Citizen Journalism
Since I’ve been writing for b5Media, I’ve found myself thinking more about citizen journalism vs traditional journalism. I think that everyone has to face the fact that we’re entering a new world, one that is more focused on peer-to-peer communications than we are someone providing news to us. Just look at how many more blogs there are in the world, and how many keep appearing daily.
While I’ve been pondering, things keep popping into my field of awareness about citizen journalism. Just the other day, I found “The Center for Citizen Media” site, and then today, after ages of not checking my Google Reader, I came across this:
San Jose Mercury News: Wanted: Los Gatos bloggers. We’re looking for community bloggers in Los Gatos who can write about such things as events in town, school fundraisers, the score of the latest football game. We need someone who would love a forum for reflecting on the latest buzz story in town, or even write things to do for runners, kids, moms, retirees or other groups in town. — Center for Citizen Media: Newspaper Asks Bloggers for Help
I thought that it was pretty interesting that a mainstream newspaper is starting to reach out to their citizens to assist with blogging. There was a little bit of kerfuffle (apparently that’s BuzzNetworker’s Word of the Week!) in the comments with people questioning whether the paper would be paying their bloggers and whether or not the Mercury was just trying to get “news” for free.
I don’t think that’s the point however. I think that the point of this even happening is that mainstream newspapers are starting to find that using real people to write about issues and topics only makes sense. It’s almost the equivalent of the “man on the street” opinions, only much better.
Now, if only more mainstream media started to understand and use social media…..
(image source: Newscom.com)
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4 opinions for Citizen Journalism
Anne Wayman
May 15, 2008 at 10:18 am
Although I’m not opposed to Citizen Journalism, what I am afraid of is that the more we move toward that exclusively, the more concerned I become that we each end up both preaching and hearing only our own choir…. although cross pollination of ideas is certainly possible with blogs, in truth I tend to subscribe to those which reflect mostly my own interests and ideas… that’s pretty narrow… and it takes real effort to break out of it.
So the question for me is how do we encourage real cross pollination?
Miranda
May 15, 2008 at 11:12 am
As a classically trained journalist turned professional blogger, I see some problems. While it is good to have multiple sources of information, few “citizen journalists” do such things as check their facts or adhere to common journalistic principles.
Really, one thing that scares me is that traditional journalism institutions are lowering their own standards in order to compete with citizen journalists for “scoops.”
Citizen Journalism and the Cross Pollination of Ideas
May 15, 2008 at 12:06 pm
[…] another b5media blog, has a post today called: Citizen Journalism. It highlights the Center for Citizen Media, which is new to me, then goes on to talk about the […]
Colleen
May 15, 2008 at 1:57 pm
@Anne & @Miranda I agree with you. I’m originally PR turned professional blogger/freelance writer. I don’t know how to encourage proper cross pollination, but I think that no matter what, this is the way the world is going.
@Miranda - my concern is also the fact that many citizen journalists don’t fact check or stick to the same ethics they should. I do, but many don’t.
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