Ask an Expert About the Future of 'Citizen Journalism' 97
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? (Score:4, Interesting)
good question (Score:1)
There is going to be some uncertainty to anything, less with a famous newscaster and more with a stragner. How many people take a stranger's story for the truth if it sounds plausable? If 100 strangers claim to be eye-witnesses and tell about the same story, it could be a conspiracy.
The real utility of anonymous journalism is to direct attention to a particular story rather than
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.
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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
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It makes me
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It is th eones that like to comment on thisge at they have no depth of understanding in that polute the entire blog concept. They create the ompression that the entire blog phenomin is nothing more than ignorant people spouting off. They
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I'd check out your blog but my company blocks myspace due to mature content? *sigh* I'd like to see an example where somebody makes a little effort.
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Plagiarism and Ethics? (Score:3, Interesting)
News and commentary (Score:2)
The Economist wears their bias on their sleeve and will write articles about the EU agricultural policies that slip in the word "lunatic". They also send out reporters to the places they cover and resist government pressure. Sometimes they're even accurate on subjects I know about, a rare thing indeed.
The US court system trusts a refereed argument between two biased advocates to dig up the truth. If bias is disclosed and reporting is honest, then you can
Not the issue (Score:2)
There is a difference between bias and deception (Score:2)
Rush on the other hand frames his "facts and statistics" with assurances he is telling the truth (pretty much identifying the crap he has pulled from his fat ass).
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Much of the online media is corporate ;-) But there are very good sites [zmag.org] for with very good articles from authors interested in truth rather than not offending advertisers.
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The fact is (unless you live in a country th
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At least five dozen sources were contacted, and probably hundreds more; this series has been maybe a year in the making.
Do you think that citizen journalists, working alone with little "journalism school experience" and presumably holding down some other job, can produce similarly well-researched articles?
What about mob-rule journalism? (Score:4, Interesting)
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Considering that Reuters is one of the players involved, I'd say the answer is "None." [littlegreenfootballs.com]
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The same as there are with current journalism, the rest of the mob.
Every time I watch the news or read a news report and I watch a report of event X in country Y I have to wonder how accurate a picture I'm getting. For the basic facts it's easy to look up a few different sources on google news, but to get an interpretation that isn't misleading me in some way seem
If I was "Citizen Journalist" ... (Score:1)
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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?
Heavens No! Of course not.... (Score:1, Flamebait)
Just a tip...when they ask, go with the "two scoop" lobotomy.
Where do you see newspapers' role in this? (Score:3, Insightful)
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Money (Score:3, Insightful)
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Is there any reasons why being ambition from reporters -- hungry for recognition or a good career -- leads to poor journalism? I would think this would be a key intention to tap into. While the current institutions don't do this well, it seems to me that the future of the press rests on whether or not a
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open monitoring of governmetn (Score:1)
Just the facts (Score:1)
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? (Score:5, Interesting)
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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.
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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
missing the point. (Score:2)
The point was not that journalist don't have ethocs problems, as you rightly observe. The point is that this neew medium has a low barrier to entry and a bigh degree of anonimity. Couple that with no editor&publisher taking the long view of establishing the reputation of the journal in a High-barrier-to-entry medium, then you have a looming problem.
A possible retort would be to say that well, time
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I disagree. "Traditional journalism" is rife with "press release reporting" where someone reads a press release, rewrites it, maybe calls a few sources starting
fruit of the vine (Score:2)
printing quotes from a press release and planting them in a nice steaming front page story is what the PR firm wants you to do. That's why they provide the partially preapred ingredients for you. Indeed if you do it without attribution the happier they are.
What's the d
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You gotta be pulling my leg.
As the reader of the newspaper, and presumably the one paying for it, *I* expect attribution.
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)
How do I get into the whitehouse press briefings? (Score:1, Interesting)
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
Re:What impact would this have on national electio (Score:2)
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But let's see what the expert says.
Journalism vs Commentary (Score:2, Interesting)
Citizen journalists? (Score:2)
Checks and balances (Score:1)
Blogging (Score:2)
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Funding for long term reporting? (Score:2)
Hold on now. (Score:1)
You can't just count vulnerabilities (Score:1)
Moo (Score:1)
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 biase
Center for Citizen Media (Score:1)
Is this really independent journalism? (Score:2)
What is your opinion on blogs and this so-called Journalistic indepe
How to help (Score:1)
How To Get Same Protection As Print? (Score:2)
Why should we ask you? (Score:2)
Why would Reuters contribute? (Score:2)
News objectivity (Score:1)
Re:As an expert on the "future" of Citizen Journal (Score:1)
Less sexy beats (Score:1)