Jarvis

Jeff Jarvis attempts to define the new “press sphere” compared to the old one in his article “The Press Becomes the Press Sphere.”  As far as I understand, a “press sphere” according to Jarvis is all the news and information that makes up a story. In Jarvis’s view, a story never really ends, especially not with its publication. In fact, the publication of the story is just a small factor in the story half way through the process. In a diagram, Jarvis effectively shows that a story begins with an idea, then research is added, then people comment on the story and add links, and finally there is a follow-up story. In this diagram, everyone becomes part of the press sphere because even the audience offers up comments and information.

I think Jarvis has the right model for the current press sphere. On any news website, there are always many comments from the audience about the article. Even on the New York Times they post links at the end of an article to related opinion pieces and other reporting. With all this information being shared, people learn more about any news topic they want to with a click of a button.  Although in reality, not every person will add to every news story; but, enough people add to the stories they are interested in that a story hardly ever gets through an audience with no comments or other information shared. Also, in Jarvis’s diagrams, I like how he has the size of the groups that give information corresponding to who we hear it from most. In my experience, I do notice that a lot of the news I hear about comes from my peers. It is also interesting that the government is the smallest circle. And in reality, I think this is true. I do not hear a lot of information from the government unless I search their websites they have available.