Why aren't all journalists "citizen" journalists?
After working in a newsroom for some time, many journalists began to work in a bubble and lose touch with the community on which they report. Rather than writing great journalism to enlighten readers, some journos began to write solely for the adoration of their peers and editors, or at worst, for journalism competitions.
"Citizen journalist" has come to refer to, in its most basic form, the common man who makes his voice heard, but the term itself sometimes takes on a derogatory connotation. They aren't real journalists, of course, just some bozo with a computer. This attitude coupled with the fact that some reporters are perturbed by the recent surge of citizen journalism suggests a disconnect between our work and the lives we lead outside of the newsroom. It's time to stop reading blogs simply to raid them for story ideas, but to become a part of the discourse that is happening outside of our own news sites.
Before Web 2.0 and multimedia journalism began to change the landscape of the newsroom, the focus was mainly on newsroom diversity. Many media companies recognized the benefit in a staff that reflected the community. But if a diverse staff doesn't see itself as part of the community, then the very purpose of diversity fails.
It's easy to be inspired by the work of our peers at mainstream media powerhouses like the New York Times and MSNBC, but there is great multimedia reporting happening outside of the traditional journalism sphere that should not be discounted. Sites like Wikipedia are often maligned by professional journalists, and even though they are fallible, are a case for the power of an online community coming together to create a substantial resource outside of the hierarchy of a mainstream news outlet.
Those crazy remarks in the online comments section can be a further put off and are often cited as a case against letting average Joes in on the conversation, but insightful information can also be found amongst the craziness.
Journalists should be an active part of the community they cover and not discount citizen journalists as untrained hacks. Lack of formal journalism training doesn't negate the voice of the average citizen. To ignore those voices is to ignore the voice of the community on which you report.
Ultimately it comes down to never thinking you know more than your audience. I'm not suggesting all journalists should drop their notepads and write whatever the heck they want. Rather, journalists should remember that we are all "citizens" of the communities we cover and our reportage should reflect that.
"Citizen journalist" has come to refer to, in its most basic form, the common man who makes his voice heard, but the term itself sometimes takes on a derogatory connotation. They aren't real journalists, of course, just some bozo with a computer. This attitude coupled with the fact that some reporters are perturbed by the recent surge of citizen journalism suggests a disconnect between our work and the lives we lead outside of the newsroom. It's time to stop reading blogs simply to raid them for story ideas, but to become a part of the discourse that is happening outside of our own news sites.
Before Web 2.0 and multimedia journalism began to change the landscape of the newsroom, the focus was mainly on newsroom diversity. Many media companies recognized the benefit in a staff that reflected the community. But if a diverse staff doesn't see itself as part of the community, then the very purpose of diversity fails.
It's easy to be inspired by the work of our peers at mainstream media powerhouses like the New York Times and MSNBC, but there is great multimedia reporting happening outside of the traditional journalism sphere that should not be discounted. Sites like Wikipedia are often maligned by professional journalists, and even though they are fallible, are a case for the power of an online community coming together to create a substantial resource outside of the hierarchy of a mainstream news outlet.
Those crazy remarks in the online comments section can be a further put off and are often cited as a case against letting average Joes in on the conversation, but insightful information can also be found amongst the craziness.
Journalists should be an active part of the community they cover and not discount citizen journalists as untrained hacks. Lack of formal journalism training doesn't negate the voice of the average citizen. To ignore those voices is to ignore the voice of the community on which you report.
Ultimately it comes down to never thinking you know more than your audience. I'm not suggesting all journalists should drop their notepads and write whatever the heck they want. Rather, journalists should remember that we are all "citizens" of the communities we cover and our reportage should reflect that.
Labels: citizen journalism
Thursday, May 01, 2008
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Citizen journalists driving online politics
November 4 is right around the corner, so if you haven't had a meeting or two about elections coverage, now's as good a time as any. If you're already on the ball or if you need to get rolling, here are some online sites that are infusing new media into traditional political journalism and powered by citizen journalists.
