Technology has disrupted the news industry--its relationships, forms,
and business models--but it also provides no end of opportunities for
improving, expanding, reimagining, and sustaining journalism. Geeks
Bearing Gifts: Imagining New Futures for News is a creative,
thought-provoking and entertaining exploration of the possible future(s)
of news by Professor Jeff Jarvis, who leads the Tow-Knight Center for
Entrepreneurial Journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.
To Jarvis, journalism helps a community better organize its knowledge so
it can better organize itself: "But we in the field came to define
ourselves less by our value and mission and more by our media and
tools--ink on pulp or slick paper, sound or images over airwaves. Now we
have new tools to exploit. Those tools require new skills and create new
value. But at the core, we serve citizens and communities." He offers
not a single definitive future of journalism and news, but a range of
possibilities depending on how journalists and journalism evolve--with
the help of the "geeks" whose advances in media technology offer many
opportunities for journalists and media entrepreneurs who are willing to
think creatively and take risks.
Jarvis, one of the preeminent voices on emerging forms of journalism,
news delivery, and community engagement, advises many media companies,
startups, and foundations. He is a former president and creative
director of Advance.net, the online arm of Advance Publications, and was
the creator and founding editor of Entertainment Weekly; Sunday editor
and associate publisher of the New York Daily News; TV critic for TV
Guide and People; a columnist on the San Francisco Examiner; and
assistant city editor and reporter for the Chicago Tribune.
