shouting loudly

12:50: Is Global Voices (GV) journalism?

Rebecca McKinnon: No. No fact checking, no objectivity, most participants don’t see themselves a journalists and even refuse the label.

This question is a red herring–it’s like asking Lok whether he’s Chinese, Dutch, etc. What’s more interesting is what it says about what journalism is for, why it’s important, and so on.

Susan Sontag: Photography is not seeing, it’s a way of seeing. GV and journalism are both ways of seeing.

GV and professional journalism are both like vehicles for getting to a specific destination. One is a plane, the other a car, but both are supposed to carry us to truth.

Let’s invent a car/plane! [Shows slide of a cartoon car/plane; chuckles in crowd.]

12:53 There are 3 ideal types of journalism, each of which has its own democratic theory and purpose.

Imagine a 4 column, three row table:

Type of Journalism: Professional / Alt Media / Public Journalism

Democratic Theory: Liberal / Participatory / Deliberative

Purpose: Information / Representation / Conversation

1:00: This takes us beyond objectivity. This isn’t even the point of public journalism. What IS the goal of something like global voices?

Type of Journalism: Global Voices
Democratic Theory: Communicative Democracy
Purpose: Conversation
Objectivity?: Hospitality

Habermas looked @ so-called “3rd places” like coffee shops where political conversations can take place. This works because of relative equality, which is something of a prerequisite for his understanding of democratic discussion.

Lok: Hospitality shows how power differentials can be used for good. E.g., Ethan Zuckerman invites me over, but even though he’s ETHAN ZUCKERMAN, he subverts himself and his comparative power to serve me as his guest.

We don’t have to bracket out differences and pretend like there’s no power differential.

1:06: Correction to alternative media and the problem of inclusion. Hospitality isn’t unconditional. If your guest misbehaves, you can ask them to leave.

Opposite of hospitality: Hostility. E.g., sign in front of Geno’s cheesesteak stand in S. Philly. “Speak English.”

Hospitality: Back to Kant, Perpetual Peace. Hospitality is a right that comes from our mutual co-existence. Also, Roger Silverstone’s theory of hospitality in the context of the media.