Monday, April 26, 2010
EFFECTIVE PUBLICATION
The citizen journalism publication I decided to use one that Dr. Lowery mentioned Pro Publica, which is an independent site. This publication is engaging the readers in different blog topics and discussions about community events. Some the ways that the changes in editing are shown in the stories and the writing style are through style and structure. The writing of an average citizen or is not on the same level as a journalist that has been trained to write in AP Style. This brings consistency to the writing, but there is none on this website. One of the positive things on this site is the plethora of information on the site and the wide variety of material. Yet, as far as editing is concerned there is no consistency on the types of events that get covered or the targeted audience. Also in relation to editing and the changes I addressed such as social networking and fact checking. With the website having such a wide variety of information there should be a lot of fact checking involved and reading to make sure there is no bias in the story. I think this publication is definitely effective for the community because it has things on it such as community news, business, and education just as a regular newspaper. Given my research and after reading thoughts of Outing I feel that it is necessary for newspapers to move to ways to involve the citizens but there are many downsides to it as well. The largest downside I feel is the time and schooling that a journalist has had and then there are websites where citizens can attempt to do the same thing; it makes you wonder about things. Editing has changed in many ways and this is something that this site is moving toward and having to experience the progressive changes.
PROFESSOR'S THOUGHTS
This publication is an example of how some of the changes I addressed in the first section are very successful and how they are adapting to them. Dr. Wilson Lowery, professor in journalism said, “Some news orgs have offered some pay for stories. The news sites Pro Publica and Global Post are excellent national examples of online news orgs that are successfully combining staff stories with the work of stringers and other non-journalist "citizen" reporters.” The content on the website is about various community and national issues. The lesson I learned from Dr. Lowery was that, “Journalists realize increasingly that non-journalists will have an increasingly important say in how news is produced.” This is very important because it showcases that one change that citizen journalism is having is not only on editing, but on how news is produced in general.
The website Pro Publica has on its page, “We support each story we publish with an active and aggressive communications effort of our own, including regularly contacting reporters, editors and bloggers, encouraging them to follow-up on our reporting, and to link to our site and our work.” This showcases the fact that they are acknowledging citizen journalists and opening their work to their site. The content on the site ranges from Gas Drilling, and Stimulus which are things that would affect all citizens. This is one progressive step that the publication is making to include the citizens because it includes them in the news process, which I feel is most important. Dr. Lowery does state that there is an issue of editing this work which is not done by professional journalists. He says that “Davidsonnews.net” is an example of a community news website that is not as successful and economically is not coping with the changes in editing. Dr. Lowery said that from a financial standpoint it is hoped that citizen hyperlocal efforts will bring ad revenue because the ads would target a smaller community which would be beneficial. Overall, I think this publication looks good because it is coping with the changes of editing. One of my main concerns was about the errors that would be made, but it seems as though the percentage of paid staff would handle that problem. The paid staff is likely to be responsible for stories, and some minor editing. Many people don’t realize the rise in citizen journalism most recently. This is something that I feel newspapers are going to have to embrace more. For example, Dr. Lowery touched on this as well, “Big news orgs no longer have a monopoly on gathering and producing news, so partnerships with citizens seem a good way to go,” said Dr. Lowery. He is very knowledgeable about the concept of citizen journalism and how it is affected editing. My personal opinions were in section 1, and in the second post we studied an example of an already established good and bad citizen journalism sites. Lastly, I analyzed the effectiveness of the publication and not how it was changing, but how it was embracing the change.
http://davidsonnews.net/about/
http://www.propublica.org/
The website Pro Publica has on its page, “We support each story we publish with an active and aggressive communications effort of our own, including regularly contacting reporters, editors and bloggers, encouraging them to follow-up on our reporting, and to link to our site and our work.” This showcases the fact that they are acknowledging citizen journalists and opening their work to their site. The content on the site ranges from Gas Drilling, and Stimulus which are things that would affect all citizens. This is one progressive step that the publication is making to include the citizens because it includes them in the news process, which I feel is most important. Dr. Lowery does state that there is an issue of editing this work which is not done by professional journalists. He says that “Davidsonnews.net” is an example of a community news website that is not as successful and economically is not coping with the changes in editing. Dr. Lowery said that from a financial standpoint it is hoped that citizen hyperlocal efforts will bring ad revenue because the ads would target a smaller community which would be beneficial. Overall, I think this publication looks good because it is coping with the changes of editing. One of my main concerns was about the errors that would be made, but it seems as though the percentage of paid staff would handle that problem. The paid staff is likely to be responsible for stories, and some minor editing. Many people don’t realize the rise in citizen journalism most recently. This is something that I feel newspapers are going to have to embrace more. For example, Dr. Lowery touched on this as well, “Big news orgs no longer have a monopoly on gathering and producing news, so partnerships with citizens seem a good way to go,” said Dr. Lowery. He is very knowledgeable about the concept of citizen journalism and how it is affected editing. My personal opinions were in section 1, and in the second post we studied an example of an already established good and bad citizen journalism sites. Lastly, I analyzed the effectiveness of the publication and not how it was changing, but how it was embracing the change.
http://davidsonnews.net/about/
http://www.propublica.org/
NEXT POST
Social networking and citizen video sharing broadened in important ways as a means of distributing news, not just for social interaction and entertainment, according to stateofthemedia.org in an article titled, “Citizen Based Media.” http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2009/narrative_special_citzenbasedmedia.php?cat=0&media=12 This goes along with the other aspect of editing social networking and discussion forums. Social networking has become another phenomenon as far as editing is concerned and it has served as a way many people get their news. For example, personally I found out about Michael Jackson’s death through facebook. This venue served as a way for news, but I went to another trusted source such as the radio, or the newstation to validate this claim. This is no different, editing citizen journalism is hard and it will call for some fact checking and things of that nature. Yet, it can give light to an issue as well as social commentary.
