debiase.com/


News business “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them”.

Steve Jobs

Context is King

AND BYE BYE TO THE QUEEN

What happened with Brexit?

What lies?

The Sun newspaper recently published an article saying

about 15 per cent of Britons still believe

euro-myths. It neglected to

mention the Sun itself reported a

number of them in the first place, including one

about bananas, which was a

blaring headline on Sept. 21, 1994.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/brexit-euro-myths-1.3645183

The newspaper ran the article, by its reporters James Slack and Jason

Groves, on Thursday with the

headline: “As politicians

squabble over border controls, yet another lorry load

of migrants arriving in the UK declaring ... We’re from Europe – let

us in!”

However, in the correction

published at the bottom of page two on Friday, the Mail

said the group were from the Middle East.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jun/17/daily-mail-publishes-correction-story-migrants-from-europe

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jun/17/daily-mail-publishes-correction-story-migrants-from-europe

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http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2016/06/daily-chart-15



Polluted ecosystems

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/24/eu-vote-uk-diminished-politics-poisoned-racism

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/24/eu-vote-uk-diminished-politics-poisoned-racism

Populists or Technocrats?

Media polluters who lie or a media élite who gets it wrong?


The infosphere “Frequently the messages have meaning”.

Claude Shannon

We live in a new kind of environment

An environment that is enriched with information

❖ DIGITALLY RECORDED KNOWLEDGE:

❖ 2000: 25% ———> 2013: 98%❖ In 2013, 98% of information recorded by humans was in

digital format; in the year 2000 it was 25% - Martin Hilbert, quoted by Victor Mayer-Schönberger and Kenneth Cukier in BIG DATA 2013

And we use new tools that are now part of our body

❖ The Supreme Court has decided that the phone is part of human anatomy

It is not the future, it has happened


The future “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us”.

Winston Churchill

The future is changing

Shift happens❖ Deep Knowledge Ventures hires Vital,

an algorithm, for the board❖ Narrative sciences writes financial

articles for Forbes with no human involvement

❖ Watson, IBM, is better than most physicians in reading medical analysis

❖ A self-driving car, by Alphabet Google, has not been responsible of any accidents after 3 millions miles on the road (there have been 17 small accidents caused by cars that were driven by humans)

Shift happens

❖ Digital technologies have taken most of human information recording

❖ The web has changed a lot of industries (music, news, tourism, banks, and counting)

❖ But a lot more is coming

Shift happens❖ Big data

❖ Robotics

❖ Nanotechnology

❖ Biotechnology

❖ Neuro-science

❖ Particle physics

❖ Additive production

❖ Artificial intelligence

❖ Collective intelligence

❖ Sharing economy

❖ Climate change

❖ Space exploration

❖ Startups

❖ Bitcoin

A robot suitcase which follows you is made by the

Israeli startup NUA Robotics. It is full of sensors, computer

vision and robotics

Lily is a drone that follows you whereever you go and takes pictures or movies about everything you do

Teslasuit is a virtual reality device for full immersion

experiences

Nice… (sort of)

–Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne, Oxford University

“According to our estimates, about 47 percent of total US employment is at risk”.

THE FUTURE OF EMPLOYMENT: HOW SUSCEPTIBLE ARE JOBS TO.COMPUTERISATION?

http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf

http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf

Edward Snowden revealedwhat the Us mass surveillance

program is doing to the net

How to look ahead?

Forecasting is difficult, when change is deep

–The Economist

“Economics is the science that studies why its predictions didn’t work”.

What can we say about the future?

–Everybody knows that

“The future is the consequence of what we do”.

How we decide?

How we decide?

❖ Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Penguin, 2013

How we decide?

❖ We usually go with the first idea that comes to our mind

❖ Reasoning is rare❖ The first idea, intuition, comes

for repeated messages, deep rooted ideas, culture, prejudice and other things

❖ Some intuitive decisions are made in terms of the way we look at the future

❖ We decide by intuition

❖ What we decide builds the future

❖ Sometimes there is reasoning, most of the times not

❖ The ideas we have about the future shape in some ways our decision making

❖ The ideas we have about the future shape the future

The first law of future studies

–Institute for the Future

“There are no facts in the future, only narratives”

Narratives

Narratives

❖ Financial❖ Technological❖ Ecological

Narratives

Financial values

The only judge is the market value, which in turn is defined by future ability to make profits. This means, for example, that if humans cost too much, they will be replaced by robots. This means that if a startup has more financial backing it will win on every competing idea. Because the best is the financially healthier. The rest is secondary.

Narratives

Techno-progress

What works wins. There are laws in technological progress which allow us to understand what will happen. The Moore’s law commands on all of them. And it describes the future in terms of exponential explosion of the power of computing. Which will extend to every digitally powered machine. Exponential growth is inevitable. Resistance is futile.

