Yesterday in the
Organ Grinder section of the
Guardian website,
John Plunkett brought us a
live
debate (well, via a blog posting with comments from readers
and a selected panel of experts) on citizen journalism. I've read
through most of it and it's quite intriguing, if somewhat basic.
One snippet that caught my interest: Panelist
Bill Hagerty,
editor of the
British Journalism
Review, commented, "Do you pay for everything you use? If you use
it, you should pay for it, I'm amazed people are doing it [for free].
I think that will change."
To which
Jemima Kiss, news editor of
Journalism.co.uk,
responded, "That's a very old-media view of why people interact
with news organizations. There are millions people online operating in
entirely different news and social communities who frankly don't even
care what happens in mainstream media. It should be encouraged that
people are willing to interact without financial incentive."
Then the Guardian's
Simon Waldman noted, "My greatest fear is
that you are creating a culture of invasion of privacy for profit. I
like the idea of people engaging with media; if people see something
they should tell other people about it. But I don't like the idea that
people can't walk down the street without having a camera phone shoved in
their face."
Kiss responded, "That is the danger of paying people for their
pictures. Encouraging paparazzi."
Food for thought. ... I recommend reading the whole thing. It's an
intriguing discussion and format.
