My place or yours?

Blogger, author and director of The Center For Citicen media, Dan Gillmor urges mainstream journalists to listen more. What does he mean? And how is a journalist to show that they are? Where? Their place, or the reader's?

(A note for regular readers of this blog - this post is in English because I am attending a seminar that discusses blogging and podcasting and I am hoping to get some comments in english this time - thank you in advance!)

Dan Gillmor wants professional journalists to start listening in order to make media more interactive. In a recent interview (3/3/2006) at iPressroom.com's On The Record ... Online -podcast with Eric Schwartzman he said:

"I'd like to see individual journalists, pro journalists, to be more willing to listen to readers who want to talk about what they're doing and offer their own insights" -- "if journalism is turning into a conversation, then sounds to me that the first thing that journalists will have to do better is have to learn to listen".

Known for his slogan "My readers know more than I do", he believes mainstream media can do things like asking the readers to help them with stories. "Inviting the readers into the process, that would be a good start", he says.

"Big media are inviting readers to send photos and video but I'm thinking about something deeper."

But what exactly constitutes listening, then? Listening to what and to who exactly? And who says they aren't listening already?

As long as e-mail has been commonplace the audience has been able to easily send feedback to journalists, sometimes engaging in correcspondence back and forth. We others just don't know of it. Sometimes answering mail takes several hours of the journalist's day. Now, all of a sudden, that is not good enough, now all dialogue should be made public for everyone else to read.

If we do accept the idea, how can we change the system from private e-mail feedback to public discussion on the program's website or elsewhere? How do we motivate the members of the audience to bother to write something public, if there's not really any extra benefit fot them? "Let's not make a number out of it", is a very common mentality here in Finland. "I had better not stick my head out and I have nothing that important to say, really."

How about the professional journalists, then? Some have started blogging themselves, because they find it an easy way to talk to their readers or listeners and have them talk to back to you. Some choose to blog privately and anonymously and not mess blogging with their professional journalism. Some are wondering how blogging fits their job description at all and whether they at least should be paid extra (Should mainstream bloggers be paid extra? Should I?).

When the mainstream media indeed wants to show that they are "listening" they might open a discussion forum and welcome everyone there. Someone might point out that there are already more forums than people interested in quality discussion.

But instead of insisting that the discussion take place at their place, what if journalists learned to join in where discussion is already going?

As a blogger, how often do you find professional journalists frequenting your blog and participate in the discussion? Are there any good examples?