For the average citizen, presidential primaries can be a confusing and complicated process. Regular guy/techie Jim Edlin presents an alternative to the existing process of electing a president with the site OnlinePrimary. Visitors are asked to rank the presidential candidates and the results are posted on the front page.
One part of the political process that is a head scratcher for the average person is the Democratic Party's use of superdelegates. The Superdelegate Transparency Project aims to remove a little bit of the mystery behind these all-important politicos by examining who they are and who they plan to vote for (right now, the count is in favor of Hillary Clinton). The site also provides in-depth, yet easy to read information on how the delegate process works.
In a play for the Naked News crowd (link semi-NSFW), SexyPolitics is encouraging political awareness by adding a little incentive. It's simple: take a quiz on political candidates, issues or general political knowledge and the more questions you get right, the more articles of clothing the "stripper" removes. The questions can get admittedly difficult so you're going to have to work hard to get that sexy prisoner to disrobe. If you're only interested in taking the quizzes, there is an option to skip the strip. On the plus side, the site is making politics and a whole lot more interesting and, ahem, sexier.
YouBama, a portmanteau of video sharing site YouTube and presidential candidate Barack Obama, is exactly what its name suggests: a site for sharing videos of the presidential candidate. Users have uploaded roughly 600 videos of campaign ads, attacks on the competition, news clips and poems(?).
Can you really tell a lot about a candidate based on his or her website? Dustin Brewer thinks so. The freelance web designer judges the candidates' web presence from a purely technical standpoint, examining the lines of code and overall design. Barack Obama comes out on top for his site's clean and modern look and cross-browser compatibility, while John McCain and Mike Huckabee fall to the bottom for their lack of effort and faulty coding.
Every political candidate has their own website, faulty or no, but 23-year-old Meghan McCain is getting serious mileage out of the web by blogging her experiences while on the road with her father, newly minted Republican presidential nominee John McCain. The site is like a journal/family photo album and makes the elder McCain seem less staid as he and some other candidates can appear to be when making the rounds on television.
Speaking of blogs, a recent Harris poll showed that "only" 22 percent of Americans of read political blogs regularly, but I'd like to flip that notion on its head. Considering there are roughly 303 million people living in America and blogs really became mainstream in the last few years, I'd say that's quite a lot of people reading political blogs.
Consider also that the public's reliance on newspapers and television as a source of political news is slipping (but you knew that already), according to the Pew Research Center. That means its time to beef up online political news and perhaps look to the average Janes and Joes for a little inspiration.
For more politics, check out previous posts on tracking the presidential candidates online and unusual political news coverage.
For the average citizen, presidential primaries can be a confusing and complicated process. Regular guy/techie Jim Edlin presents an alternative to the existing process of electing a president with the site OnlinePrimary. Visitors are asked to rank the presidential candidates and the results are posted on the front page.
One part of the political process that is a head scratcher for the average person is the Democratic Party's use of superdelegates. The Superdelegate Transparency Project aims to remove a little bit of the mystery behind these all-important politicos by examining who they are and who they plan to vote for (right now, the count is in favor of Hillary Clinton). The site also provides in-depth, yet easy to read information on how the delegate process works.
In a play for the Naked News crowd (link semi-NSFW), SexyPolitics is encouraging political awareness by adding a little incentive. It's simple: take a quiz on political candidates, issues or general political knowledge and the more questions you get right, the more articles of clothing the "stripper" removes. The questions can get admittedly difficult so you're going to have to work hard to get that sexy prisoner to disrobe. If you're only interested in taking the quizzes, there is an option to skip the strip. On the plus side, the site is making politics and a whole lot more interesting and, ahem, sexier.
