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

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

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

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

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

–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

Edward Snowden revealed
what the Us mass surveillance
program is doing to the net

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?
❖ 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
❖ 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 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
Steve Jobs

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

–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
Steve Jobs

❖ 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

Sense making is like
creating an ecological niche

Technocracy
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…

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 choose
what 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/

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”

❖ 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

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

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
Technologies
can be persuasive

Innovation
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

selection by technology
❖ it works
❖ it is too old
❖ it is too new

❖ Moore’s law
❖ Metcalfe’s law
❖ Power law

❖ Moore’s law
❖ Metcalfe’s law
❖ Power law
❖ Computing
❖ Networking
❖ Big Data

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

Logistic curve
absolute numbers

network effect
cumulative
resources limits
in a world
imagination
enablingtechnologies
in a context of meaning
or 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

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 science
Peter Booersma, T-model, 2004
http://beep.peterboersma.com/2004/11/t-model-big-ia-is-now-ux.html

❖ From human-computer interaction
❖ To human-information interaction

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
Classiﬁcation
The order of things
the very ideas of coherence are grounded in time and culture

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

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

reduction
long tail and choice overload
more is less - less is more
organize and cluster - focus and magnify

challenge
skill
boredom
anxiety
ﬂow
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

correlation
integrating the social and the information layers
breaking down the silos
metanarrative - theory - story

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

e…
Architettura della
comunicazione
Federico Badaloni, Architettura della
comunicazione, .. 2016
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 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 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/billion-dollar-o-gram-2013/
what we know doesn’t ﬁt the theory

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/mountains-out-of-molehills/
what we don’t know that we don’t know

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 story
Ask 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 structures
Here are three different strategies for putting together a story.
The hour glass
Writer 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 words
For 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 story
Len 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 audience
Good stories have strong central characters
Good stories use detail
Good stories connect to deeper themes
Good stories explore tensions
Good stories capture emotions
Good stories provide context
Good stories surprise the reader
Good stories empower the 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 journalism
https://
www.americanpressinstitute.org/
journalism-essentials/what-is-
journalism/elements-journalism/
Why do we do journalism?

Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth
Good 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 citizens
The 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 verification
Journalists 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 cover
Independence 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 power
Journalism 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 compromise
The 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 relevant
Journalism 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 proportional
Journalism 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 conscience
Doing 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 news
The 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’uso
Hegel: nella società moderna le notizie
prendono il posto della religione come
fonti primarie di orientamento e
paradigmi di autorevolezza.

Alain de Botton
News
I media sanno rendere i propri
meccanismi invisibili e quindi difﬁcili da
mettere in discussione.

Alain de Botton
News
Perché 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”.

❖ “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
❖ 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

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

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