Journalists get a bad rap. They have the reputation of being elitist liberals and not being able to connect with the common folk. Well, journalists have heard these complaints cries (or at least read about them on blogs – it’s pretty hard to hear cries of the People from the inside of newsrooms) and have been doing something about it.
As of late, journalists have turned over the duties and responsibilities of the fourth estate to the common man and woman by deputizing them citizen journalists.
Experience nor expertise matter when it comes to reporting the news. J-school? Pssh! Now, all that is needed to report the news is a cellphone camera, an Internet connection and the simple coherency to type in English. Further proves that anyone can report the news.
For journalists, citizen journalism couldn’t come at a better time. It’s kinda hard to report the news when you are on an unpaid furlough or staff reductions have made it so you are doing the work of an entire news desk. Journalists like citizen journalism so much they are willing ordered to train people off the street to do their jobs, like what they did at the Oakland Press.
Now don’t confuse citizen journalists with bloggers. While bloggers simply shoplift the news reported by hardworking journalists and regurgitate it for their site, citizen journalists are just simply replacing those hardworking journalists and supplying newspapers with free labor.
And everyone is getting on the bandwagon. Even CNN has its “iReport,” which basically makes national news out of YouTube videos. So instead of paying for a news crew to cover a plane crash, a flood or the demise of the country’s economic system, news ad-generating organizations can now use the “reporting” of the “Hey, I was there” guy.
Soon, instead of paying for the expertise of analysts like New York Time’s Paul Krugman, newspapers can go cheap and source expert opinions and answers from its audience. Hey, it works for “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”
Doctors, lawyers, even hairstylists need licenses to conduct business. But not for journalists. Everyone is invited.
iReporting was fun at first then I received that “expensive” CNN iReport T-shirt. All that work for a T-shirt doing their job. Started getting emails from CNN asking to capture economic recession impact on my local community – no mas! Even our local TV news stations and daily paper are picking up on citizen journalism. I wonder how long it will take for these citizens to realize they are filling the void of paid journalists.
“For journalists, citizen journalism couldn’t come at a better.”
A better what? You’re making a point about the inexpertise of “citizen journalists” but you can’t remember to finish your own sentences on your own blog.
Hmm…I the proper word is “expertise”. Is this the work of a citizen jounalist?
CNN-IBN India also has citizen journalists. So does NDTV, I think. Fortunately it has not yet hit print journalism in a big way, even as pink slips are being doled out in newsrooms.
Next time, perhaps they will just drag a survivor of an earthquake or hijack or terriorist attack to the newsroom to type out the story. Guess, it will be given a new name: First person news or news from the horse’s mouth or whatever.
Ha! The newspaper I work for has columns sent in every week from “citizen journalists.” I think they’re a blight on our profession. Who needs to hear about all the birthday celebrations in Bethel when there were three meth lab busts and school board meetings to cover? Alas, when you can’t afford to hire more than one person on your reporting staff, citizen journalism is what you get.
Freedom of the press/speech isn’t the exclusive domain of learned journalists. It belongs to unlearned, stupid people, too. Look. Listen. Read. They’re very near. Posting under fictitious monikers underneath our byline stories.