YouBama, a portmanteau of video sharing site YouTube and presidential candidate Barack Obama, is exactly what its name suggests: a site for sharing videos of the presidential candidate. Users have uploaded roughly 600 videos of campaign ads, attacks on the competition, news clips and poems(?).
Can you really tell a lot about a candidate based on his or her website? Dustin Brewer thinks so. The freelance web designer judges the candidates' web presence from a purely technical standpoint, examining the lines of code and overall design. Barack Obama comes out on top for his site's clean and modern look and cross-browser compatibility, while John McCain and Mike Huckabee fall to the bottom for their lack of effort and faulty coding.
Every political candidate has their own website, faulty or no, but 23-year-old Meghan McCain is getting serious mileage out of the web by blogging her experiences while on the road with her father, newly minted Republican presidential nominee John McCain. The site is like a journal/family photo album and makes the elder McCain seem less staid as he and some other candidates can appear to be when making the rounds on television.
Speaking of blogs, a recent Harris poll showed that "only" 22 percent of Americans of read political blogs regularly, but I'd like to flip that notion on its head. Considering there are roughly 303 million people living in America and blogs really became mainstream in the last few years, I'd say that's quite a lot of people reading political blogs.
Consider also that the public's reliance on newspapers and television as a source of political news is slipping (but you knew that already), according to the Pew Research Center. That means its time to beef up online political news and perhaps look to the average Janes and Joes for a little inspiration.
For more politics, check out previous posts on tracking the presidential candidates online and unusual political news coverage.
Labels: blogging, citizen journalism, video
Saturday, April 05, 2008
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News coverage from every angle
I was watching a Hillary Clinton rally on CNN last week when I noticed that nearly every supporter behind her had some sort of camera in his or her hand. My mind immediately went to multimedia and what it would be like to use some of what I assume were hundreds of cameras positioned around the auditorium. Using the different camera locations could give the online user the ability to pick the angle from which they view a news story instead of letting a media outlet choose for them.
Further in my train of thought, I recalled the bullet time technology used in the movie The Matrix that positioned a number of cameras around an actor to create the effect of stopping time. That same thinking can be married with what is visually represented in the end credits of the movie Dreamgirls: the film editor's job of selecting different camera shots (see below for examples). We can, in effect, let the user be his or her own film editor.
Left: Actor Keanu Reeves is captured in bullet time; Right: Film editing represented in the end credits of Dreamgirls
Below is a visual example of what I'm talking about. Using user-submitted photos, in this case, from Flickr, a site visitor can select the angle from which they view a news event (in this case a Barack Obama campaign rally in Oakland, Calif. last year).
Photos from Flickr users solsken, juicyrai, oso, js42, Barack Obama, y-cart used under Creative Commons license
The project above was built in Flash in less than 30 minutes and can be done for political speeches, sporting events, red carpet coverage, you name it. Many news outlets already have tip lines in place like for example CNN's I-Report and the submissions can be harnessed to provide the online visitor with a unique experience. This can also be recreated by a quick-on-their-feet photog or videographer who can literally be in many places at once.
Further in my train of thought, I recalled the bullet time technology used in the movie The Matrix that positioned a number of cameras around an actor to create the effect of stopping time. That same thinking can be married with what is visually represented in the end credits of the movie Dreamgirls: the film editor's job of selecting different camera shots (see below for examples). We can, in effect, let the user be his or her own film editor.
Left: Actor Keanu Reeves is captured in bullet time; Right: Film editing represented in the end credits of Dreamgirls
Below is a visual example of what I'm talking about. Using user-submitted photos, in this case, from Flickr, a site visitor can select the angle from which they view a news event (in this case a Barack Obama campaign rally in Oakland, Calif. last year).
Photos from Flickr users solsken, juicyrai, oso, js42, Barack Obama, y-cart used under Creative Commons license
The project above was built in Flash in less than 30 minutes and can be done for political speeches, sporting events, red carpet coverage, you name it. Many news outlets already have tip lines in place like for example CNN's I-Report and the submissions can be harnessed to provide the online visitor with a unique experience. This can also be recreated by a quick-on-their-feet photog or videographer who can literally be in many places at once.