Narratives

Ecological stories

Everything is interconnected. Phenomena coevolve. There is a plurality of life forms and the more there are the better for the health of the environment. Pollution happens when consumption of resources exceeds the generation of resources. Every species growth arrives to its limits. Every mutation looks for its niche. Equilibrium is in diversity.

Narratives create a perspective

❖ People need to choose and a narrative creates an idea of what a choice will bring

❖ Storytelling can be a sort of manipulation of the will of people

❖ Freedom is consciousness about the narrative we think we live in

–Carlo Goldoni

“I cannot write what is true, because if I did nobody would believe me.

Thus, I write what is likely”.

Narratives need to be credible

❖ If people experience a life that is defined by a narrative, they are brought to think that the narrative is the truth

❖ If a narrative is shared by the vast majority and is not challenged, it tends to become self-fulfilling

❖ People live in an environment which is build by its architects with a narrative in mind

If we think the future as narratives:

❖ We don’t know the future, we just build it, by acting now and generating consequences

❖ We act now by thinking in a way that is understandable in terms of narratives

❖ The future is not the future of technology: it is a mix of scientific, technological and humanistic knowledge

–Tom Perrault, Harvard Business Review

“But there will be a limit to how far computers can replace humans. What can’t be replaced in any

organization imaginable in the future is precisely what seems overlooked today: liberal arts skills, such as creativity, empathy, listening, and vision. These skills, not digital or technological ones, will

hold the keys to a company’s future success.”.

Digital Companies Need More Liberal Arts Majorshttps://hbr.org/2016/01/digital-companies-need-more-liberal-arts-majors

https://hbr.org/2016/01/digital-companies-need-more-liberal-arts-majors

❖ Diversity is ecologically good

❖ Diversity without connection is separation

❖ Diversity in connection can be evolution


Digital and social “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them”.

Steve Jobs

On pyramids and networks

Gauss and the average

Hierarchy

Power law and polarization

Network

❖ In a hierarchical society a big middle class keeps the system credible: homogeneity is good

❖ In a network society polarization wins in each category: connection and diversity are good

Gauss and the average

Hierarchy

Power law and polarization

Network

–Bernardo Huberman, The laws of the web: Patterns in the Ecology of information, Mit Press, 2001

Winner take all

–Bernardo Huberman, The laws of the web: Patterns in the Ecology of information, Mit Press, 2001

Winner take all (in a category)


News innovation “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them”.

Steve Jobs

New scarcity

❖ Analogical media: all the news that fit to print

❖ Digital media: all the news that fit in the audience' time

Analogical scarcity.The space where to publish was scarce.

The price of that space was high. The owner of the space was rich.

Digital scarcity.The space where to publish is not scarce.

Digital scarcity.Time, attention, and relevance have very high value.

Publishers don’t own the market, they need to serve the audience

Digital transition and social transformation

http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/entertainment-media/outlook/segment-insights/newspaper-publishing.html










http://www.wptdatabase.org/world-press-trends-2015-facts-and-figures

2015



2015


Sense making is like creating an ecological niche


Technocracy “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them”.

Steve Jobs

All this was not done to make better informed citizens

A Mathematical Theory of Communication By C. E. SHANNON

❖ «The fundamental problem of communication is that of reproducing at one point either exactly or approximately a message selected at another point.

❖ Frequently the messages have meaning; that is they refer to or are correlated according to some system with certain physical or conceptual entities. These semantic aspects of communication are irrelevant to the engineering problem.

BIT: unit of information

❖ Information is a reduction of uncertainty. Information is associated to the message, it is not the message

❖ In a situation in which it is possible to have more than one message, there is uncertainty.

❖ Information is then linked to that one message that arrives and reduces uncertainty

BIT: unit of information

❖ “Information is a measure of the freedom of choice that we have when we choose a message. If the situation is very simple, if we only have to choose between two alternatives, then we say that the information coming from this kind of situation is a unit of information” - This is the bit

Information changes the environment…

…and the way we are…

…and the way we will be

Infosphere

❖ We live in an environment enriched by data, using prosthetics that connect us to it and everybody else

❖ Media and the environment are blurring

❖ Media and the body are blurring

prehistory history

hyperhistory

prehistory history

hyperhistory

prehistory

prehistory history

hyperhistory

history

historyprehistory

resources are scarce: humans choosewhat to write and that must be important

writing makes the difference

but what happens when we write everything?

Hyperhistory

❖ Every single human act is registered (important or not; new idea of importance is ex post)

Hyperhistory

❖ If everything is written…

❖ … power shifts from deciding what to write…

❖ …to writing the algorithms that manage information

Hyperhistory

❖ The problem is now:

❖ which platform controls the information flow?

❖ and what are its algorithms and its interests?

Hyperhistory❖ PLATFORMS CAN BE:

❖ open, commons and neutral

❖ proprietary and non interoperable

❖ ALGORITHMS CAN BE:

❖ known to all

❖ unknown to most

❖ BUT THE NEW WRITING IS WRITING ALGORITHMS

Freedom is not about what we can do: it only starts with what we know


Platform“We need

diversity of thought in the world to face the new challanges”.

