Citizen Journalism: Lame Trend or Viable Idea?
I'm not sold on citizen journalism. In fact, I'm not even on the fence. Perhaps it's my inherent cynicism. Or maybe I'm still reeling from the so-called "homepage" revolution (a land full of "under construction" animated gifs, horrendous background images and long, long, long lists of bookmarks). Whatever the cause, I simply don't believe citizen journalism will take off.Maybe I don't quite understand what citizen journalism is all about. Lord knows I've tried. I read Poynter's E-Media Tidbits religiously and I devoured every last word of Dan Gillmor's "We the Media," but I've also looked straight into the face of the "volunteer" movement and what I've seen is not pretty at all.
Way, way back, I used to work for a group of teen-oriented Web sites. For a while, it was the most fantastic job in the history of employment. Our young staff would brainstorm story ideas and then go write. That's it. We didn't have to justify anything because in those days (1997-1998), any Web content = good Web content. But eventually making money became a factor and we were called upon to latch onto money-making ideas. One of these ideas was community, which I still wholeheartedly believe in. Well-run Web communities featuring erudite individuals who can pontificate on a wide variety of topics are, to me, incredibly interesting. But amidst the community development another faction arose: the "get-them-to-give-us-content-for-free" group. It was a bad idea from the start. Essentially, we would give students and teens Web space and access to homepage building tools (think Tripod or Geocities, minus the success). Then, these unpaid volunteers would create intricate and popular Web destinations ... and all of the traffic (and ad revenue) would go to us! Genius!
No! It was stupid!
The flaw with this idea is that it hinged upon a wildcard. Somehow, someway a group of volunteers would pop up and this group would actively write and produce engaging and entertaining content. No one ever asked where this group would come from, and with good reason: NO ONE KNOWS WHERE THIS GROUP COMES FROM.
And that brings me back to citizen journalism. I want to believe that if you arm the populace with camera phones and notebooks and blogs that they'll dig up stories no one would find. I want to believe these same people will find time away from work, families and other life responsibilities to actually practice citizen journalism. I want to get amped up over hyper-local coverage. I want to see alternative voices find their place amidst the great Media Overlords. But will it happen? I doubt it. I really do.
I'm not trying to rain on the citizen journalism parade. In fact, I hope I'm proven wrong. It's just been my experience that when you aim to create a movement -- and citizen journalism is a movement -- you can't simply assume that a great mass of frothy volunteers will answer the call. I know that some look upon the success of something like Wikipedia as proof that Web-based volunteer efforts can work, but I see Wikipedia as the exception, not the norm. I know that most blogs begin with a lot of passion but quickly peter out. I know that it's rare for an independent Web publication to last a few months, let alone an entire year.
These are my big citizen journalism questions:
- Where will these journalists come from?
- How will they find the time to be a citizen journalist?
- How will they develop an audience and a reputation? (Note: Anyone who answers this question using Matt Drudge as an example risks being punched in the mouth).
Update: Vincent Maher argues that "Citizen Journalism is Dead." While I won't go that far, I do agree with a number of Maher's points. His essay is worth a read.
Comments:
Mac, it seems like we have had similar experiences, startinging at Gillmor. Your questions are good ones and they are exactly why citJ is in trouble - because its name sets itself up as an individualistic practice, like journalism.
The power of what Gillmor was saying lay in the group aspect of it, that it may not be a single individual but a group that outperform a journalist on one particular day, not necessarily even through a conscious effort to collaborate. Now each blogger gets compared to each individual journalist, all because of the name. And let's face it, the trad media played a serious role in making that name stick because they knew they could win a battle on those grounds later.
Posted by: Vincent Maher at August 15, 2005 2:30 AM
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