Labels: citizen journalism, flash
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
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Politics as (un)usual
There are a number of sites popping up that will help you determine who you should vote for, based on your stance on a number of political issues, including The Candidate Match Game from USA Today, Connect2Elect and glassbooth. I've taken a couple of these quizzes and though I won't tell you who I'm voting for (this isn't a political blog), I will say that each online quiz I've taken has given me the exact same answer so I'm pretty confident going to the polls.
Wired ran a great story about how event sharing site Eventful helped bring John Edwards to Kentucky, a state oft neglected by presidential candidates. Sounds like the web is working, but Mashable points out that presidential candidates aren't actually personally invested in social media.
For those who want to take politics into their own hands, the good people at THUP have created an online game that lets users pick their candidates and the team behind them and campaign their way across the country, staking out political territory.
The Associated Press asked some of the presidential candidates their favorite and least foods (with amusing results). This naturally led Chow, a site for all things food previously mentioned here, to create an "Eat Sheet" that compared the candidates' tastes in one nifty chart. Mitt Romney loves hot dogs and Barack Obama loves chili. A match made in heaven?
Are you registered to vote? Are you sure? VotePoke will help anyone confirm if they are registered to vote for the upcoming election. I am newly registered after moving to a new home and the site did not have my information up, so I cannot verify if it actually works or not, but its worth a try.
Need more politics? Check out this previous post on tracking the presidential candidates online.
Wired ran a great story about how event sharing site Eventful helped bring John Edwards to Kentucky, a state oft neglected by presidential candidates. Sounds like the web is working, but Mashable points out that presidential candidates aren't actually personally invested in social media.
For those who want to take politics into their own hands, the good people at THUP have created an online game that lets users pick their candidates and the team behind them and campaign their way across the country, staking out political territory.
The Associated Press asked some of the presidential candidates their favorite and least foods (with amusing results). This naturally led Chow, a site for all things food previously mentioned here, to create an "Eat Sheet" that compared the candidates' tastes in one nifty chart. Mitt Romney loves hot dogs and Barack Obama loves chili. A match made in heaven?
Are you registered to vote? Are you sure? VotePoke will help anyone confirm if they are registered to vote for the upcoming election. I am newly registered after moving to a new home and the site did not have my information up, so I cannot verify if it actually works or not, but its worth a try.
Need more politics? Check out this previous post on tracking the presidential candidates online.
Labels: citizen journalism, maps
Monday, January 28, 2008
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Elections 2.0: Tracking the Presidential candidates
It's not to early to start pumping out 2008 election coverage. There are a number of sites cropping up all over the web that can be used as both inspiration and as a resource. The PrezVid blog picks up the slack where the YouTube debates left off by collecting videos of the candidates' speeches and public appearances. 2decide's interactive table makes finding a candidate's position on a variety of issues a little more simple, even if the candidates haven't quite figured it out themselves.
What would election coverage be without a few great maps? Map the Candidates tracks the location of presidential wannabes from both sides of the aisle. The site is comprehensive and frequently updated. This Google Map shows where Democratic candidate John Edwards' campaign spots are airing around the country and contains embedded YouTube videos.
TechPresident keeps tabs on election-related issues, but more importantly keeps a running tally on Democratic and Republican candidates' Facebook supporters, MySpace friends and YouTube views. In case you're curious, Senator Obama leads the pack in all three categories with Senator Clinton coming in a close second.
The Hitwise Election 2008 Data Center takes this methodology a step further by calculating the top Democratic and Republican websites (Obama and Ron Paul respectively). The site also gauges the top political websites and search terms.