Tim Berners-Lee

Are we better informed in the info-sphere?

Are we better informed in the info-sphere?

❖ There are more opportunities for getting informed

❖ There are maybe too many opportunities for getting information

❖ We can be better informed only if we are aware of the way platforms work

What is a platform and how does it affect our relationships

❖ Information overload is a failure of filters. How do platforms help us deal with it and what are the algorithms that they use? What are the consequences of those algorithms? Do you know about the Facebook experiment?

❖ Eli Pariser, The filter bubble, 2011

❖ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/books/review/book-review-the-filter-bubble-by-eli-pariser.html?_r=0

❖ http://www.forbes.com/sites/dailymuse/2014/08/04/the-facebook-experiment-what-it-means-for-you/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dailymuse/2014/08/04/the-facebook-experiment-what-it-means-for-you/

Facebook’s experiment

We show, via a massive (N = 689,003) experiment on Facebook, that emotional states can be transferred to others via emotional contagion, leading people to experience the same emotions without their awareness. We provide experimental evidence that emotional

contagion occurs without direct interaction between people (exposure to a friend expressing an emotion is sufficient), and in the complete absence of nonverbal cues.

http://www.pnas.org/content/111/24/8788.full

“Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks”

http://www.pnas.org/content/111/24/8788.full

❖ A study by Gregory Trevors and other shows why it is so difficult to convince people with facts. It shows that if facts oppose people’s beliefs, which are part of their identity, then facts are rejected. If facts bear out people’s sense of identity then they are taken into account

❖ Why is it so hard to persuade people with facts?

❖ http://digest.bps.org.uk/2016/02/why-is-it-so-hard-to-persuade-people.html.

❖ Robert Epstein and others show how the success of Google - and Facebook - is building a new manipulating information system. Responses by the search engine are able to change the perception of reality and thus user beliefs when they are unaware of any distorting effects that the engine can hold. It must be said that users are almost always uncritical towards the results offered by Google, and consider it essentially objective.

❖ Robert Epstein’s article is worth reading: The new mind control; The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence that can flip elections and manipulate everything we say, think and do

❖ https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-internet-flips-elections-and-alters-our-thoughts

https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-internet-flips-elections-and-alters-our-thoughts

Reason is minority

Digital and traditional media

❖ What’s so different in the digital media environment? Time, attention, authority are the new competitive dimensions. While our learning, memorizing and connecting strategies change quite a lot. But we now have to deal with information overload and some other problems. This is not the end of media evolution.

❖ Luca De Biase, Cambiare pagina, Rizzoli, 2011

❖ https://edge.org/conversation/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable

❖ http://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/jan/05/clay-shirky-future-newspapers-digital-media

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/jan/05/clay-shirky-future-newspapers-digital-media

Economy of digital media

❖ Scarcity was: space, memory, processing

❖ Scarcity is: time, attention, relevance

❖ Scarcity shifts: from supply to demand

Public dimension

❖ The medium blurs in the info-sphere

❖ Algorithms and interfaces manage information influencing the narrative

❖ Bubbles and tribes emerge

❖ Common dimension gets smaller, public space gets privatized

To be part of the project of the platform is part of being innovative

Present platforms are not the end of history

❖ Facebook, Google, Apple have a history. And a strategy. But they also have competitors. How does a platform get traction and success? How a newcomer can get a success, too? What is the network-effects and how can we deal with it?

❖ B.J. Fogg, Persuasive technology, 2003

B.J. Fogg’s model

Technologiescan be persuasive


Innovation “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them”.

Steve Jobs

Innovation is not a set of new things

Innovation changes a story… or even history

Patterns of evolution

❖ Imagination (process of creation)

❖ Connection (enabling environment)

❖ Selection (choice of what survives and thrives)

selection by market forces

❖ finance❖ sales❖ talents

selection by research

❖ we can select by doing research: that’s about what’s true and false; what’s documented and what’s not…

❖ verification handbook❖ http://

verificationhandbook.com

http://verificationhandbook.com

selection by technology

❖ it works❖ it is too old❖ it is too new

Is it in sync with my time?


❖ Moore’s law

❖ Metcalfe’s law

❖ Power law


❖ Moore’s law

❖ Metcalfe’s law

❖ Power law

❖ Computing

❖ Networking

❖ Big Data

Exponential

adoption rate

Geoffrey Moore, Crossing the Chasm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Chasm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Chasm

Logistic curve

absolute numbers

network effectcumulative

resources limitsin a world

imagination

enab

ling

tech

nolo

gies

in a context of meaningor in a given technology

So: either you change context and start a new rise…

… or you find a niche in which to thrive


Architecture for discovering

“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us”.

