Game theory for minority issues in Journalism

Listening to talks has the effect of resurrecting old fermented and often forgotten ideas. Sometimes it orientates us towards new ones.

Jeff Jarvis was addressing the Guardian group asking the essence of the newspaper. I couldn't finish the vid before being called for a meeting (I should do) but it re-awoke old thoughts.

I had a big itch when I was in broadcasting. It got scratched, but I knew the system well enough to know there's not much that could be done about it, save the "this is ethnic reporting week" for the year ahead.

If you're a minority in the UK, and yes I'm talking race and culture, but not excluding social issues, you can expect little coverage from the main stream press. Rightly so, I argue as a matter of demographics and economics.

The net and social capital via Networks could have neutered this.

In many ways you could say they have. You can search anywhere online for issues of say knife attacks, to classicism in the media and you'll find something, that in the good ol days was nothing more than a crusty press release filed away from sight in forward planning.

But the snag is, if you can call it that, these issue online are confined to the backend of google, worthy of more attention within social networks.

It's a conundrum isn't it? The overall rating of an article; it's argument, its validity and reciprocity (it's come back) is generously dependent on strong articulate social networks, or at least is going that way.

The role of newspapers

Jeff raised the point to the Guardian folks about embracing the blogger into their network. You may not be an employer, but an affiliate employer. Forget the hoops you have to jump through with HR for the moment and consider how those at the eye of their own networks can open a channel onto a wider platform such as the Guardian.

It's an idea which is shrieking to happen and it will at some point purely on economics alone-the economics of people. Imagine the conversation once reserved for DJs and national celebrities.

"Er so what's your numbers?"

"half a million".

"And what about Socanet"? ie social network

"some 100,000"

These could be tweets and blogs respectively. If you're pulling in those and write like Cooke, there's an editor and ad person wanting to talk to you. Just not yet perhaps, but soon.

On Tuesday I'm in South Africa presenting/training and some at “The International Multimedia Workshops for Ethical Reporting on the World’s Most Under-Reported Issues” at Rhodes University, Grahamstown.

The key word here is "Under Reported Issues". Just how do we empower those who haven't a chance to get their story told and how can they tap into more affluent ( both perhaps in knowledge, but definitely wealth) to address their pertinent issues?

Zimbabwe is still suffering, conflict rages in central Africa, the streets of london are still lined with those unable to take care of themselves, young people are still harming each other with dangerous weapons.

The power of reportage, lifting that anti is the least one can do. Tapping into more matured social networks is a prerequisite. Newsnight, the BBC's flagship news programme that I worked on in the early 90s, reported this week, that Keynes was back in vogue.

In this scenario perhaps some form of intervention is necessary, too minority issues as well

Brain dump 02.33.20.06.07

There I've logged it.. My one idea. Many people keep a note book with them, even by their side as the sleep. Though the best story I heard about detailing a good idea was when the person arose in the morning, cocksured of the night's fleeting scribble when the idea brewed, only to find the insignia on his note pad " Write down the big idea before you forget". Doh!

Some people have a dictaphone. I tried that but was too incoherent to remember what I meant. That's the trouble with loose unassociated thoughts. What works for me are mind maps. They're atomised structures that don't restrict interpretation.

So my small big idea - that does make sense. That looking back on tapes and interviews from 96 everything going on now more or less was predictable. Ok 2020 is a wonderful thing now. But more to the point, we are all creatures of game theory. We all want to play whether its tic tac toe or a more complex associated form of verbiage. It's culturally and genetically programmed into us. And at the point technology allows us to we'll colonise.

Across a plethora international news rooms they watch each other. Stalking, anticpating who's doing what and how. Often it can be less about story telling and more about The Game.

And the more we get good at it, the more assured we become moving around in small tight knit circles. It's poker. And then all of a sudden someone else wants to play, but you've never seen them at the table. Then another one. And in the end, so many people want to play that they form their own networks. Time for an evolutionary assimilation or revolution e.g Thomas Kuhn's paradigm

In game theory there's room for any number of permutations: win-win is an idealistic one, but truthfully that's not what's on the table. Our penchant to want to play more and more become ever so demanding.. so if we could glimpse how game theory might facilitate what we really wanted to do with the media back then in 96, what about now?

Where's my mind map now....Imagine a network where you shape the news. yes it's still a fixed time, but your time. Everything is finite. Correspondents engage through a visual medim e.g the web, tele, mobile about their findings. The reporter/ correspondent you so cherish has become the brand. I floated this idea at a talk to Christiane Amanpour.

Here is the news, 40 correspondents in windows you'll access. Yes its playtime. Our penchant to want to know is unwavering but now we have the people doing the "knowing" for us there to answer what we want.

On the day this really is the news market. Not too disimilar from how the agencies trade stories; new commodity brokers. In the 90s I worked at Worldwide televsion News. They supplied news stations. Could a set up furnish you and me?

Today I want to know everthing about Gaza. My network e.g. google news 5.x0 tracks down the reports across various ranked blogs and media outlets and assembles. Packaged news is so limiting, so my system tells me, a pod is about to be laid down. The middle east correspondents across BBC, ITN, ABC, CBS are on visual outenet answering what you need to know. Nah, I wanna watch it live.. hang on a minute James.

My interface has me watching the latest, responding in a cue, talking back to my mate James. Oh and wait there's a 10 second delay on the talk back. Already three users have been booted off by trying to make over zealous remarks.

A semantic web with voice tag recogntion sorts out the reports I need. Any report that includes the words e.g. how things got so bad" pops up.

Database news is the next big big thing with more advanced tag structures attached to chapters within the video ala itunes already.

So i have n idea when we get there... ( must come off these yellow pills) but it was a good game nonetheless.

Footnote: that was one hellavu dream