According to a Read/Write Web post, Web 2.0 tools like Facebook and Digg favor Democratic candidates. Democrats outnumber Republicans 5-to-1 on Facebook and 3-to-1 on MySpace, according to the site. Speaking of which, be sure to catch the now delayed Republican YouTube debates November 28. Should be informative if not entertaining.
What would election coverage be without a few great maps? Map the Candidates tracks the location of presidential wannabes from both sides of the aisle. The site is comprehensive and frequently updated. This Google Map shows where Democratic candidate John Edwards' campaign spots are airing around the country and contains embedded YouTube videos.
TechPresident keeps tabs on election-related issues, but more importantly keeps a running tally on Democratic and Republican candidates' Facebook supporters, MySpace friends and YouTube views. In case you're curious, Senator Obama leads the pack in all three categories with Senator Clinton coming in a close second.
The Hitwise Election 2008 Data Center takes this methodology a step further by calculating the top Democratic and Republican websites (Obama and Ron Paul respectively). The site also gauges the top political websites and search terms.
According to a Read/Write Web post, Web 2.0 tools like Facebook and Digg favor Democratic candidates. Democrats outnumber Republicans 5-to-1 on Facebook and 3-to-1 on MySpace, according to the site. Speaking of which, be sure to catch the now delayed Republican YouTube debates November 28. Should be informative if not entertaining.
Labels: citizen journalism, maps, social networking, video
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
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Citizen Journalism: Speak up (and get paid for it)
I love the concept of Associated Content. Its kind of like AP without the professional journalists and distribution system. Touted as "the people's media company, contributors submit original stories as well as images, audio and video. Associated Content reviews each submission and accepted pieces are paid between $3 and $20. Essentially, people report on what they care about with AC serving as a non-traditional news editing process.
Most media outlets kind of have to gauge what their listeners/viewers/readers want from their news. While there are tiplines, letters to the editor, call in shows and more recently comment-enabled websites, these are more reactionary than original sources of news. AskQuestions.org lets anyone with a computer ask the media-ready questions that are relevant to them. Questions include "How are public schools funded in America?" and " When will we run out of oil?" Its like having thousands of assignment editors.
UK-based Scoopt encourages aspiring paparazzi (or anyone in the right place at the right time) to sell their gotcha photos. Users upload their photos for review and Scoopt works as an agent to sell the submissions to newspapers, magazines and other media outlet. Published photos are paid a 40% royalty. The site takes great care to keep its users from turning into a wolfpack and has a detailed code of ethics.
Most media outlets kind of have to gauge what their listeners/viewers/readers want from their news. While there are tiplines, letters to the editor, call in shows and more recently comment-enabled websites, these are more reactionary than original sources of news. AskQuestions.org lets anyone with a computer ask the media-ready questions that are relevant to them. Questions include "How are public schools funded in America?" and " When will we run out of oil?" Its like having thousands of assignment editors.
UK-based Scoopt encourages aspiring paparazzi (or anyone in the right place at the right time) to sell their gotcha photos. Users upload their photos for review and Scoopt works as an agent to sell the submissions to newspapers, magazines and other media outlet. Published photos are paid a 40% royalty. The site takes great care to keep its users from turning into a wolfpack and has a detailed code of ethics.
Labels: citizen journalism
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
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Why didn't I think of that? 20 Useful Websites that Inspire
As a multimedia journalist I often find inspiration in websites outside of the journalism realm. Here are some of favorite sites that whose functions could be incorporated into news sites.
