Exploring online credibility

Digital media professionals take part in Curtis seminar

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Two dozen of the leading thinkers in digital media gathered in Reston,

Virginia, this week to consider the question of news credibility in their medium.

Participants at the American Press Institute's annual J. Montgomery Curtis seminar, "Journalism Credibility in the Information Age" are debating the issue while considering new credibility research conducted by the Online News Association (ONA).

The seminar, which opened Monday night, continues through Wednesday.

The Digital Journalism Credibility Survey pointed out that members of the media are concerned about the standards, practices and credibility of digital news, said Howard Finberg, co-director of the ONA project and an Arizona-based digital consultant, who presented the findings to the group. Finberg added, however, that the online public is less concerned.

"The jury is still out when it comes to the public's perceptions of digital news credibility," said Finberg, who added that online workers who did have opinions tended to be more positive about the credibility of online news than media workers surveyed.

The NFO World Group, a Connecticut firm, developed the survey in July 2001, conducting more than 1,000 interviews with online users and media professionals.

"There is an appetite for online news," said Finberg. "The neutral and undecided ratings (on credibility) can be viewed as a source of great opportunity for online news."

Curtis participants came from all aspects of online news in North America. Among them were: Rick Jaroslovsky, Wall Street Journal and president of ONA; Douglas Feaver, executive editor of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive; Jan Schaffer, executive director of the Pew Center for Civic Journalism; Gary Kebbel, director of news services for America Online; Deborah Potter, former CBS television reporter and executive director of NewsLab in Washington, DC; and Nora Paul, director of the University of Minnesota Institute for New Media.

Andrew Nachison, director of API's Media Center, organized and moderated the program

This week's program is the 16th in a series of special seminars begun in 1984 as a tribute to the Institute's former executive director (1951-67). Curtis, later a corporate executive with Knight Ridder Newspapers, died in 1982. In his memory, the Knight Foundation contributed a $75,000 grant that was matched by donations from the industry. Income from this special fund supports the annual seminar on a subject of interest and concern to the news industry.

Past Curtis topics have included: the future of advertising, sports and culture, political cartooning, the decline of American cities, coverage of presidential campaigns, and the future of newspaper graphics and design.

This year's seminar originally was scheduled for September 19, but was postponed in response to the terrorist acts of September 11.

"This is an absolutely horrible time to be doing this and it's the best time to be doing this," Jaroslovsky said. "Online journalism is no longer an experiment, millions of people are depending on this medium every day. It raises the stakes and requires from us the best minds and the best thoughts we can muster. People are depending on us. Over the next day and a half, there won't be some grand conclusion. This will be the beginning of a discussion. We will look back on this as a seminal moment."

API's Managing Producer Chad Capellman contributed to this report.

wwatson@bsu.edu