Newspaper designer Mario Garcia has a provocative theory about why there is less newspaper innovation in the  U.S. than elsewhere in the world. In today’s entry on his personal blog Mario states:

[...] editors are extremely protective of what they consider to be “serious journalism,” and with this comes a negative reaction to anything that, like innovative advertising, could create a notion of compromising ethical values. Not that it has to be, but editors react that way.

Do you think that “serious journalism” sometimes stands in the way of newspaper innovation in the U.S.? Read Mario’s blog post, and comment below to let us know what you think.

Yesterday, the Citizen Media Law Project, directed by David Ardia, launched the final sections of its online guide to media law.

The free online guide, which is intended for use by bloggers, website operators, and other citizen media creators, focuses on the legal issues that non-traditional and traditional journalists are likely to encounter as they gather information and publish their work online.

You can read the entire online guide here

The Citizen Media Law Project, a joint venture between Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society and the Center for Citizen Media, is a Knight News Challenge winner. More details about the guide are in the press release.

Editor’s note: Lee Oglesby has been interning with the Knight Communications department this summer. Today is her last day. This post concerns the UNITY Convention, which was held last week in Chicago. Knight is a sponsor of the event.

The four days of workshops at UNITY 2008 Convention may have changed my mind a bit about new tools for journalism. The theme of the conference this year was “A new journalism for a changing world” so, naturally, everyone was anxious to discuss their ideas for the future of journalism in ways that would actually work right now.

I went to two sessions that were particularly influential for me. The first was hosted by Knight’s own J-Lab and brought together a panel of people who had worked with citizen journalism projects and knew the ins and outs.

Citizen media, for them, could mean a woman in Somalia sending a news lead to a BBC correspondent in London. It could also mean a student journalist gaining real-world experience by reporting on an event in a neighborhood near his school. But all forms of participatory media are ways of connecting professional journalists with citizens who could help them build a better story. Framing the concept for me that way (instead of theorizing about questionable people off the street writing stories for the paper) made it easier to understand.

The other session I attended was hosted by KYW NewsRadio and was designed to teach newspaper journalists how to write for radio. On the outside, it was just a workshop, but I got more from it.

The session reminded me that, although newspapers may be doing badly, media in the form of radio and television is doing just fine. Inevitably, during the question and answer portion of the session, a member of the audience brought up the growing field of online media and how radio was handling it. Their answer was typical of those I had heard from other Unity attendees: their hearts are still in radio (or television, or print media), but the Web site provides information that they can’t include in the limited space for each story.

So I leave Unity with a positive outlook towards my (possible) future in journalism. The journalism world won’t be completely detached from the one I grew up with, but it will be enhanced by digital media. The people behind the innovations know what they’re doing and know how to maintain integrity, even if the experiments fail.

Editor’s note: Lee Oglesby interns with the Knight Communications department this summer. This post is from the day before the UNITY Conference, which goes all this week in Chicago. Knight is a sponsor of the conference, and convened all journalism grantees on Tuesday to discuss media innovation.

A few of the presentations at Knight’s Journalism Grantee Meeting here in Chicago Tuesday gave me some interesting ways to think about journalism in the digital era and the role I play as a reader.

Knight Chair Rosental Alves talked about the deconstruction of the print newspaper, and stressed that this was not synonymous with the decline of journalism. That theme presented itself throughout the room yesterday. I’m certain I’ll see it several times during the Unity Conference this week. I almost expect to see T-shirts that read “Journalism is Not Dead!”

Dianne Lynch, 2007 News Challenge winner, also used her presentation to stress the need to focus on the goal and not the medium, but she brought up some crucial points. One of these was that new media is not always journalism. Most times, it’s people using their Facebook to tell friends that The Dark Knight was awesome.

Dianne also mentioned that the audience of innovators and journalists present in the meeting Tuesday (and at Unity for the rest of the week) are the “early adopters” of this new media. They’re ahead of the curve, but their readers are still behind and are likely to be a little more skeptical.

I’m not (yet) a digital innovator and I’m not a professional journalist. I’m a reader, and I have my doubts. For me, the most reliable news source is a print newspaper or an NPR station, This week, as I explore Unity, I’ll look for things that will encourage me to embrace the digital age and accept it as journalism.

If you can change my mind about digital journalism, I’d like to hear from you. Leave a comment.

Today, more than 170 journalism grantees of Knight are gathered in Chicago for a day of listening and learning about the digital landscape and the future of journalism.

The conference site, unity2008.knightblog.org will be updated during the day with new video and synopsis of the talks.

