In the heyday of television, radio, and newspapers, popular and authoritative news anchors or editors often acted as symbols and guardians of the trustworthiness of the news being reported. Today, news organizations are starting to depend more on so-called citizen journalists -- ordinary people covering newsworthy events voluntarily.
So, are there any citizen journalism superstars, or is the idea self-contradictory?
Let’s take a closer look. Ideally, citizen journalism would include huge numbers of people having Internet access and the ability and interest to communicate in real time with the world.
In reality, however, most people who witness newsworthy events don’t think to start reporting on them. This may be because they’re too involved with the event -- or they’re too busy getting away from it.
As a result, citizen journalism is most often done by people who are actively looking for stories. They may not have the training and experience (or the full-time jobs) of professional journalists, but they’re not exactly ordinary people, either. They’re more like freelancers. Many citizen journalists are advocates for a cause or are hoping to sell their videos or stories to a news network or to otherwise gain from their reporting.
The motives of citizen journalists, the ease of publishing, and the lack of professionalism present in many blogs and other citizen journalism outlets naturally leads to the trend being seen as less reliable than mainstream news. For now, citizen journalists aren’t perceived as reliable and unbiased filters like traditional media.
To see this in action, check out how a blog post can be transformed into something much more noteworthy when it’s printed in a newspaper.
While the trend toward user-generated content has reduced the importance of the news anchor, citizen journalism has yet to create the equivalent of an Edward R. Murrow, or even a Wolf Blitzer. Still, there are several contenders -- and many others -- who would fancy themselves to be the voice of citizen journalism.
Certainly there are several very famous aggregators of news on the Internet. These include Matt Drudge and Arianna Huffington. Coming at the news from opposite ends of the political spectrum, these two certainly appear to be among the most visible filters of news on the Internet. The vast majority of the links from their sites are to traditional news organizations, however.
Perhaps no one better fits the true description of citizen journalist than Dan Gillmor. After working for years in traditional media (including as a technology columnist for San Jose's Mercury News during the dotcom boom), Gillmor, in 2004, wrote his book, We the Media. Today, he writes a blog about technology, politics, and journalism, and he serves as the director of the Center for Citizen Media. That organization is dedicated to “helping to enable and encourage grassroots media, especially citizen journalism, at every level.”
More specifically, the center aims to improve and promote citizen journalism through research, working on improving practices and tools, and education.
But even a figure as important and respected as Dan Gillmor may not be able to singlehandedly give citizen journalism the sort of credibility and respect that Walter Cronkite gave CBS. Eventually, however, as the business model of traditional media companies continues to change (or crumble) citizen journalists may get more organized and move from being freelancers to collaborating.
Perhaps reporting done by the audience will someday be seen as authoritative, rather than just a cost-cutting measure employed by desperate television stations and newspapers.
http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?doc_id=169916&f_src=ieupdate
