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Training Citizen Journalists: News Industry's Responsibility?
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The Contribution Continuum
Posted by
Lindsay Howerton
4/19/2005 7:22:03 PM
One reason for confusion in media circles could be that the term "citizen journalism" has a broad connotation but in the definition provided, a n...
One reason for confusion in media circles could be that the term "citizen journalism" has a broad connotation but in the definition provided, a narrower scope.
I chimed in citing reader forums because I see citizen journalism more broadly. And there are many avenues that will likely bring citizen journalists on board, not the least of which are reader forums.
The term "online community" is also broadly applied and widely misunderstood, at least concerning media outlets.
When media outlets introduce forums to their Web sites it is likely that that bit of acreage on the 4th Estate is seen as a way to do everything except engage the reader on journalism's terms.
Journalism outlets should be thinking first about how forums serve journalism, facilitate news digestion by consumers and offer the public a feedback zone.
The almost utopian idea of "community" must be regarded as a secondary facet that may or may not be arrived at organically during news-related conversations.
If "community" is desired in its own right, as an aspect of casual local experience, it should be offered separately on a media-based Web site.
A conversation about the latest news on Iraq is distinct from talk on the best little leagues in town. That's not to say parents don't want to discuss Iraq, but conversations about Iraq are not the same as conversations about fields, cleats and coaches.
The first is about discussing news. The latter is about neighbors, commonality and the ebb and flow of local experience.
Discussing news can lead to a cohesive group of lay news analysts, or a "news community," but it is not its primary purpose.
It is from groups of news debaters that we are likely to see an opening for citizen journalists, a toe-hold from which they might begin to climb the tiers or a way for outlets to demand or encourage higher standards in feedback zones.
We need to think about the continuum and the specificity germane to journalism.
Training future competition?
Posted by
Eitan Caspi
4/16/2005 8:50:49 AM
Regarding bill gates - I found a speech of his saying "The Internet is not a fad":
http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/speeches/7-8synergy98.asp...
Regarding bill gates - I found a speech of his saying "The Internet is not a fad":
http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/speeches/7-8synergy98.asp
You are all positive about this training idea, but don't you think this "senior brother" attitude will raise your future competitors?
That giving away your experience will turn against your selves, your job security, one day?
And then again...
Posted by
Amy Gahran
4/15/2005 3:52:11 PM
Maybe journalists aren't the best choice to train citizen journalists. See this new article from the API Media Center blog morph: "It can be toug...
Maybe journalists aren't the best choice to train citizen journalists. See this new article from the API Media Center blog morph: "It can be tough to train journalists how to be bloggers" (http://mediacenter.blogs.com/morph/2005/04/it_can_be_tough.html)
"The good news is that they seem to have gotten past those pointless arguments about whether blogs are journalism, blah, blah, blah. The bad news is that many of their plans are ill-conceived and undoubtedly will fail to meet the unrealistic expectations of the writers, editors and publishers, and will be largely ignored by the readers."
Seems to me that one of the keys to successful training is really understanding your audience well.
- Amy Gahran
Editor, CONTENTIOUS
Models for this exist already
Posted by
Barbara Iverson
4/15/2005 10:52:35 AM
I think the model used by Ohmynews for getting its citizen contributors to become reporters is pretty good. I think it works well, as Ohmynews...
I think the model used by Ohmynews for getting its citizen contributors to become reporters is pretty good. I think it works well, as Ohmynews is expanding.
Check out the citizen reporter's desk and the guides provided. I think Ohmynews is poised to make an impact as it is now allowing reporters from outside Korea to be international correspondants.
Citizen Journalists
Posted by
richard thompson
4/14/2005 7:36:31 PM
One thing I think should be taught is how to tell when you are getting part of the story or all of the story. How...
One thing I think should be taught is how to tell when you are getting part of the story or all of the story. How to tell when you are being snowed or talked down to or ignored should also be a part of the training. Too many times we see the journalists telling us what they think we will accept rather than giving us the whole truth. The citizen journalists need to know about that and also learn not to do that themselves.
Quote
Posted by
Larry Larsen
4/14/2005 3:44:05 PM
Though I've heard it before, I've never been able to find any source to confirm that Bill Gates actually said the Internet was a fad....
Though I've heard it before, I've never been able to find any source to confirm that Bill Gates actually said the Internet was a fad. Google Answers has no source or confirmation of the statement either.
If you find a definitive source for the quote, I'd love to see it.
Important distinction
Posted by
Amy Gahran
4/14/2005 2:54:28 PM
By the way, there seems to be a lot of confusion in media circles about what citizen journalism is. I'd just like to clarify that...
By the way, there seems to be a lot of confusion in media circles about what citizen journalism is. I'd just like to clarify that "online community" and "citizen journalism" are NOT synonymous. When a newspaper decided to provide an online community site, that does not mean they're necessarily actively supporting citizen journalism.
Citizen journalism and online community efforts can be related and even share infrastructure, but the nature of the content is different.
Citizen journalism goes beyond posting your softball league schedule and scores, or the minutes of your latest PTA meeting, or your vacation pictures. Wikipedia has a pretty good definition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_journalism). Here's an excerpt:
"Citizen journalism usually involves empowering ordinary citizens -- including traditionally marginalized members of society -- to engage in activities that were previously the domain of professional reporters. 'Doing citizen journalism right means crafting a crew of correspondents who are typically excluded from or misrepresented by local television news: low-income women, minorities and youth -- the very demographic and lifestyle groups who have little access to the media and that advertisers don't want,' says Robert Huesca, an associate professor of communication at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas."
...Of course, there are other ways to define that field, but I think that's one good starting point. But however you slice it, I think it's unlikely any CJ venture would achieve quality results consistently without offering training and resources. Just saying "We'll give you space, now go to it!" ignores the skill gap. This needs to be addressed at the beginning of CJ ventures, not later down the road if time and resources permit.
- Amy Gahran
We don't HAVE to train them, but we SHOULD
Posted by
Amy Gahran
4/14/2005 2:37:01 PM
Thanks Lindsay and Steve for picking up on that point. Here's my view: I don't think the news industry is "obligated" to train citizen journalist...
Thanks Lindsay and Steve for picking up on that point. Here's my view: I don't think the news industry is "obligated" to train citizen journalists. However, I think it's a very smart thing for news organizations to do, for several reasons:
1) It will probably yield better-quality, compelling content more likely to attract and maintain online audiences.
2) It would probably mitigate adversarial relations between news organizations and citizen journalists. (Let's face it, a lot of citizens want to do journalism because they've been dissatisfied with the product of news organizations.)
3) It could help news organizations understand where their market is going (especially if training young citizen journalists)
4) It could position news orgs well for where the news market is likely to be heading in the long term. (Think citizen journalism is a fad? Yeah, that's what Bill Gates said about the internet.)
For these reasons, I think investing in real citizen journalism (especially live and online training, maybe even the tier system you propose) is a far wiser investment of precious resources than yet another community site.
Personally, I just finished a course for Poynter's NewsU.org on covering drinking water. I'd love to do a series of smaller online courses for training citizen journalists.
...For more perspective, yesterday Doug Fisher wrote (http://commonsensej.blogspot.com/2005/04/citizen-journalism-in-tennessee.html):
"Papers that look on these [online efforts] as ways to produce Neighbors sections on the cheap will stagnate, and we'll be back in the same place two years from now -- dropping viewership and readership."
I'll be exploring this topic more later in CONTENTIOUS.
- Amy Gahran
Editor, CONTENTIOUS
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