"Virtual Journalism" a new documentary by Dancing Ink Productions (click image to watch).

By Rita J. King

Today at the Virtual Journalism Conference at the Murrow School of Communication at Washington State University (WSU), Dancing Ink Productions (DIP) is proud to premiere our latest documentary: “Virtual Journalism: Inside the Virtual Newsroom of the American University in Cairo.” The documentary is part of an ongoing project in collaboration with Lawrence Pintak the director of the Kamal Adham Center for Journalism and Research to explore the transformation of the business and culture of journalism in a global context. It was produced in conjunction with Ill Clan Animation studios. It describes a news conference in Second Life organized by DIP and AUC which brought together James K. Glassman who was then US Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs and a group of eight Egyptian bloggers.

Inside the AUC Virtual Newsroom

The AUC Virtual Newsroom project idea was hatched by Pintak and DIP’s Joshua Fouts over tea in Amman, Jordan at an Aspen Institute Retreat on U.S.-Arab Media. Fouts and Pintak were interested in trying to explore how blogging and other evolving Internet-based technologies could be used to illustrate how journalism is changing and what role these technologies, especially virtual worlds, can play in empowering and training journalists worldwide. Second Life, in particular, had a robust user base with a diverse global population.

That retreat also produced an article DIP wrote for the Aspen Institute called, “Virtual Pilgrimage to Mecca: Building Dialogue with Avatars,” about an encounter DIP had at a virtual hajj to Mecca while conducting research for the Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds project.

The newsroom was designed in coordination with the bloggers and AUC.

This project, which was funded with support by USAID, was the second part of a larger project that brought the group of bloggers to the US throughout the fall of 2008 to cover the US presidential campaign season.

In the initial leg, the bloggers reported via their blog about their observations on the campaign. After the election, DIP built them a virtual newsroom. Shortly thereafter we hosted the first press conference in the newsroom. Coincidentally, while learning about Second Life, some of the bloggers were able to attend a rally on which DIP reported about the recent conflict in Gaza. Their first public news event was the press conference with James K. Glassman.

The Flickr Gettr is one of the tools in the AUC Virtual Newsroom. It enables visitors to search for Flickr tags. Images tagged with a match are projected into the virtual newsroom to demonstrate a snapshot of the collective global consciousness.

The documentary produced from that event and subsequent interviews examines how journalism is changing and what potential opportunities for journalism came out of that experience. As Pintak offers at the end of the video, “Journalism adapts to its environment.”

DIP has a longstanding interest in understanding the upheaval in the journalism industry. The company was founded in 2006 when I had a realization that the industry had changed in ways that required me to approach it in a radically different way in order to continue delivering investigative reports on complicated issues.

My past work includes long-term investigations of the energy and nuclear industry, the relationship between corporations and regulatory agencies, potential voting fraud on Diebold machines, studies on the history of the civil rights movement, the evolution of multinational corporations and the economic effects of such develpment and extensive reportage on post-Katrina corporate profiteering in the Gulf Coast, which yielded “Big, Easy Money: Disaster Profiteering on the American Gulf Coast” and the recently published book that I co-authored, “Race, Place and Environmental Justice After Hurricane Katrina.” It is my belief that corporate culture must evolve in order to serve the greater public good and make a profit as awareness of complex social issues continues to grow within the digital culture. We work with a growing number of Fortune 500 clients, think-tanks, global governments and institutions that are looking to amplify their efforts to achieve this goal.

DIP’s Joshua Fouts first began chronicling this transformation as editor of OJR the Online Journalism Review — the first Internet-based journalism review — which he co-founded in 1998. We’ve both been watching and participating in this evolution since the late 1990′s. My 2001 Village Voice cover story, “Terms of Service: Sweaty Scenes from an AOL Censor,” contributed to a new conversation around identity and the consequences of anonymity in online communities. Our primary mission is to enhance knowledge of physical world systems that affect millions of lives through sophisticated, creative use of Internet technologies.

The AUC Virtual Newsroom includes multiple zones which show both ancient and modern Egypt.

We have watched with interest the important work of industry leaders; Dan Gillmor, whose guidance led to the Pulitzers finally accepting digital journalism;Clay Shirky, who is a concise, visionary leader on the subject, and Jay Rosen, who recently was tapped by the Huffington Post to head up their investigative journalism fund. I started blogging for the Huffington Post the week I found out about Second Life, back in 2006, and I’m amazed at how far the field has advanced since those early days. Now I’m writing case studies for Linden Lab to document the business enterprise use of Second Life, and we can’t write them fast enough.

Media coverage of Second Life has consistently missed the mark on the business value of the platform, mistaking the visibility of random Pamela Anderson doppelgangers for the population of a world that continues to dazzle through the resourcefulness and creativity of its population, which today includes the illustrious Bob Schieffer and Helen Thomas, both of whom are participating in the WSU Virtual Journalism Summit today from the physical and virtual world. Keynote will be delivered by Erica Driver of ThinkBalm (the company published a special report for the event that includes our work).

It is our hope that the AUC Virtual Newsroom project and documentary will move thinking forward toward a more nuanced understanding of the utility and value of virtual worlds for journalism.

A scene from the AUC Newsroom space.

