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Is There Hope for Citizen Reporting?
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New type of exclusion?
Posted by Beau Dure 7/25/2005 4:34:58 PM

Why "only citizen journalists"? The (debatable) accusation against today's media is that they exclude the voice of people who aren't employed as journalists. Why flip it around and exclude those who ARE employed as journalists? Wouldn't a site that includes all voices -- such as the BBC's -- be stronger?

Why must we take 1 from 2 and claim it's 4?

Re: Citizen journalism's future is bright, if you know where to look
Posted by Beth Welsh 7/22/2005 2:38:38 PM

Andrew, your description of citizen journalism as "a sense of what it's like on the ground" is excellent. Of course, reporters try to convey this sense, but there's nothing like the context of living in a place to understand the meaning of an unusual event there.

The London blog aggregator you cite is a fine example, but I think Vince's point is still salient: We still need a central place to go for citizen journalism. Could there be a site as familiar as Yahoo! in ten years which features only citizen journalism? (Think big!) Perhaps some of the grant money which is now popping up to support citizen-journalism ventures could be directed toward such a site.

Citizen journalism's future is bright, if you know where to look
Posted by Andrew Haeg 7/22/2005 1:30:38 PM

I think you're all looking in the wrong place for citizen journalism. The real potential isn't the guy or gal with the Treo spapping front-page worthy shots at a crisis scene, though that undoubtedly has happened and will happen more often.

To me, "citizen journalism" consists of stories and musings that give us the chance to see news events through the lens of normal people, who aren't trying to hammer their info into a pre-determined story line, but instead doing as we journalists should always do, and once always did: Tell it like it is.

Consider this:

http://londonbloggers.iamcal.com/map.php

Here's a site where you can search for London bloggers by the closest tube station. Search for Stockwell this morning, and you'll find first-person accounts from people who live near this morning's shooting. You can read another about how the top deck of most double-decker buses is now empty, with the headline: "We are not defiant." That's compelling stuff.

This is what people like me want to read, and what "citizen journalists" are prepared to write: A sense of what it's like on the ground. For the most part, we'll leave the analysis, the piecing together of timelines, the questioning of authorities, and the intrepid investigation to the people paid to write about the world for a living.

Point being: I think there's tremendous potential in citizen journalism--so long as we are looking for the right thing.

Media Lacks Reality
Posted by julie pierce 7/22/2005 12:52:09 PM

The mainstream media is not doing its job.
It is all about entertainment value if anything.
They will re run subjects, news, information according to entertainment value and the issues that the average American is interested in is left out if the over-all entertainment value is not thought to be high.
Radio, cable news, the mainstream press all have a piece of it.
Break it down. Realize that reality is what is happening to each individual and to ignore some news because the entertainment value is not seen by the corporate officers, publishers and editors does not mean someone is not interested.
Some of the biggest lies told go unreported because the reporters, writers and journalists need to have a paycheck and are only doing as they are directed.
It Citizen Reporting Becomes more popularr as time goes by it is only because the actual media leaves a lot to be desired.

Searching is a major problem
Posted by Vincent Maher 7/22/2005 3:36:09 AM

Having slept on this issue, and read what Steve has to say, I think the real problem is searching. I don't mean to sound like a pundit, but the Semantic Web should solve these problems.

Basically, we need to be able to tell our machines, Go get me the latest pics of London sent from mobile phones in the context of an attack, and the machine does all that for us. I really believe this is going to be the biggest boost for citizen journalism if the people at the W3C can start hurrying it all up.

Citizen reporting in London
Posted by Todd Engdahl 7/21/2005 7:52:30 PM

Maybe the perceived lack of citizen reporting response in the July 21 London incidents can be explained by:

- Incidents happened at non-rush time, so fewer people involved.
- Less happened, less to see, less to shoot with a cell phone, less to report. Less traumatic.
- Maybe, just maybe, people were more concerned about getting out of danger than pausing to shoot a photo or send off an IM.

And, does anyone know if police shut down cell phone transmissions? Coverage of the bombings two weeks ago indicated they have that capability.

Your call answered
Posted by Beau Dure 7/21/2005 5:07:34 PM

"I long for some central, well-publicized website where citizen journalists will know to post their contributions to the event coverage (or contribute links to their content) -- and where readers will know to look for citizen accounts (a portal, if you will)."

Check the BBC.

The trouble you cite in terms of finding good original content will only get worse as more people turn to blogging, just as it's more difficult to find useful content on the Web in general than it was back in the mid-90s. In a situation like today's, I think people will rely on proven sources -- mostly traditional media like the BBC, but perhaps eventually some sort of blog portal. Either way, I think you'll need some human editors.

Computers are still lousy gatekeepers.

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