I'm on a mailing list of trail runners here in Boulder (Colorado). This is a great place for runners, with a large running community and an
incredible selection of local trails. A hot topic on the list right now is a series of car break-ins at trailheads. People on the list are sharing their stories of woe and offering prevention tips.
This gives me an opportunity to make a suggestion to the editors of my
local newspaper website (and all other news organizations, of course), because this is important information -- at least to Boulder's running and walking community -- and a classic case of where "citizen journalism" can play a role.
Here's what I think my local news website should do: Along with a story about trailhead car break-ins, solicit stories and photographs from the public. (Make the request both in print and online.) Present the information received alongside the traditional reporter's story, to create an in-depth package that will be much more useful than the 6-inch article that a story like this typically gets in the newspaper.
So here's what we'll have if the site takes my advice: 1) conventional article written by a staff reporter; 2) a photo taken by a staff photographer; 3) personal stories from runners and walkers who had their cars burglarized; 4) amateur photos of damaged cars; and 5) an informal record of what trailheads have been hit by criminals. And because this is an ongoing story, the citizen contributions to this package can live on as long as there's a problem.
So you see what we've done here. The resources utilized by the newspaper to cover this story are no different than the conventional way to cover such a story. But the coverage is far more in-depth, and continues on well after a 6-inch one-time article is forgotten. The only extra expenses are in setting up the system for collecting and publishing citizen accounts and photos (a one-time thing), and in monitoring submissions to prevent abuses (something the reporter on the story can be charged with doing).
I so often hear journalists fret that this "citizen journalism thing" will take away jobs, as though volunteers in the community will replace paid reporters. A promising component of citizen journalism is in extending what paid journalists will continue to do.
