The information highway can relay news faster and cover more angles than most media outlets but readers can't access the Internet on the train.
So said panelists Frank McCulloch, Bob Beyers, Don Menn and Howard Rheignhold in a forum dissusing the virtues of digital reporting versus tradtional journalism.
Panelists raised issues such as reporter and source credibility on the internet, how accessibility will affect the news, and how digitizing the newsroom will affect the industry.
All agreed that digitalized or not, all forms of news media must maintain clear writing and integrity.
The panel, titled Tools versus Journalism: Wait Just a Goddamn Minute! was held at the Society of Professional Journalists Way New Journalism conference Saturday.
Former newspaper editor Frank McCulloch, who never used the Internet inspired the idea for the panel when he saw an early announcement for the conference and wrote his objections to Northern California chapter president Bruce Brugmann. SPJ then assembled Don Menn of Multimedia World magazine, Howard Rheingold, who writes the technology column Tomorrow for the SF Examiner, and Bob Beyers of YO! and Pacific News Service to discuss the issue with McCulloch.
Early in the panel, McCulloch said reporting via the internet wouldn't improve journalism.
"Newspapers are essentially run by human beings. Newspapers are full of fallible imperfections which reflects what human beings do. Computers won't improve covering news because they're run by the people," McCulloch said.
Menn, Rheingold and McCulloch used coverage of the Persian Gulf War as an example of how digital reporting made journalists lazy.
All three said while reporters relied on the military and CNN for late breaking news, reporters ignored other information like death rates or the identity of the people fighting on the front lines.
Rheingold pointed out how the internet offers an immediacy to news events other forms can't copy.
"On special occasions like the Gulf War, Tienanmen Square, and the Kobe earthquake eyewitnesses were able to report what was going on. No longer do you have to be members of the journalistic fraternity to get information through," Rheingold said.
"On the WELL a user with a daughter who was a reporter in Russia was able to report about the take over of the White House there because she could see it out of her window. She was able to cover it from an angle CNN wasn't able to get," Rheinhold said.
However the ability for anyone to report over the internet raised the issue of credibility for sources and journalists. If anybody can relay information over the Internet, the panelists said then how will they be able to verify the information when it's sitting on a computer screen? They also raised their concern about if a layman would be able to report an event with as much journalistic skill and ethics.
Beyer said Sandy Close, director of Pacific News Service finds good reporters out on the street then gives them computer training.
Menn said if he had to cover on the Gulf War, he would find people who write and report over the internet and use them as correspondents.
McCulloch also discussed the logistics of being able to distribute and present the news. Without a newspaper layout, readers wouldn't be able to discern what was important news. He also said on-line news isn't as mobile as newspapers since it couldn't be carried everywhere, and newspapers are more accessible to a wider range of readers because they would reach people without computers.
Audience members voiced their opinion about digital reporting. "I wonder if reporters will think computers are a substitute for getting off your ass and out of the office," Jerry Lanson, professor for Syracuse University said.