Ask an Expert About the Future of 'Citizen Journalism'

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

anonymous journalism?

Is it possible to be an effective anonymous journalist? I ask because of events like the HP scandal (HP had journalists investigated) and the jailing of Josh Wolf http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2 006/08/01/MNGVQK97AK4.DTL [sfgate.com].

How to Get More Respect

I am convinced that online media have made a huge contribution to getting out the truth when the corporate media are seeking to suppress the truth. While there are a growing number of people aware of this phenomenon, reports in the 'blogosphere' just do not get the same respect and currency received by reports in the 'major' or 'corporate' media. What do we, as a community, need to do to enhance the respect internet journalists receive in the world at large?

Re:How to Get More Respect

Get hired by the corporate media?

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.

What about mob-rule journalism?

What sort of safeguards are in place to do fact-checking and prevent false/obviously slanted mob-rule style reports from being propagated as fact?

If I was "Citizen Journalist" ...

Would I still be entitled to my First Admendment right for writing an article that a certain administration should be subject to for war crimes concerning Iraq? Or would I be hauled off to jail as a terrorist?

Where do you see newspapers' role in this?

First off, my credentials: I'm the former employee of an experimental newspaper, Bluffton Today (http://www.blufftontoday.com), located in Bluffton, South Carolina. It's an exciting place, let me tell you. The focus has been on reverse publishing but at the same time tempering blogs with traditional journalism. The staff still writes articles; they still edit heavily. They use the web only to the degree where it doesn't dip into libel and slander and builds on its strengths. My question to you is, do you think Bluffton is on the right track? It felt like, in the 15 months I was there, they definitely were, but I'm a biased party. I left thinking, "If only newspapers did more of this..." I know what I'm betting the farm on in my career, and it isn't tired, boring, traditional journalism. It isn't the straight and narrow of blogs, either. Rather, I feel that it's important to look at both sides and find how they can work together, because God knows there's some 60-year-old editor somewhere who won't look at Bluffton as anything more than a gimmick. I'm gonna be that guy in the newsroom fighting the good fight to get more untraditional voices into the the paper in more places than the editorial page.

Money

Do you believe that as money flows into civic journalism that it'll change the equation? Obviously there are some people who's primary goal is to become famous and/or make money through more open journalism. Will the large community of contributors flush out those with less altruistic intentions? I guess I'm really asking will civic journalism be self-correcting as it gets bigger? Or is there a way it may become just as corrupted as much of the current mainstream professional journalism?

open monitoring of governmetn

would this type of public journalism lend itself to much better monitoring of our government? if the books were all wide open for easier electronic review, maybe we could spot waste and fraud easier?

Just the facts

When citizen journalists can report without overwhelming bias and with their FACTS CHECKED, then we will have something. For now, every CJ story should be considered fiction until verified.

And yes I DO know that this goes for the mainstream media as well, but twice as much for CJ.

What's wrong with other extant examples?

I'm assuming that you evaluated and rejected some of the other high-profile citizen journalism outfits that predate the founding of your own project. Off my head I can think of:

• 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?

This is an interview. Please ask questions.

I notice that there seem to be some members who are not aware that this is a call for interview questions, and are answering the questions, or making comments.

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.

Plagiarism and Ethics?

Lately there's been a few incidents of Plagiarism in the news, not to mention some wholesale ethical breaches of faked stories (e.g. Blair at the NY times and "a million Little pieces"). But the thing is the reason those are news is that they are both exceptional and something that is specifically drummed in to any professional journalist not to do. In deed breaking this taboo is probably even more of a sin to the the fellow journalists than to the general public because of this entrenched ethic.

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?

Scale

First, I'll admit that I haven't read much about citizen jounalism other than Jeff Jarvis' http://www.buzzmachine.com/ [buzzmachine.com], but as a non-blogger thinking of getting in to it, I was wondering:

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? Especially as the number of blogs increases, the gap between "rich" and "poor" expands?

I suppose what I'm really asking is, it's hard enough to get noticed today- how will someone just starting out get noticed ten years from now?

How does NewAssignment.Net Work?

I am intrigued by your new project, NewAssignment.Net [newassignment.net]. How exactly does it work?

How do I get into the whitehouse press briefings?