Winston Churchill

Challenging complexity

Information architecture

❖ the structural design of shared information environments

❖ the art and science of organizing and labeling web sites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability

❖ an emerging community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape

User experience design❖ interaction design

❖ information architecture

❖ storytelling

❖ usability engineering

❖ visual design

❖ information design

❖ copywriting

❖ computer sciencePeter Booersma, T-model, 2004

http://beep.peterboersma.com/2004/11/t-model-big-ia-is-now-ux.html

http://beep.peterboersma.com/2004/11/t-model-big-ia-is-now-ux.html

❖ From human-computer interaction

❖ To human-information interaction

Solutions

place making

Sign making

Landmarking

Mapping

place making

❖ this is not just another site

❖ this is exactly where you want to be

❖ you feel at home here

consistency

consistency

Classification

The order of things

the very ideas of coherence are grounded in time and culture

resilience

resilience

the capability of an information space to adapt to the needs of its users

the capability of an information space to support multiple information seeking strategies - searching browsing monitoring awareness

the principle of least effort?bates: https://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/bates/articles/information-behavior.html

https://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/bates/articles/information-behavior.html

http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F11495222_8

http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F11495222_8

reduction

reduction

long tail and choice overload

more is less - less is more

organize and cluster - focus and magnify

chal

leng

e

skill

boredom

anxietyflow

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

correlation

correlation

integrating the social and the information layers

breaking down the silos

metanarrative - theory - story

http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/#/11111111111

http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/#/11111111111

Architettura dell’informazione

❖ Andrea Resmini e Luca Rosati, Pervasive Information Archietcture, MK, 2015

❖ http://lucarosati.it/blog/pervasive-information-architecture

❖ http://www.slideshare.net/lucarosati/architettura-informazione-pervasiva-10622454

http://lucarosati.it/blog/pervasive-information-architecture

http://www.slideshare.net/lucarosati/architettura-informazione-pervasiva-10622454

e…

Architettura della comunicazioneFederico Badaloni, Architettura della comunicazione, .. 2016

http://federicobadaloni.blog.kataweb.it/snodi/002364/architettura-della-comunicazione.html

http://lucarosati.it/blog/architettura-della-comunicazione

http://federicobadaloni.blog.kataweb.it/snodi/002364/architettura-della-comunicazione.html

http://lucarosati.it/blog/architettura-della-comunicazione

after space (design) will come time (story)

and next will come the fourth dimension


Story structuring“We need

diversity of thought in the world to face the new challanges”.

Tim Berners-Lee

We need an epistemology

❖ Asking the Question;

❖ Scanning the World;

❖ Mapping the Possibilities;

❖ and Asking the Next Question

Jamais Cascio, futuris, Futures Thinking: The Basicshttp://www.fastcompany.com/1362037/futures-thinking-basics

http://www.fastcompany.com/1362037/futures-thinking-basics


❖ Asking the Question? Make it operative, if you can

❖ Scanning the World? Make it inter-disciplinary

❖ Mapping the Possibilities? There is more than one understanding


❖ The Dragon - what we know that we don’t know

❖ The Black Swan - what we know doesn’t fit the theory

❖ The Mule - what we don’t know that we don’t know

Jamais Cascio, futuris, Futures Thinking: The Basicshttp://www.fastcompany.com/1362037/futures-thinking-basics

http://www.fastcompany.com/1362037/futures-thinking-basics

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/how-many-gigatons-of-co2/

what we know that we don’t know

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/how-many-gigatons-of-co2/

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/billion-dollar-o-gram-2013/

what we know doesn’t fit the theory

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/billion-dollar-o-gram-2013/

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/mountains-out-of-molehills/

what we don’t know that we don’t know

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/mountains-out-of-molehills/

This guide, like many of the others in API’s Journalism Essentials section, is largely based on the research and teachings of the Committee of Concerned Journalists — a consortium of reporters, editors, producers, publishers, owners and academics that for 10 years facilitated a discussion among thousands of journalists about what they did, how they did it, and why it was important. The author, Walter Dean, was CCJ training director, and API Executive Director Tom Rosenstiel formerly co-chaired the committee.

https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/elements-journalism/

4 questions to find a focus for your storyAsk these questions during the editorial process: when planning a story, when doing the reporting and photography, when writing and editing, when deciding how to present it, and in determining if follow-up is warranted.1. What is the central point?▪ What’s the story really about? What question or questions must the story answer to be worthwhile?▪ Why do people need or will want to know about it?▪ If it’s a “big” topic, how can it be broken down so it’s easier to explain?▪ If it’s a “small” topic, is there a story behind the story? Does it reflect a larger trend or theme?

2. What is the central evidence?▪ What kinds of evidence can be presented to verify or explain the central point of the story?▪ What kinds of evidence can be presented to prove that the story is relevant or newsworthy?▪ How good is the evidence? Will the reader be able to distinguish verified information from assumptions or assertions the

story may also include?3. What is the central place?▪ Where is the central place of the story?▪ Will the reporting and photography include covering the central place?▪ What information will come from somewhere other than the central place or places?▪ What will not be covered in the story?

4. Who are the central characters?▪ Where or from whom can the facts be learned?▪ Who can put the facts in perspective?▪ What is the relationship between the central characters and the central places of the story?




3 story structuresHere are three different strategies for putting together a story.The hour glassWriter Roy Clark has identified this structure. It is a hybrid of narrative and inverted pyramid. You begin by telling the news, and then there is a break in the pyramid, and a line that begins a narrative, as in, “it all began when …”You can begin to turn the characters and plot into something more interesting. And in the end broaden the piece back out and come back to the point at the top. Fly on the wall This approach involves being there with the story’s main characters when the event in question happens. What is the conversation between them? What are their reactions? It may take special access, which requires planning ahead, getting permission, and even special agreements, such as allowing subjects to see a draft of your story ahead of time, but, it may be worth the pay off.In their own wordsFor one of the biggest scoops of Watergate, Jack Nelson agreed to have one source tell his own story in his own words. Nelson interviewed him, taped him, wrote the story and then let the source edit and put his own byline.




The Black Box system for organizing a storyLen Reed, environment and science team leader at The Oregonian, developed a system to help reporters handle unruly information.The Black Box helps reporters sort through and prioritize the information they have and quickly and clearly make the case for their stories to editors. With the system, writing a story is essentially boiled into four phases:1. Reporting phase▪ Gather▪ Search▪ Ask▪ Interview▪ Sort

2. Black Box phase▪ What is this information?▪ What does it mean?▪ What is the headline?▪ What is its context – with what does it connect?▪ Who cares?▪ How can you quickly tell it to the clueless and make it count?

3. Writing phase▪ You’ve got a lead; now order a sequence in telling: organize.▪ As you write, periodically ask yourself: Who cares?▪ As you write, periodically frighten yourself: The audience is leaving.




Good stories prove their relevance to the audienceGood stories have strong central charactersGood stories use detailGood stories connect to deeper themesGood stories explore tensionsGood stories capture emotionsGood stories provide contextGood stories surprise the readerGood stories empower the reader


https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/makes-good-story/good-stories-prove-relevance-audience/

https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/makes-good-story/good-stories-strong-central-characters/

https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/makes-good-story/good-stories-use-detail/

https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/makes-good-story/good-stories-connect-deeper-themes/

https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/makes-good-story/good-stories-explore-tensions/

https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/makes-good-story/good-stories-capture-emotions/

https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/makes-good-story/good-stories-provide-context/

https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/makes-good-story/good-stories-surprise/

https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/makes-good-story/good-stories-empower-reader/

http://labs.densitydesign.org/ddx/es2/

Controversies on the Web









What is journalism supposed to be for?

Why we make the news?

Bill Kovach & Tom Rosenstiel

The elements of journalismhttps://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/elements-journalism/

Why do we do journalism?


Journalism’s first obligation is to the truthGood decision-making depends on people having reliable, accurate facts put in a meaningful context. Journalism does not pursue truth in an absolute or philosophical sense, but in a capacity that is more down to earth.“All truths – even the laws of science – are subject to revision, but we operate by them in the meantime because they are necessary and they work,” Kovach and Rosenstiel write in the book. Journalism, they continue, thus seeks “a practical and functional form of truth.” It is not the truth in the absolute or philosophical or scientific sense but rather a pursuit of “the truths by which we can operate on a day-to-day basis.”This “journalistic truth” is a process that begins with the professional discipline of assembling and verifying facts. Then journalists try to convey a fair and reliable account of their meaning, subject to further investigation.Journalists should be as transparent as possible about sources and methods so audiences can make their own assessment of the information. Even in a world of expanding voices, “getting it right” is the foundation upon which everything else is built – context, interpretation, comment, criticism, analysis and debate. The larger truth, over time, emerges from this forum.As citizens encounter an ever-greater flow of data, they have more need – not less – for suppliers of information dedicated to finding and verifying the news and putting it in context.




Its first loyalty is to citizensThe publisher of journalism – whether a media corporation answering to advertisers and shareholders or a blogger with his own personal beliefs and priorities — must show an ultimate allegiance to citizens. They must strive to put the public interest – and the truth – above their own self-interest or assumptions.A commitment to citizens is an implied covenant with the audience and a foundation of the journalistic business model – journalism provided “without fear or favor” is perceived to be more valuable than content from other information sources.Commitment to citizens also means journalism should seek to present a representative picture of constituent groups in society. Ignoring certain citizens has the effect of disenfranchising them.The theory underlying the modern news industry has been the belief that credibility builds a broad and loyal audience and that economic success follows in turn. In that regard, the business people in a news organization also must nurture – not exploit – their allegiance to the audience ahead of other considerations.Technology may change but trust – when earned and nurtured – will endure.




