BCNMediaLab

Journalism has to reinvent itself

The BCNMediaLab is born with these ideas in mind. They are just starting point we wanted to share.

• Journalism is not dead, and it will never die.
• It’s not about creating new journalism, but rethinking the basis of journalism itself. It’s about rebuilding.
• Self criticism is necessary to recover credibility.
• Journalism needs to regain its social function, its civic duty.
• Technological change has disrupted the chain of production and its added value. Business models change, but the profession itself changes too.
• Technology is a means to an end. It can be a great tool for better journalism, but, in order to explore it, research, creativity and will are needed.
• Journalism doesn’t exclusively belong anymore to its institutions and companies.
• We are concerned about how traditional journalism companies struggle to find profitable business models. We want to help explore new paths.
• For quality journalism to exist, journalists need appropriate legal and labour conditions.
• We don’t know how journalism will be in the future, because we’re the ones that will reinvent it.

BCNMedialab has born

The BCNMedialab, a group of journalists that gathers regularly to debate around the media and communications sector, has just born. We think it´s time to open up the debate, add new ideas and seek solutions to the challenges journalism is facing.

We realized about the need to create a meeting point for journalists and those involved in communication, without companies or institutions behind. We want to reflect on the problems, challenges and development paths of our profession and we invite all of you who share similar interests and concerns.

Our starting point is a set of ideas about journalism that we have put together for discussion and can be summarized in one: Journalism should reinvent itself.

First meeting

We are glad to invite you to the first event on Thursday 21^st October at 19.30in the Barcelona Bar 37 grados. We thought it was good to start the meetings of BCNMediaLab talking about an issue that is happening right now in many newsrooms: How should journalists work in online social networks? Do they act on their own behalf or on behalf of their employer? We have invited three people who we think can help steer a debate that we want to turn into an open conversation for all attendees.

After the debate we can have a beer together at 37 Grados and get to know each other. See you on Thursday 21^st at 19.30. Please, sign in here.

The MediaLab

BCNMediaLab is a meeting point for journalists and professionals interested in the field of media and communication. We want to think about the problems, challenges and ways of taking our profession to the next level. We all start from a common idea: journalism has to reinvent itself.

Events

The objective of BCNMediaLab is to be a gathering of journalists and communication professionals with an interest to debate around the issues shaping the future of journalism and the impact of the Internet and new technologies, so we can create and maintain an open pool of ideas. We want to collectively reflect on the digital present and future, and help establish the basis for a more innovative market that could evolve and adapt to the new media context.

BCNMediaLab Events

The role of paper
February 24th 2011, 19:30, @ 37 Grados.
When organizing the third BCNMediaLab event we started asking ourselves: how will be the newspapers and magazines of the future? What will be their role in a news ecosystem dominated by real time, ubiquity and overload of information? Will they remain influential? Will they even be daily? Sign up here.

Journalists-Entrepeneurs
December 21st 2010, 19:30, @ 37 Grados.
In the next BCNMediaLab we want to discuss an option that is increasingly popular among journalists, as a solution to the lack of job openings and poor working conditions: to become entrepeneurs. Four journalists will tell us their success stories and share their experiences with us. See the video.

Journalists and social networking
October 21st 2010, 19:30, @ 37 Grados.
In the first BCNMediaLab edition we wanted to analyze the cultural clash that happens with the presence of journalists in social networks interacting directly, without intermediation, with the rest of participants in the media process (sources, journalists, readers…). In this cultural clash, both journalists and companies have something to lose, and something to win. See the video.

Our defining principles

• Journalism is not dead, and it will never die.
• It’s not about creating new journalism, but rethinking the basis of journalism itself. It’s about rebuilding.
• Self criticism is necessary to recover credibility.
• Journalism needs to regain its social function, its civic duty.
• Technological change has disrupted the chain of production and its added value. Business models change, but the profession itself changes too.
• Technology is a means to an end. It can be a great tool for better journalism, but, in order to explore it, research, creativity and will are needed.
• Journalism doesn’t exclusively belong anymore to its institutions and companies.
• We are concerned about how traditional journalism companies struggle to find profitable business models. We want to help explore new paths.
• For quality journalism to exist, journalists need appropriate legal and labour conditions.
• We don’t know how journalism will be in the future, because we’re the ones that will reinvent it.