I think for the next 25 years or so any "citizen" journalists will be at a severe disadvantage because the system simply is not set up to accomodate them. At least when you get a job with a real media outlet, there is a bit of a vetting procedure where they won't just hire any joe shmoe off the street... generally some credentials are needed (eg: a year of "journalism school", a couple of years reading the news at the local radio station, etc. etc) If anybody can be a journalist, then it also means that any CRAZY body can be a journalist. Since time is finite, In order to prevent the few crazy people from asking crazy questions and wasting everybody's time (eg: "why is the government covering up the failure of all the manned moon missions to the big cheese ball in the sky?"), these citizen journalists will simply get locked out of most already existing establishments and only "real" journalists will be asking the questions.
There will always be a bias away from "citizen" journalists because of this.

Who are the idols of citizen journalists?

Learn citizen journalists from solid journalism, yellow press or from public relation? Do they want to inform or does the bias of each and everyone poison the new medium from start?

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 seems citizen journalism combines the bad attributes of mass media.

Dilution of Protection?

How long before corporations and wealthy individuals start employing goons, lawyers and wiretaps, a la HP, to threaten and intimidate citizen journalists with no real legal recourse? If faced with this, should a citizen journalist just back off and let the guilty win? How can the protections now enjoyed by the fourth estate be extended to citizen journalism without diluting them?

What impact would this have on national elections?

The Electoral process seems to be more of a "marketing contest" and marketing takes bags and bags of money. There's commercial time, signs, billboards, radio, etc. Let's face it, a commercial is, at most 90 seconds to tell me why I should vote for you - hardly enough time. So, all we see are glittering generalities or, all to often, "don't vote for the other guy" spots.

If "Citizen Jounalism" takes off, do you see this as a way that candidates without the massive financial resources normally required to sustain a traditional campain could actually compete? Could this make the "third party candidates" a credible threat? Could this actually serve to "level the playing field"?

Journalism vs Commentary

Much of what we see in the blogosphere is pure opinion supported with selective representation of fact, half-truths, and the occasionally bald-faced lie. In fact, it has been shown repeatedly that "big name" bloggers (regardless their ideaological stripe) are not above representing pure propaganda as lily white truth. Does ethical journalism matter in this environment? Will it matter that a journalist include the fullest picture of the story possible if people are turning to partisan ideologues with specific agendas and an interest in misrepresentation for their news?

Citizen journalists?

Here is a future citizen journalist [yahoo.com] shaping up.

Checks and balances

In a traditional journalism environment (theoretically, at least), a reporter submits a story to an editor, who checks the story based on a list of criteria to make sure the facts are correct and that the story is solely an account of the facts and not the reporter's opinion of them. In a good newsroom, the same story will go to two or three different editors for the same checks, and (ideally) the different editors will have different backgrounds, different political leanings, and generally won't get along with each other; that insures that a story is unlikely to be anything but an account of the facts.

This ideal situation doesn't happen often, but it does happen... and most responsible news organizations at least make an attempt to reach that level of impartiality.

In contrast, most "citizen journalism" doesn't go through any fact-checking or opinion-filtering until after it's posted, and much of it doesn't go through any, ever. There's also a very fuzzy definition of the difference between a journalistic story and an opinion column in many people's minds, as evidenced by many of the questions and comments posted here.

While "citizen journalism" has its place, can it ever be an effective means of disseminating factual information, without a structured system of checks and balances in place?

Blogging

When asking a primary source for information, I find that telling them I'm doing so to create a report on my blog tends to make them clam up, or continue to be unwilling to provide information that ought to be publicly available. What technique or phrases should I use to convince the interviewee that I both have a legitimate use for their information, and right to obtain it.

Funding for long term reporting?

How do you think long term reporting will be funded in future? For example, infiltrating mafia gangs, exploring the intricacies of unfashionable African wars, following terror operations across continents. These aren't something the average citizen journalist can find time to do, let alone the funding.

Hold on now.

Cognitive dissonance anyone? If one accepts the premise that ordinary citizens can be effective journalists, why does one need an expert to vet that premise?

You can't just count vulnerabilities

An analogy. One bank has a dozen vulnerabilities assuming that someone has a man on the inside, and has a login to the computer system. Another bank has a single vulnerability. They keep the back door of the vault open and unguarded 24 hours a day. Which is least secure? The one with 1 vulnerability or the one with 12?

Moo

There is a lot of bias in the mainstream media. Whether it's this way or that way depends on which reader is asked, but the reporter himself almost always feels they are not biased. They probably mean it too, since everyone sees themselves as a centrist.

On blogs, where a more personal touch is expected and delivered, bias it outright. There the opposite happens. The readers (with the same bias as the blogger) see the entries as centrist. The writer states the bias at the outset, and then is free to be biased.

Bias has pros and cons. Pros include that it provides the invisible thread that ties everything together, and gives (supposed) background for the facts. Cons include that it can skip important facts, or cloud the readers judgement before the facts are clearly given.

No bias also has pros and cons. Pros include "just the facts", and the lack of need to read someone with a competing bias just to get the real story. Cons include the bias of the reporter which is not stated (because the attempt at being non-biased failed), and the desire to find opposing views, no matter how (in)significant or evidence just to sound unbiased.

My question is then, where does 'Citizen Journalism' fall into bias? Is there bias? Whose then? The reporters? The payers? The non-paying contributors? Or is there no bias? In which case, what safeguards are there from faling into the normal trap of stating and believing in no bias, even though there clearly is one?

Center for Citizen Media

Please note that Dan Gillmor now blogs at The Center for Citizen Media [citmedia.org] - not Bayosphere, which is now part of Backfence [backfence.com].

Is this really independent journalism?

Web sites are still in no way "if you built it they will come" kind of media. Because I write something about a subject doesn't mean it's journalism. I would argue that almost anything we write is only news if it's noticed, promoted or a part of a subject non-random sweep such as an agent looking for specific things. Journalism is rarely biased, rarely unpromoted without an agenda behind it and rarely noticed without a subject's interest.
What is your opinion on blogs and this so-called Journalistic independence?

How to help

I helped run a LUG (fslc.usu.edu) for four years. I want to help the spread the Free Software ideals to non-programmers and I feel like civic journalism is the most important area for those ideals to be spread. So I want to start a new group (ugotta.org) that helps people take advantage of technology to publish there views on whatever they feel they need to talk about. So my question is what is the gap? What are the sort of things that people need to know to become better civic journalists? The technology(blogs), the resources(blogger.com), advertising? What topics would bring people to that type of meeting?

How To Get Same Protection As Print?

On the assumption that we're not just talking citizen journalism, but electronic citizen journalism: how can I, as a US citizen publishing on the net, get the same First Amendment and case law protection as a print journalist/publisher? The old chesnut that the "freedom of the press belongs to the owner of the press" (ie. the mechanical device) seems to be taken literally by prosecutors and judges, such that someone publishing on their own website without deriving an income doesn't get the same benefit of the doubt as - say - The Village Voice.

Other than amassing a legal fund with which to defend one's self and create the case law that subsequent writers can enjoy, what are some avenues to generate a legal aura as a member of the 4th Estate? Would it be as simple as making sure a few local cyber cafes have hard copies of the weekly blog digest on the counter? Incorporate as a non-profit?

Why should we ask you?

If citizen journalism is agout citizens doing journalism and not "experts" or "professionals" then why should we ask someone else about citizen journalism?

Why would Reuters contribute?

Why would Reuters, which is part of the mainstream press, contribute $100,000 to NewAssignment.net [newassignment.net]?

News objectivity

How can we prevent sinking in our close-mindedness if all news would be "filtered" by natural subjectivity?

Less sexy beats

How would citizen journalism operate on a local level? Is the citizen journalist really going to cover the long-and-boring city council meeting faithfully every week... even though he's not getting paid? Not a sexy beat, but we need to keep an eye on the local clowns, too.

Re:I wonder..

.. where 'loose change' fits in

...Fantasy?

Re:As an expert on the "future" of Citizen Journal

predicting is easy.... getting it right is tough. a notable trend is that you need to create a NEW orgiazation to get out from under the deadwood of an old. TV stations... before their production got centralized... is a GOOD example. second city TV is a handy one. go ahead, try to predict paradigmn shift in the blogsphere, I dare ya. packrat