Its essence is a discipline of verificationJournalists rely on a professional discipline for verifying information.While there is no standardized code as such, every journalist uses certain methods to assess and test information to “get it right.”Being impartial or neutral is not a core principal of journalism. Because the journalist must make decisions, he or she is not and cannot be objective. But journalistic methods are objective.When the concept of objectivity originally evolved, it did not imply that journalists were free of bias. It called, rather, for a consistent method of testing information – a transparent approach to evidence – precisely so that personal and cultural biases would not undermine the accuracy of the work. The method is objective, not the journalist.Seeking out multiple witnesses, disclosing as much as possible about sources, or asking various sides for comment, all signal such standards. This discipline of verification is what separates journalism from other forms of communication such as propaganda, advertising, fiction, or entertainment.




Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they coverIndependence is a cornerstone of reliability.On one level, it means not becoming seduced by sources, intimidated by power, or compromised by self-interest. On a deeper level it speaks to an independence of spirit and an open-mindedness and intellectual curiosity that helps the journalist see beyond his or her own class or economic status, race, ethnicity, religion, gender or ego.Journalistic independence, write Kovach and Rosenstiel, is not neutrality. While editorialists and commentators are not neutral, the source of their credibility is still their accuracy, intellectual fairness and ability to inform – not their devotion to a certain group or outcome. In our independence, however, journalists must avoid straying into arrogance, elitism, isolation or nihilism.




It must serve as an independent monitor of powerJournalism has an unusual capacity to serve as watchdog over those whose power and position most affect citizens. It may also offer voice to the voiceless. Being an independent monitor of power means “watching over the powerful few in society on behalf of the many to guard against tyranny,” Kovach and Rosenstiel write.The watchdog role is often misunderstood, even by journalists, to mean “afflict the comfortable.” While upsetting the applecart may certainly be a result of watchdog journalism, the concept as introduced in the mid-1600s was far less combative. Rather, it sought to redefine the role of the journalist from a passive stenographer to more a curious observer who would “search out and discover the news.”The watchdog role also means more than simply monitoring government. “The earliest journalists,” write Kovach and Rosenstiel, “firmly established as a core principle their responsibility to examine unseen corners of society. The world they chronicled captured the imagination of a largely uninformed society, creating an immediate and enthusiastic popular following.”Finally, the purpose of the watchdog extends beyond simply making the management and execution of power transparent, to making known and understood the effects of that power. This includes reporting on successes as well as failures.Journalists have an obligation to protect this watchdog freedom by not demeaning it in frivolous use or exploiting it for commercial gain.




It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromiseThe news media are common carriers of public discussion, and this responsibility forms a basis for special privileges that news and information providers receive from democratic societies.These privileges can involve subsidies for distribution or research and development (lower postal rates for print, use of public spectrum by broadcasters, development and management of the Internet) to laws protecting content and free speech (copyright, libel, and shield laws).These privileges, however, are not pre-ordained or perpetual. Rather, they are conferred because of the need for an abundant supply of information. They are predicated on the assumption that journalism – because of its principles and practices – will supply a steady stream of higher quality content that citizens and government will use to make better decisions.Traditionally, this covenant has been between news organizations and government. The new forms of digital media, however, place a responsibility on everyone who “publishes” content – whether for profit or for personal satisfaction – in the public domain.The raw material cast into the marketplace of ideas sustains civic dialogue and serves society best when it consists of verified information rather than just prejudice and supposition.Journalism should also attempt to fairly represent varied viewpoints and interests in society and to place them in context rather than highlight only the conflicting fringes of debate. Accuracy and truthfulness also require that the public discussion not neglect points of common ground or instances where problems are not just identified but also solved.Journalism, then, is more than providing an outlet for discussion or adding one’s voice to the conversation. Journalism carries with it a responsibility to improve the quality of debate by providing verified information and intellectual rigor. A forum without regard for facts fails to inform and degrades rather than improves the quality and effectiveness of citizen decision-making.




It must strive to keep the significant interesting and relevantJournalism is storytelling with a purpose. It should do more than gather an audience or catalogue the important. It must balance what readers know they want with what they cannot anticipate but need.Writing coaches Roy Peter Clark and Chip Scanlan describe effective newswriting as the intersection of civic clarity, the information citizens need to function, and literary grace, which is the reporter’s storytelling skill set. In other words, part of the journalist’s responsibility is providing information in such a way people will be inclined to listen. Journalists must thus strive to make the significant interesting and relevant.Quality is measured both by how much a work engages its audience and enlightens it. This means journalists must continually ask what information has the most value to citizens and in what form people are most likely to assimilate it. While journalism should reach beyond such topics as government and public safety, journalism overwhelmed by trivia and false significance trivializes civic dialogue and ultimately public policy.




It must keep the news comprehensive and proportionalJournalism is our modern cartography. It creates a map for citizens to navigate society.As with any map, its value depends on a completeness and proportionality in which the significant is given greater visibility than the trivial.Keeping news in proportion is a cornerstone of truthfulness. Inflating events for sensation, neglecting others, stereotyping, or being disproportionately negative all make a less reliable map. The most comprehensive maps include all affected communities, not just those with attractive demographics. The most complete stories take into account diverse backgrounds and perspectives.Though proportion and comprehensiveness are subjective, their ambiguity does not lesson their significance.




Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscienceDoing journalism, whether as a professional writing for a news organization or as an online contributor in the public space, involves one’s moral compass and demands a personal sense of ethics and responsibility.Because “news” is important, those who provide news have a responsibility to voice their personal conscience out loud and allow others to do so as well. They must be willing to question their own work and to differ with the work of others if fairness and accuracy demand they do so.News organizations do well to nurture this independence by encouraging individuals to speak their minds. Conversation and debate stimulate the intellectual diversity of minds and voices necessary to understand and accurately cover an increasingly diverse society. Having a diverse newsroom does little if those different voices are not spoken or heard.It’s also a matter of self-interest. Employees encouraged to raise their hands may “save the boss from himself” or protect the news organization’s reputation by pointing out errors, flagging important omissions, questioning misguided assumptions, or even revealing wrongdoing.Having a sense of ethics is perhaps most important for the individual journalist or online contributor.Increasingly, those who produce “the news” work in isolation, whether from a newsroom cubicle, the scene of a story, or their home office. They may file directly to the public without the safety net of editing, a second set of eyes, or the collaboration of others. While crowdsourcing by the audience may catch and correct errors or misinformation, the reputation of the author and the quality of public dialogue are nevertheless damaged.




Citizens, too, have rights and responsibilities when it comes to the newsThe average person now, more than ever, works like a journalist.Writing a blog entry, commenting on a social media site, sending a tweet, or “liking” a picture or post, likely involves a shorthand version of the journalistic process. One comes across information, decides whether or not it’s believable, assesses its strength and weaknesses, determines if it has value to others, decides what to ignore and what to pass on, chooses the best way to share it, and then hits the “send” button.Though this process may take only a few moments, it’s essentially what reporters do.Two things, however, separate this journalistic-like process from an end product that is “journalism.” The first is motive and intent. The purpose of journalism is to give people the information they need to make better decisions about their lives and society. The second difference is that journalism involves the conscious, systematic application of a discipline of verification to produce a “functional truth,” as opposed to something that is merely interesting or informative. Yet while the process is critical, it’s the end product – the “story” – by which journalism is ultimately judged.Today, when the world is awash in information and news is available any time everywhere, a new relationship is being formed between the suppliers of journalism and the people who consume it.The new journalist is no longer a gatekeeper who decides what the public should and should not know. The individual is now his or her own circulation manager and editor. To be relevant, journalists must now verify information the consumer already has or is likely to find and then help them make sense of what it means and how they might use it.Thus, write Kovach and Rosenstiel, “The first task of the new journalist/sense maker is to verify what information is reliable and then order it so people can grasp it efficiently.” A part of this new journalistic responsibility is “to provide citizens with the tools they need to extract knowledge for themselves from the undifferentiated flood or rumor, propaganda, gossip, fact, assertion, and allegation the communications system now produces.”




Alain de Botton

News Istruzioni per l’usoHegel: nella società moderna le notizie prendono il posto della religione come fonti primarie di orientamento e paradigmi di autorevolezza.

Alain de Botton

News Istruzioni per l’usoI media sanno rendere i propri meccanismi invisibili e quindi difficili da mettere in discussione.

Alain de Botton

News Istruzioni per l’usoPerché noi, il pubblico, controlliamo di continuo le notizie? In gran parte è una questione di paura.

I guai degli altri ci fanno sentire fortunati. Ma con le notizie assorbiamo ansia.

Le conseguenze di tanta ansia news-indotta non sono indagate abbastanza.


Civic media“The Internet has played a

decisive role in redefining public and private space, structuring

relationships between people and between people and institutions.”.

Declaration of Internet Rights

❖ social media link people that like each other but they risk to become tribes makers and filter bubbles

❖ civic media link people that have something to do together, while not necessarily liking each other: they need a methodology for discussing and deliberating

❖ Civic media methodology looks very much like the journalistic methodology for making the news worth using for citizens

❖ Civic media platforms exist and grow

❖ Civic media platforms do news, factchecking, deliberative discussions and maybe decision making

❖ Present platforms are not the end of history

❖ New categories can always be proposed

❖ Adoption is done together with the users

❖ Civic media could be one of the next new categories of platform to test for improving the quality of life

❖ Civic media is linked to the happiness economics movement and the media ecology research


Rights“The Internet has played a

decisive role in redefining public and private space, structuring

relationships between people and between people and institutions.”.

Declaration of Internet Rights

How human rights are adapted to the infosphere?

–Lawrence Lessig, Code, 2006

http://codev2.cc/download+remix/Lessig-Codev2.pdf

“Code is law”.

http://codev2.cc/download+remix/Lessig-Codev2.pdf

❖ “A future of control in large part exercised by technologies of commerce, backed by the rule of law (or at least what’s left of the rule of law).

