It’s been a busy week.

Captivating talks by Intel’s Genevieve Bell and NYU’s Jay Rosen (in the pic above) – more here on Jay’s talk, here’s how it looked in my tweet stream.

Off to see @jayrosren_nyu talk

“news is arbitrary, improvised due to drive of production routines”

“what happens when production revolutionised by web?”

“what if your laptop got updates for software you don’t have installed? This is what news does every day”

“Stories like This American Life’s Giant Pool of Money ‘install the software’ to fire that interest”

Need understanding of big picture before you’ll be interested in incremental news

“journalists should be producing public understanding, not just incremental updates”

@jayrosen_nyu calls for ABC to create backgrounder for topical areas of news – extension to Background Brief?

Puts hand up RT @matt_levinson: @jayrosen_nyu calls ABC to create backgrounder for topical areas of news – extension to Background Brief?

“do things like NYT’s Topics pages and Google’s Living Stories actually help improve understanding?”

Someone just commented on “anthopomorphic” climate change. Obviously a mistake, but ironically encapsulates the issue.

To go see another @jayrosen_nyu talk or get lunch?

@isabel_lo I think it’s going to be a late lunch!

@tmgrimson yes, giving several talks today. on journalists as explainers, citizen journalism, and business models. just the little stuff.

RT: @girlinblack From the Accidental Art file: @matt_levinson’s twitpic from a @jayrosen_nyu talk he’s sitting in right now: http://twitpic.com/2e6wxy

“NYT introduced ‘geek squad’ of 50 to newsroom – clever way of changing to more collaborative culture”

“The Guardian able to be nimble because it’s a trust – needs to ensure sustainable future, despite mid term risks”

Lots of questions about Assange and WikiLeaks – “first global media org”? Anarchist? Hacker? Adaptive to say the least.

“have to find places where closed systems (media – verification) and open (accessible, participatory) work best”

“a journalist is just a heightened case of an informed citizen”

Triple J cops a lot of flack in Australia, but it shouldn’t and not for the usual reasons.

Even with changes in media distribution, it still carries a hell of a lot of sway in exposing new acts and national exposure. So it’s no wonder people have a lot invested in the station.

Anyone who has followed music in Australia will have seen several rounds of people dismissing the station as selling/blanding out, but often in reference to the same periods – critics pine for the so-called golden era of the station in the ’90s, but while that era was playing out, the same sort of critics were pining for the freedom of the station in the ’80s.

Our memories are rose-tinted.

We find out about new music and think the source of that music is breaking new ground. You hear more and eventually exhaust that source – it can’t provide that depth AND provide for the broader audience. So you become a critic of the station or you listen to community radio and increasingly online options.

But whether or not Triple J cuts it musically isn’t my point. In fact, it’s got nothing to do with music.

I reckon one of the things the station does really well, is introduce a new way of operating to the rest of the ABC.

One of the things I like about Triple J is that because of its clear target audience, its presenters don’t get inculcated into the stuffy national broadcaster sound. They speak clearly, but like real people.

ABC GM Mark Scott tweeted recently that “All across the ABC I meet people who started at triple j.”

And as presenters like Steve Cannane and Fran Kelly move out into Radio National and ABC TV and the like – obviously a process that’s been happening a while – they’re taking with them quite a different audio aesthetic.