The Egyptian bloggers meet to discuss the press conference.

DIP assesses the value of potential experimental models for funding and delivering world-class journalism and works with clients to create new models for both. If you’re interested more, please contact us. We also conduct media strategy for projects that work toward a new global culture and economy. DIP is frequently featured globally. Click here for a sample of recent press.

Edward R. Murrow (image via Wikipedia)

In the absence of any new word on who President Obama is going to appoint for US Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy (though everyone is preparing for it to be Judith McHale) I’m going to recommend two people who, in the spirit of gettings things right in US public diplomacy, would make strong candidates.

First, definitions of success. Historically, the better leaders of US public diplomacy were people who were either very close to the President or were strong journalists with a fundamental understanding of the ethics and art of communication. Or both. Edward R. Murrow for whom two US university departments are named — one focused on journalism and one focused on public diplomacy — is often lauded as the father of both US public diplomacy for his work directing the U.S. Information Agency (until 1999 the main public diplomacy division of the US government) under president Kennedy and modern US journalism for his World War II Reporting.

I’ve had a number of conversations with people around the world and inside and out of Washington about the possible appointment of Judith McHale, who Al Kamen recently floated as the Obama Administration’s candidate for Undersecretary of Public Diplomacy. Opinions have varied from viscerally negative to supportive. Those who criticize her feel she’s too much media executive and not enough journalist. Those who support her like the fact that she is a savvy, female corporate media leader with strong democratic connections and success in managing a large international media organization.

But how does she fit into the Murrow Model? She’s close to the Secretary of State, and has probably met Obama. But she’s not been described as close to President Obama. Journalistically … well, she’s not a journalist. She’s an attorney and a successful businesswoman who understands how to grow a media business. She might be a great leader, but she doesn’t fit easily into the Murrow Model.

With that said, I’d like to propose two candidates for Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy in the Murrow Model who the administration might consider, (if they are even still considering names):

Bill Moyers – Veteran journalist, author, commentator and chronicler of the human condition. Moyers stands out among his generation of journalists as the current godfather of ethics and objectivity. Moreover, in the grand tradition of Teddy White, Moyers believes in the importance of journalism as a fundamental effort to understand the human condition. One need look no further than Moyer’s seminal conversations with philosopher Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth. Moyers took very seriously the task of understanding the context of human beliefs.

Moyers also has unquestionable democratic credentials: He worked for both President Kennedy and President Johnson (the latter as Press Secretary from 1965-1967).

Why would Moyers be good for public diplomacy? Because public diplomacy, practiced well, or rather led well, should be lead by a person who understands the importance of understanding human culture. You can’t talk to a culture if you don’t first understand the dynamics, language and, yes, venue in which that conversation is going to take place. I think Moyers would be savvy enough to recognize the importance of technology and the Internet in this mix.

Lawrence Pintak — Lawrence Pintak is a veteran American journalist, author, scholar, and leader and the director of the Kamal Adham Center for Journalism and Training at the American University in Cairo. Pintak has worked and reported on the Middle East for over 30 years. In fact, he was the last CBS Middle East correspondent ever. That’s right, CBS News covers the world without a full-time Middle East correspondent. He’s the author of “Reflections in a Bloodshot Lens: America, Islam & the War of Ideas,” which significantly helped inform my understanding of the US public diplomacy problem in the Middle East.

Pintak, like Murrow, has both outstanding journalistic credentials and solid public diplomacy credentials. He has engaged government in professional and scholarly dialog to help shape and understand public diplomacy. He also understands that journalism and government cannot be practiced in a vacuum. He recognizes that if people do not change with technology, it — and culture — will change without you. As such, Larry is one of the few senior journalists of his generation who has been fearlessly experimenting with an effort to better understand how journalism is changing at the intersection of technology.

Additionally, Pintak understands Islamic Culture. President Obama has been very clear about the fact that he wants to engage Islamic Cultures worldwide. Pintak has expertise in both Indonesia (the largest Muslim country on the planet) and the Middle East. If we are looking for a leader who will understand how to communicate with those communities, we need look no further than Pintak.

(In an interview this morning with Lawrence Pintak for a documentary Dancing Ink Productions is producing with him as part of a USAID-funded contract on virtual journalism and public diplomacy, Pintak also endorsed the idea of Moyers as a possible candidate for Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy.)

Why have I recommended two journalists? First of all, because journalists start their careers listening. Their first job is getting and then telling stories. To get the story you have to first know where the story is being told: Is it the Internet? Is it a cocktail party? Is is an executive office? To tell the story you have to understand how to communicate that story: Is it shortwave radio? Exchange programs? Virtual worlds? What is public diplomacy if not storytelling? And understanding how to tell the story. Maybe we should change the title of the Undersecretary of Public Diplomacy to Chief Storyteller. As I mentioned yesterday, what excited me most about James Glassman was that he understood this very nuanced issue. Bill Moyers or Lawrence Pintak are but two examples of the kind of model that also understands this issue. I have no idea whether either of these two would be interested in the job, but they are the type of people from whom this position would benefit. If Judith McHale is to be the Undersecretary or anyone else, for that matter, I hope she or they bring an equally open-minded and sensitive approach to this very nuanced and unique office.