Call me an optimist, but the future of journalism isn't bleak

[Commentary] As we head into 2014, the 20th anniversary of the first popular web browser, we are awash in media. As consumers, creators and ultimately, collaborators, we are creating an ecosystem of information – including journalism – that grows more complex all the time.

In a few ways, notably the rising tide of crap of all kinds in media and the loss of some of the valuable journalism of the past, this is cause for deep worry. Yet there's plenty of reason for optimism, too: amid all the garbage, is more quality information than we've had access to before. Increasingly, the trick will be finding it. At some level, we have to ask a lot more of audiences in this new world. People will have to be more literate about how media work, and more willing to go deeper on their own. Most of all, they'll have to be relentlessly skeptical. They'll need help from trustworthy news organizations and from self-designated editors who point to the good stuff. Those of us who do the pointing have some obligations. We should link to the original, not a knockoff by an "aggregator" that tries (too often successfully) to land the traffic that should go to the original piece. It should be a matter of pride not to feed the rip-off artists who may well be doing it legally, but are absolutely doing it unethically.

[Gillmor is director of the Knight center for digital media entrepreneurship at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite school of journalism and mass communication.]

[Dec 30]