Journalism is evolving away from its lecture mode — here’s the news, and you buy it or you don’t — to include a conversation.

In an artice in CJR Dan Gillmor describes the interactive nature of on line emailing, weblogging and feedback as We Media.

We Media augments traditional methods with new and yet-to-be invented collaboration tools ranging from e-mail to Web logs to digital video to peer-to-peer systems. But it boils down to something simple: our readers collectively know more than we do, and they don’t have to settle for half-baked coverage when they can come into the kitchen themselves. This is not a threat. It is an opportunity. And the evolution of We Media will oblige us all to adapt.

I like his last statement. Weblogs kept up the pressure on the Trent Lott issue.
There is a lot to sort out. But it’s here, and newer forms are coming. We will have have to deal with it.

Emerging techniques will raise new issues. We’ll have to find ways to deal with important questions of accuracy, trust, ethics, and law. The forces of central control, meanwhile, are not sitting by quietly in the face of the challenge. They’re trying to rein in the Internet’s interactivity, to turn it into little more than glorified television. And the business model for interactive news is deeply uncertain.

Selling a family on Ebay
This one is a corker, call it ‘reality’ auctioning. A television writer tried to sell his family on the on line auction site for a big $5 million. It doesn’t appear to be a gimmick, attention getting, yes, but not a gimmick.

the auction page read, “if you are the highest bidder, you will receive the adoration from two congenial children with an affinity for heart-warming, homemade birthday cards and copiousness, candy-coated smiles for both family and legal benefactors. All that, plus my wife!” wrote Steve Young, a television writer who put his family on the block.

His reasoning?

“In medieval times, artists had patrons that supported them and this is a similar thing,” Young told CNN/Money. “We’re basically saying, ‘Wouldn’t you like to be a part of this?’”

Move away from la-la land and get a real job buddy.

I’m sorry I got caught?
British Columbia’s Premier Gordon Campbell may resign after being charged with drunk driving in Hawaii. I like the headline. Is he sorry he got caught driving drunk? Drinking and politicans seem to go together. Alberta Premier Ralph Kleins imbibing has never been a big secret. And in the Ontario Legislature, MP’s have been ousted, or hauled to their feet by comrades to vote, because they were to tipsy to stand up.

China
Another coal mine blast has killed 30 in China, a day after 8 were killed in another coal mine.

Iran
A 19 year old identified as Davoud has been sentenced to death by hanging for a third drinking offense. He has been caught and whipped twice. Consumption of alchohol is forbidden under Islamic law.

Nepal
14 children have been freed from bonded labour in Nepal. In a country torn by civil unrest, a program has been set up to find and help children forced into unpaid labour. It is estimated that the number of bonded labourers around the world could be as high as 100 million.

Maybe that guy who tried to ’sell’ his family on Ebay could get his act together and help some of these kids.