❖ The challenge for our generation is to reconcile these two forces. How do we protect liberty when the architectures of control are managed as much by the government as by the private sector? How do we assure privacy when the ether perpetually spies? How do we guarantee free thought when the push is to propertize every idea? How do we guarantee self-determination when the architectures of control are perpetually determined elsewhere?”

❖ - Lawrence Lessig, Code, 2006

Writing code is making law

Writing code is making law

❖ We regulate daily life on the basis of incentives and rules that are written in the code of which platforms are made

❖ It can be that the future will be even more so, while technologies will work more and more smoothly into our daily life

❖ A discussion about rules is a democratic discussion

Writing code is making law❖ There is a “human rights dimension” for inspiration and

imagination

❖ There is a “constitutional dimension” to rule the rulers

❖ There is a “legislative and administrative dimension” for normal laws

❖ There is a private participation to ruling, that happens by writing code that is adopted and becomes part of daily life

❖ There is a commons dimension that needs social innovation

Digital media and human rights❖ At the Italian Chamber of deputies a Commission has been established

to study and propose a Bill of rights for the Internet. The question that was asked to members is clear: does the internet change the environment in which human rights work and can be diminished? The Commission’s works have generated a Bill. What does it say? And how can it be implemented?

❖ http://www.camera.it/leg17/1179

❖ http://www.camera.it/application/xmanager/projects/leg17/attachments/upload_file/upload_files/000/000/189/dichiarazione_dei_diritti_internet_inglese.pdf

http://www.camera.it/leg17/1179

http://www.camera.it/application/xmanager/projects/leg17/attachments/upload_file/upload_files/000/000/189/dichiarazione_dei_diritti_internet_inglese.pdf

Human rights and the internet

❖ net neutrality

❖ platform interoperability

❖ digital impact assessment

❖ 3. NET NEUTRALITY

❖ Any person has the right that the data he/she transmits and receives over the Internet be not subject to discrimination, restrictions or interference based upon the sender, recipient, type or content of the data, the device used, applications or, in general, the legitimate choices of individuals.

❖ The neutrality of the network, whether it be mobile or fixed, and the right to Internet access are necessary conditions for ensuring the effectiveness of the fundamental rights of the person. They preserve the “generative” function of the Internet and the production of innovation. They ensure that messages and their applications can travel online without suffering discrimination on the basis of their content and their functions.

❖ 8. RIGHT TO ONE’S IDENTITY

❖ Any person has a right to the complete and up-to-date representation of their identity on the Internet.

❖ The definition of identity regards the free construction of the personality and cannot take place without the intervention and the knowledge of the data subject.

❖ The use of algorithms and probabilistic techniques shall be disclosed to the data subject who, in any case, has the right to oppose the construction and dissemination of profiles regarding him or her.

❖ Any person has the right to provide only the information which is strictly necessary for complying with legal obligations, for the supply of goods and services or for accessing Internet platforms.

❖ The definition of an identity on the Internet by a state entity must be governed by appropriate guarantees.

❖ 11. RIGHTS AND SAFEGUARDS OF PEOPLE ON PLATFORMS

❖ Digital platform operators are required to behave honestly and fairly in dealing with users, suppliers and competitors.

❖ Any person has the right to receive clear and simple information on how the platform operates, not to have contractual terms arbitrarily altered and not to be subjected to conduct that could make accessing the platform difficult or discriminatory. Any person shall be in any case notified of changes in contractual terms. In this case, they have the right to terminate the relationship, to receive a copy of the data concerning them in interoperable form and to have the data concerning them removed from the platform.

❖ Platforms that operate on the Internet, if they represent services essential to the lives and activities of people, shall facilitate conditions – in accordance with the principle of competition and under equal contractual terms – for the appropriate interoperability of their main technologies, functions and data with other platforms.

❖ 14. CRITERIA FOR INTERNET GOVERNANCE

❖ Any person has the right to have their rights recognised on the Internet both at national and at international level.

❖ The Internet requires rules consistent with its universal, supranational scope, aimed at fully implementing the principles and rights set out above, to safeguard its open and democratic nature, to prevent all forms of discrimination and to prevent the rules governing its use from being determined by those who hold the greatest economic power.

❖ The construction of a system of rules shall take account of the various territorial levels (supranational, national, regional), the opportunities created by a variety of forms of self-regulation consistent with the above principles, the need to preserve the capacity for innovation, the multiplicity of actors operating on the Internet, and shall encourage involvement in ways that ensure the widespread participation of all concerned. Public institutions shall adopt the appropriate instruments to ensure such participation.

❖ In any case, the regulatory innovations regarding the Internet shall be subject to an assessment of their impact on the digital ecosystem.

Can we make this work by design?

Civic media

❖ Social media help people meet other people they like

❖ People need to meet also people they don’t necessarily like, when they have something to do together

❖ “Civic media” need to be designed in order to meet that need

Date post:	21-Apr-2017
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