Does journalism matter anymore? What exactly IS journalism these days, anyway? Who is a journalist — and who’s not?

These are some of the questions in the air the “Journalism That Matters” conference at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, where I’m spending a few days.

The conference was organized by two Seattleites and a former Spokane guy. Stephen Silha, who lives on Vashon Island, started the “JTM” series in 2001, and is former president of the Washington News Council. Peggy Holman, who lives in Bellevue, is a gifted meeting facilitator and “change agent.” And Chris Peck, former editor of The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, has been a driving force in the JTM series, and is now editor of The Memphis Commercial-Appeal.

About 100 people are here from all over the country, with a few from elsewhere in the world. All are interested in the future of journalism, but aren’t sure exactly what that future will be.

Existential questions are high on the list, too, with newspaper layoffs, furloughs, cutbacks and shutdowns (Rocky Mountain News, Seattle Post-Intelligencer?) everywhere you look. Many attendees here have been laid off recently from places like The New York Times, or other papers around the country.

Many people here are innovators in online and/or “citizen” journalism, or public radio and television, or other new multimedia models. Some are academics, trying to teach journalism and communications to students — although the reality is that there aren’t many jobs available, at least in the traditional or “mainstream” media world.

The buzz phrase for this conference is “The New News Ecology,” although no one seems able to clearly defined that — which is part of the problem. As the saying goes, journalists used to be the “gatekeepers,” but now there’s no fence. “We’re All Journalists Now” is the title of a great book by Scott Gant, which sums it up pretty well.

I’m here because for 10 years, the Washington News Council has been trying to promote high-quality journalism by providing a measure of outside accountability, which journalists have resisted for too long. Journalists need to be publicly accountable for what they do, just as they demand that every other sector of society be publicly accountable.

At a Journalism That Matters conference in Washington, D.C., two years ago, I coined a phrase: “The TAO of Journalism,” with the letters standing for Transparency, Accountability and Openness. My view is that no matter what the delivery method — print, broadcast, online, website, Facebook Twitter, podcast, or whatever — those “doing journalism” must be transparent about who they are, accountable to the public who use the news, and open to all voices in the community.

Someone said here this morning that traditional journalists must “lose their sense of superiority.” She nailed it. Too many journalists in the past have put themselves on a pedestal and prided themselves on being more noble, more pure, and more ethical than other professions. We’re serving the “public interest.” Our intentions are good. We want to save the world. So why don’t people like and trust us anymore?

As Jim Kennedy, vice president of strategic planning for the Associated Press, told the group here last night: “Our products are failing….We’ve lost our audience….We’ve failed at a fundamental level to provide a product that engages the audience.”

The most “engaging” websites today are Wikipedia, Craigslist, Facebook and Google, Kennedy said. Why? Partly because they are transparent, accountable and open.

The media are still the lifeblood of democracy, and vital to the body politic. But in the new news ecology we’ve got to find different ways to keep the heart pumping and the blood flowing.

– John Hamer, WNC Executive Director, at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg.