Rise of the Citizen Journalist

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You wouldn't sit in a dentist's chair and have a root canal done by a citizen dentist.

You wouldn't undergo a gall bladder operation by a citizen surgeon.

But to read the newspaper of the future in print or via the internet or both, it is at least doable you will have to read stories by citizen journalists ... like it or not.

The reason is uncomplicated. Newspapers across America have turn out to be so decimated by staff cutbacks that citizen journalists ... let's call them CJs ... will have to step in to fill the gap in covering the news in print and on the web website, if the gap is to be filled.

"The newspapers that survive will be the ones that make the most of the advantages of the on the web world," says Derek Clark, who runs the GeekPolitics web webpage that comments on public affairs and media concerns. "Citizen journalism can in several circumstances present no cost content material and the net supplies the ability to reach a considerably bigger audience. The old media that combine their resources with the benefits of new media will thrive. The old media that attempt to cling to their old techniques of doing issues will die."

While the rise of CJs has brought on a flurry of excitement and discussion in the journalistic community, there have been precursors for several years. Papers have always relied on what they made use of to call "stringers" to call in tidbits such as high school basketball scores or news from modest-scale events the paper does not staff, or using man/woman on the street responses to a set question, or birth and wedding announcements. By way of syndicates, papers have also run functions by nonjournalists such as doctors with Q&A medical columns or mechanics with Q&A automobile columns.

In a broader sense, this also fits in with the American strain of do-it-yourselfing ... that you can do anything you want, or at least try. Hence we have citizen painters of the living room, citizen auto oil changers, citizen builders of cabins in the woods, citizen soldiers in times of war, citizen just about every thing.

In communications, the citizen participation craze is at an all-time high as citizens establish the contestants' fate on "American Idol" ... rate destinations on travel websites and people's houses for sale on real estate websites ... become component of an assemblage of amateur restaurant critics in the well-known Zagat guides, thus supplanting the when all-potent professional restaurant critic at a metro newspaper ... and most notably take part in the largest mass editorial participation ever on the World-wide-web with the compilation of the Wiki encyclopedia, or Wikipedia.

So the scope is broad. The immediate question for us here is whether this crop of CJs will replace, not supplement, regular reporters ... and no matter whether their function can be presentable without having editing by common staff or a syndicate.

And in discussing citizen journalists, we should distinguish them from bloggers. Bloggers generate opinions .. usually with no thought, research or individual information of what they are writing about. CJs in the ideal sense would report stories with facts they turn up from becoming at an event or talking with knowledgable sources.ãEUREUR

On the plus side, CJs can broaden out the base of a paper, extend its reach.

"Most likely some events get reported by citizen journalists that would not be reported without them," says David Weaver, a journalism professor at Indiana University. "Reporters cannot be everywhere and can not know about all events taking place in their communities. In that sense, citizen journalism could support to broaden the type of events that are reported."

On the other hand, it almost seems the alot more trivial and mundane the topic, the much more suitable it is for a CJ, and the even more imperative it is, the much less proper.

Adam Stone is the publisher of the Examiner community newspapers in Putnam and Westchester counties, N.Y. ... just the sort of publication you'd believe would welcome CJs. But no.

"I do not believe citizen journalism need to dominate or even play a minor role in the operation of mainstream newspapers," he says. "I'm confident there is a place for it ... a useful place ... in option media. I feel it's been the mainstream newspaper industry's embrace of new editorial formulas and approaches that has been leading to its demise (though) my opinion runs contrary to what most inside and outside the market believe."

Stone says the most relevant spot for CJs in a classic paper is what it's usually been ... "the letters to the editor section."

Indiana's Prof. Weaver does not even believe citizen journalists will need to be the correct term ... "citizen communicators" would be improved given that "without having the training and education that most journalists have, most citizens cannot qualify as journalists." He thinks CJs, or CCs, "are most effective at reporting breaking events, and not most likely to be rather beneficial for in-depth, analytical or investigative reporting."

Dr. Kirsten Johnson, assistant professor, Department of Communications, Elizabethtown College, Pa., has authored a number of papers on citizen journalism, and is presently writing a book chapter on the topic.

"Nearby newspapers must not rely on citizen journalists to aid them survive," she says. "Most citizen journalists are not paid anything for their function and lack the motivation to support a for-profit entity continue to make a profit. Citizens can not and need to not be viewed as absolutely free labor."

Here's a look at three current experiments by sizable metro papers with citizen journalism.

WASHINGTON TIMES -- This scrappy paper, which barely hangs on in its battle with the bigger and significantly alot more prosperous Washington Post, has grow to be possibly the nation's foremost print user of citizen journalism in massive metropolitan areas. In April, it launched a full, themed page strictly by CJs in its nearby section six days a week. Monday, the theme is academia Tuesday, the Maryland and Virginia suburbs Wednesday, D.C. Thursday, neighborhood military bases Friday, religious communities and Sunday, charity and public service news.

HARTFORD COURANT -- This paper calls its project iTowns and gives a well-created page with a roster of 73 towns in the location. Click on the town you want and you will obtain its news with a section referred to as iTowns Nearby ... reader submitted headlines.

THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT of NORFOLK -- This was a failure. According to the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism's most recent State of the Media Report, the paper launched a citizen media effort referred to as Co-Pilot that ran 3 times a week with community news in print and internet. It even sent an editor to Spain to study comparable projects there.

Just after a nine-month struggle, the paper pulled the plug in March 2008. Pew quoted editor Dennis Finlay as saying, "Mostly we discovered it is not the savior we thought. It was rather challenging to get excellent reader-produced content." As for the general base of readers, Finlay said, "nobody cared when we got rid of it."

To do a wonderful job with CJs, a paper would have to 1) come across them, two) give them some training or assess their initial efforts, 3) get them to do stuff for free when the paper needs it, and four) edit what they do. It might price money to accomplish all this. Yet not spending any dollars is the reason why some editors are enamored with the thought of CJs.

Some thoughts ...

IT CAN BE Carried out. The Washington Times and Hartford Courant show it can be. Like anything else, a paper would have to make at least a bit of an effort and devote a staffer's time to oversee the CJs.

"Newspapers could hold standard citizen journalism training sessions at the newspaper every month that could concentrate on newsgathering techniques and media ethics," says Larry Atkins, adjunct professor of journalism in Arcadia University's English, Communications and Theatre Department. "They also could post a podcast or video presentation on their web website giving reporting helpful hints and ethical suggestions. Have a newspaper staff member often monitor the citizen journalism submissions a lot like a newspaper message board to preserve an eye out for content that may possibly appear biased, dishonest, false, defamatory or otherwise objectionable."

If newspapers use their imaginations, there is no limit on the interesting, informative material they could add.

Discover FROM Tv. We come proper back to Prof. Atkins: "Neighborhood newspapers could take benefit of citizen journalism significantly like the manner in which cable tv outlets like CNN have utilised I-Reports. Newspapers could encourage citizen journalists to send pictures and write very first-person accounts of their experiences in observing a news event. For instance, men and women who attend a local July 4 parade could send pictures, video and written impressions to be posted on the newspaper web web site. If there are more than 50 neighborhood July four parades in a metropolitan area, 1 reporter can't get to all of them. Through citizen journalism I-Reports, a newspaper could post info about most, if not all, of those parades."

In brief, he says, "citizen journalism can support local newspapers survive by making them a more interactive item. Readers who post comments, articles and photos on their nearby newspaper's web web site might feel a stronger connection to the paper and be extra most likely to read the print version and the internet version of the paper."

HAVE THE Proper ATTITUDE. Instead of viewing CJs as a important evil or even as a burden, why couldn't papers view them in a positive light and aid themselves become additional qualified, even more expert? Why not tap into professionals in the community and develop an array of citizen journalists who are authoritative?

For instance, countless papers made use of to have a medical writer to do stories on that specialty and nothing other. That's gone the way of the do-do bird. Rather, why not create a given medical topic and invite comments from medical professionals in the location, possibly working by way of the nearby medical association? This way, they would be 1) supplying extra expert material than they could provide themselves, and 2) would bring in the sorts of people who commonly don't participate in the journalistic approach.

Or try a roundup of comments on a legal topic through the local bar association, or an architectural topic from architects, an interior design topic from designers, and so on.

A number of experts are pleased to communicate with the public and anxious to attempt new forms of performing so on the web.

MAKE THEM CREDIBLE. With citizen journalism reports, "it makes you believe, how do we judge these persons?" says Peter Shankman, a speaker, author and futuristic consultant who runs the e-mail alert Support a Reporter Out hotline.

As a staff writer, a reporter is essentially certified by the paper as becoming skilled and trustworthy. How can you do that with CJs?

Shankman's answer: via a rating technique. Just as users compile excellent ratings of eBay sellers or restaurants in via the internet critiques, if there is a common portion of the paper with ongoing stories from a crew of CJs, readers could rate the stories and the writers themselves, giving them an incentive to do their best.