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Ask an Expert About the Future of 'Citizen Journalism'
Posted by
Roblimo
on Mon Sep 25, 2006 12:20 PM
from the mainstream-media-is-quaking-in-its-boots dept.
from the mainstream-media-is-quaking-in-its-boots dept.
People ranging from Doc Searls to J.D. Lasica to Dan Gillmor to Craig Newmark have talked about how "citizen journalism" is supplanting and/or augmenting professional reporting. (FYI: One of the groundbreaking moments in "citizen journalism" happened right here on Slashdot.) This week's interviewee, NYU professor Jay Rosen, is not only a long-time proponent of civic journalism, but has now started NewAssignment.net with seed money from Craig Newmark, a $10,000 grant from the Sunlight Foundation and, last week, $100,000 from Reuters. Jay Rosen is obviously not just an academic or theoretician, but is actually doing things, which means he can answer almost any question you may have about citizen (or civic) journalism. Usual Slashdot interview rules apply.
Here are some links to articles you may want to read before you post your question(s), if only to avoid duplication:
Web Users Open the Gates
By Jay Rosen
washingtonpost.com
Monday, June 19, 2006
'Blogosphere' spurs government oversight
By Richard Wolf
usatoday.com
September 11, 2006
Open Source Journalism
By Richard Poynder
poynder.blogspot.com
March 28, 2006
Who killed the newspaper?
The Economist
August 24, 2006
AMATEUR HOUR -Journalism without journalists.
by Nicholas Lemann
The New Yorker
July 31, 2006
U.S. Government Should be Focus of Investigative Reports
by Mark Glaser
PBS.org/mediashift
September 7, 2006
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Citizen Journalism Expert Jay Rosen Answers Your Questions 42 comments
We posted Jay Rosen's Call for Questions on September 25. Here are his answers, into which he's obviously put plenty of time and thought. This is a "must read" for anyone interested in the growing "citizen journalism" movement either as a writer/editor or as an audience member -- and please note that Rosen and many others say, over and over, that one of the major shifts in the news media, especially online, is that there is no longer any need to be one or the other instead of both.
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anonymous journalism? (Score:4, Interesting)
How to Get More Respect (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:How to Get More Respect (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, when I think about an internet journalist (blogger) I think about someone who is sitting at home, doesn't go out and look for stories but just looks them up online and posts whatever he/she finds with their own added (probably made up) info. They probably wanted to be a real journalist but couldn't get hired. The truth can hurt, you know.
When you think about a journalist for the New York Times, or Washington Post, etc... you think of people who go out, find the story, interview important people, meet with sources in dark alleys or secluded areas. Maybe I'm wrong to think that way, but how credible do you think you are on your couch, half-naked in front of your computer?
Now, how do you change that? I'd like to see you at the press conference, jockeying with the other people trying to get Bush or whoever to answer your questions. Or I'd like to see you downtown during the protest, filming it and interviewing people about why they are protesting. Get the idea? Maybe some of you do that, but I sure don't think so when I think of internet journalists.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Thirty years ago you would have been right. Journalists used to be taught "legwork", going out and getting a story.
Today's mainstream journalists show video from "photo opportunities" and report "he said/he said". They sit in the Green Zone and send home reports
Plagiarism and Ethics? (Score:3, Interesting)
What about mob-rule journalism? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Considering that Reuters is one of the players involved, I'd say the answer is "None." [littlegreenfootballs.com]
Where do you see newspapers' role in this? (Score:3, Insightful)
Money (Score:3, Insightful)
What's wrong with other extant examples? (Score:5, Interesting)
- The Indymedia [indymedia.org] network is one of the longest standing examples of an attempt to have a large citizen journalist network.
- The Pacifica Network [pacifica.org] (especially the Democracy Now show
- The New Standard [newstandardnews.net]
What was it that you found lacking in the above and why did you decide to start a new project instead of reforming and adapting one of the above? Do you think that your decision to accept corporate sponsorship (which is rejected by the Pacifica Network) will see your organization's focus inevitably drift toward the anodyne ineffectiveness of e.g. NPR?Re: (Score:2)
This is an interview. Please ask questions. (Score:2)
This is part of the interview process, and is for folks to submit questions to Prof. Jay Rosen, and for the moderators to moderate the questions. Thanks.
Re: (Score:2)
Plagiarism and Ethics? (Score:3, Insightful)
Yet we know that on college campuses, where we can measure the phenomena, Plagiarism is comparatively rampant. So evidently the common man cannot restrain himself.
It seems to me this is a serious issue for any new journlism form with a low barrier to entry and a high degree of anonimity for the author. How does this ethos get enforced in such a realm?
A related question is the ethic division of commentary and news. We know that's become a problem in the media for some outlets where management has a thumb on the content. But the traditional news organs, especially newspapers, still refrain to the most part. Indeed the NY times just went so far as to remove the typset justification from any article that comtained any sort of analysis or opinion, and reserving the typsetting for only traditional factual journalism stories so the difference is apparent to the reader from the start. How do we reinforce that ethos in the untrain journalist?
Huh? Re:Plagiarism and Ethics? (Score:2)
But then: Yet we know that on college campuses, where we can measure the phenomena, Plagiarism is comparatively rampant. So evidently the common man cannot restrain himself.
As if college students haven't had it drummed into them since their earliest schooling days that cheating is wrong.
Or are you trying to say that professional journali
Scale (Score:2)
Much of the discussion seems to be about getting out from under the control of "gatekeepers" like publishers and media owners. Yet, while the internet is less concerned with money, it has its own form of currency: popularity, in the form of the link.
Doesn't this just turn the highest-traffic sites into new gatekeepers? Es
How does NewAssignment.Net Work? (Score:3)
Who are the idols of citizen journalists? (Score:2)
I had a look on the "readers edition", a german platform for citizen journalism. Nearly half of the submitted articles are not published because they are bear promotion of books, internet services or parties. The published articles are mostly "commentaries" which lack of every rule of argumentation or research. Sometime it see
Dilution of Protection? (Score:2)
What impact would this have on national elections? (Score:2)
If "Citizen Jounalism" takes off, do you see this as a way that candidates without the massive financial resources normally required to
Journalism vs Commentary (Score:2, Interesting)
Citizen journalists? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That's interesting considering what's going on. If the house of cards that the administration has constructed falls down, indictments for war crimes becomes a serious possibility. Now are citizen journalists going to rally around the flag like professional journalists or report the crap hitting the fan?