This is a video of Dianne Lynch, Dean of the Park School at Ithaca College, presenting this morning on what journalism isn’t:

Find more video and presentations on the conference site.

What questions do you have for the “journalism brain trust” in this Chicago conference center today?

Editor’s note: Matt Bergheiser is Knight Program Director for Philadelphia. Below, he describes a new Knight investment in the future of the Ben Franklin Parkway.

In Philadelphia, Knight has made the case that compelling, dynamic public spaces can change the feel and perception of our entire city.

The Ben Franklin Parkway is such a place, and a recent Knight investment of $1.25 million has helped to put this wonderful, sweeping promenade on a path to being transformed into a signature cultural campus for the entire region.

Read a recent editorial for more details on this effort.

What would you like to see in the new Ben Franklin Parkway?

Yesterday, the beta of Snag Films launched. As the name implies, the site allows users to “snag” a documentary film from the site archive and embed the film on another site. The widget allows for easy donations of “pixels, money, and time.” Knight Foundation has funded parts of the ongoing development of the widget and the expansion of the video library.

From the press release:

In sessions convened by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Paley Center for New Media, the SnagFilms team listened to foundations that fund films, filmmakers and others. (The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of 26 U.S. communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. The Paley Center for New Media is a premier convener of programs focused on the dynamic and important role of media in society.)

A common theme stated by all of the participants was that the bottlenecks in traditional distribution were threatening the economics of the medium and diminishing its impact. Alberto Ibarguen, Knight’s President and CEO, noted that, “documentaries can be an especially powerful social tool at a time when traditional investigative journalism is under budgetary and other pressures. We believe in harnessing the web’s power to democratize the distribution of these films, and SnagFilms does this.”

Ibarguen, other foundation leaders, and Paley Center President and CEO Pat Mitchell will provide input to SnagFilms to make it an effective platform for the greatest possible number of filmmakers, and increase its community and charitable connections. Knight Foundation is also providing a multi-year grant to assist these activities.

Gary Kebbel, Director of Knight Foundation Journalism Program, expects that “the success of this platform will change the filmmaking industry by introducing new revenue streams for filmmakers, as well as turning passive viewers into active citizens. Ultimately, we hope that more journalists will engage in investigative documentary filmmaking.”

This week, USC’s Knight Digital Media Center convenes their annual leadership conference in Los Angeles. Michele McLellen is liveblogging the week’s events; to begin, start with her initial explanatory post:

The top editor and the top online editor from each of 12 traditionally print organizations get together Tuesday-Friday with experts in digital journalism, technology and innovation. We hope each team will leave with a plan of next steps to take their organizations forward online.

In other posts:

Michele’s thoughts about recent trends in newsroom reorganization, culture, systems and processes, staff cuts, and technology,

Amy Mitchell’s (Deputy Director for the Project of Excellence in Journalism) overview of news audiences, including her point that “The user is NOT becoming the reporter,”

Krisztine “Z” Holly’s (Vice Provost for Innovation and Executive Director of the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation) seven myths of innovation,

Jeffrey Cole (USC Center for the Digital Future) on television and the importance of video,

Dana Chinn (USC Annenberg School for Communication) on web metrics (hint: move beyond “time spent” by site visitors and spikes),

and Nora Paul (Institute for New Media Studies at the University of Minnesota) on the importance of good design.

The conference blog feed is here, and the event continues through Friday.

The ManaTEEN Club, an organization funded through the Knight community of Bradenton, recently completed a marine restoration dive in West Palm Beach with members of Knight Foundation staff.

Founded in 1994, the ManaTEEN group volunteers in southwest Florida, and more than 300 teens have given 16,576 hours of service. The club has 12,000 active members ranging in age from eight to twenty-one.

“It is currently the largest locally based youth community service organization in the nation giving back 1.7 million hours annually to our community,” according to Alysia Bower of ManaTEEN. “The dive in West Palm Beach focused on the purpose to empower teens as decision makers regarding the coastal environment and marine restoration.”

Here’s the video from the dive:

For more ManaTEENS, you can follow along on their blog.

Funded by Knight Foundation, the Five Freedoms Project announces its Web site launch (fivefreedoms.org) and online network.

A resource for educators, students, and citizens, the site has an “actionable five-part framework” for leadership skill development, an area about voice and the learning cycle, and identifies five categories for impact.

You can read blog posts from the inaugural Five Freedoms Leadership Academy, convened recently at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. here, and answer the Five Freedoms question for July:

When have you exercised your First Amendment rights to bring about meaningful change? (Weigh in here.)

How do you think voice for the five freedoms can be articulated?