1. Digg Labs' bigspy | |
| Popular or recently updated stories being dugg flash across the screen in an awesome visual display. Stories with more diggs and are assigned a larger font weight. |  |
2. Farecast | |
Farecast predicts whether flight prices are going up or down and aggregates some of the cheapest air fare available on the net. |  |
3. HealthMap | |
| Ready for a good scare? This Google Maps mashup charts infectious disease outbreaks around the world. |  |
4. Yahoo! Answers | |
Yahoo! Answers is a community of users that ask and answer questions that typically can't be answered simply by a search engine. |  |
5. Flagxo | |
Flagxo lets users rate airports around the world on such things as wi-fi and outlet availability, lounges and transportation. Very useful information to know before traveling. |  |
6. Half.com | |
Half.com is the place to find used books, music, movies and video games and a much lower price than retail. |  |
7. Facebook | |
Facebook is quickly taking over Myspace as one of the premier social networking sites. With the addition of Facebook applications the service will continue to grow. |  |
8. Pandora | |
Pandora suggests music that you may like based on the music that you do like and lets you listen to it for free. |  |
9. Stylehive | |
This social shopping community makes bookmarking chic clothes and decor a group effort. |  |
10. Internet Movie Database | |
The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about movies, actors, television shows, production crew personnel, and video games. My last search: Anna Sophia Robb. |  |
11. Mailbox Finder | |
Have you ever spent minutes searching for a mailbox? This handy Google Map points out exactly where to find one. | |
12. allmusic | |
Allmusic is like an encyclopedia of music. Find track listings for virtually any album, reviews and music clips. |  |
13. TVGuide Listings | |
TVGuide's listing are presented in an easily scannable online format. |  |
14. Weather.com | |
Weather.com is the most easy to use meteorological site and has more weather-related information than one will ever need. |  |
15. Yelp.com/ CitySearch | |
Both Yelp and CitySearch offer editor and user generated reviews for restaurants, clubs, spas and more. |  |
16. Rotten Tomatoes | |
| Rotten Tomatoes is a repository for movie reviews and showtimes. Films are rated "fresh" or "rotten" which makes its simple to determine instantly whether a movie will be good or bad. |  |
17. WebMD | |
WebMD provides valuable health information, tools for managing your health, and support for medical issues. I've had a couple of ailments (strep throat, cold sores, etc.) which I have self-diagnosed through WebMD. I'm no doctor, but the site makes me think I am. |  |
18. Auto Trader | |
Buying a new car is tough. Auto Trader makes it a lot easier by allowing users to search for cars by ZIP, make, model, price, etc. and compare prices. |  |
19. So You Wanna | |
This site answers life's most important questions like how to cure a hangover, lie persuasively or convert to Buddhism. |  |
20. SignalMap | |
Want to know if your new place has good cell phone service or if you can make a call from the local park? SignalMap displays cell phone signals across the country. |  |
21. Double Feature Finder | |
| Use this tool to find two movies that are playing back to back. |  |
22. National Center for Educational Statistics | |
| Enter some information and find out statistics about a school, library or college near you. Great for people young ones or students. Simple, yet very informative. |  |
23. Mpire | |
There are a lot of compare & shop sites out there, but I find Mpire to be the most streamlined and easy to use. |  |
24. NPA-NXX Geolocator | |
| When you get a call you don't recognize, input the first six digits of a telephone number and this geolocator spits out an approximation of where the call is coming from. |  |
25. Fast Food Maps | |
When you absolutely must know where the nearest KFC is, Fast Food Maps will tell you within seconds. | |
Labels: citizen journalism, maps, social networking
Thursday, August 02, 2007
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Regular Joes (and Janes) take over CNN
Monday night's CNN/YouTube debate was a step in the right direction in involving the public in the democratic process. People from all over the country were invited to submit videos on YouTube of questions to be posed to the Democratic candidates. Although the questions were filtered, they were less rigid and staid than previous debates (especially "What don't you like about the candidate to your left?", see the answer here.) Read a recap of the debate at Slate.
The YouTube aspect seemed like sort of a novelty to the CNN reporters who advertised the debate in the days leading up to the event (one reporter asked whether she should be concerned about her job), but hopefully this widely televised interpretation of citizen journalism will inspire similar ventures by other news organizations. Be sure to catch the Republican candidates' debate Sept 17 on CNN.
Labels: citizen journalism
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
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