Stephen Outing said, “The citizen-journalism movement is where journalism is heading. Newspapers, if they want to stay in the game, need to acknowledge the "lecture" model of journalism is dying, and join in the "conversation.”” There are many pros to citizen journalism and it is a new way we are getting news that newspaper has to incorporate into their traditional model.
"The newspapers that survive will be the ones that make the most of the benefits of the online world. Citizen journalism can in many cases provide free content and the internet provides the ability to reach a much larger audience. The old media that combine their resources with the advantages of new media will thrive. The old media that try to cling to their old methods of doing things will die." – Derek Clark who runs GeekPolitics.com. (Online Journalism Review) http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/gstorch/201002/1826/
The argument being made is that the content is free and you can offer it on the web to a widespread audience. Another benefit I think that is good is that you get to have eyes in the community that you don’t have. Newspapers now are very short staffed and it is important to still be able to report on all events. Citizen journalism also makes news interactive for readers and not just something that read and put down. It is something that they read and engage themselves in.
Stephen Outing said, “The citizen-journalism movement is where journalism is heading. Newspapers, if they want to stay in the game, need to acknowledge the "lecture" model of journalism is dying, and join in the "conversation.”” There are many pros to citizen journalism and it is a new way we are getting news that newspaper has to incorporate into their traditional model.
"The newspapers that survive will be the ones that make the most of the benefits of the online world. Citizen journalism can in many cases provide free content and the internet provides the ability to reach a much larger audience. The old media that combine their resources with the advantages of new media will thrive. The old media that try to cling to their old methods of doing things will die." – Derek Clark who runs GeekPolitics.com. (Online Journalism Review) http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/gstorch/201002/1826/
The argument being made is that the content is free and you can offer it on the web to a widespread audience. Another benefit I think that is good is that you get to have eyes in the community that you don’t have. Newspapers now are very short staffed and it is important to still be able to report on all events. Citizen journalism also makes news interactive for readers and not just something that read and put down. It is something that they read and engage themselves in.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Initial Thought and Research
There are many changes that are occurring as it relates to the field of journalism and the change I have decided to delve more into is the topic of citizen journalism.
Citizen journalism (also known as "public", "participatory", "democratic" or "street journalism") is the concept of members of the public "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information," according to the seminal 2003 report We Media: How Audiences are shaping the Future of News and Information.
This definition completely dissects what citizen journalism can do on all levels. The fundamentals of this phenomenon have always existed, because the citizens have always been the heart of a story and the eyes and ears of what occurs in the community. This just grants them the opportunity to execute their thoughts in online blogs to shine light on an issue that may not have otherwise been covered. I decided to find out more about this particular topic as it relates to editing because it is becoming more popular as many people are blogging about various things that happen in the community. This things range from things such as a teen blogging about her experiences at school, or a witness to a crime writing about the account of the incident. The first piece of information that I found that correlates to citizen journalism is from an article by Steve Outing. In it he describes some pros and cons of allowing the public to report on community events.
Before giving examples of how Outing feels, I will describe the changes I see and how citizen journalism is changing editing in particular. As stated in the assignment sheet, for the purposes of this assignment editing means checking stories for accuracy, sense and writing style; packaging content visually, such as designing print or Web pages; interacting with readers through blogs, social networking and discussion forums. Citizen journalism affects many of these aspects in negative and positive ways. For example, the first component of editing is checking stories for accuracy. This can become an issue with the citizens not being skilled reporters and they may not check sources as a journalist would do and have been taught to do. Outing suggests that the writer before acknowledging anything to be correct from citizens to check facts as to not get duped (Poytner Online). Another downside I feel there is to this that Outing addresses thoroughly is sense and writing style. A journalist has experience and knows not to be biased in a story, whereas in the world of citizen journalism you may get a story that is inherently biased. Outing brings out a point that is occurring, “Some news websites have had trouble with readers posting objectionable content in comment areas.” This showcases how some sites are hesitant to reader comments and moving toward citizen journalism. With these changes to the editing of style, and writing accurately, I plan to look more into the pro side of this change in journalism that is affecting editing. (504)
Citizen journalism (also known as "public", "participatory", "democratic" or "street journalism") is the concept of members of the public "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information," according to the seminal 2003 report We Media: How Audiences are shaping the Future of News and Information.
This definition completely dissects what citizen journalism can do on all levels. The fundamentals of this phenomenon have always existed, because the citizens have always been the heart of a story and the eyes and ears of what occurs in the community. This just grants them the opportunity to execute their thoughts in online blogs to shine light on an issue that may not have otherwise been covered. I decided to find out more about this particular topic as it relates to editing because it is becoming more popular as many people are blogging about various things that happen in the community. This things range from things such as a teen blogging about her experiences at school, or a witness to a crime writing about the account of the incident. The first piece of information that I found that correlates to citizen journalism is from an article by Steve Outing. In it he describes some pros and cons of allowing the public to report on community events.
Before giving examples of how Outing feels, I will describe the changes I see and how citizen journalism is changing editing in particular. As stated in the assignment sheet, for the purposes of this assignment editing means checking stories for accuracy, sense and writing style; packaging content visually, such as designing print or Web pages; interacting with readers through blogs, social networking and discussion forums. Citizen journalism affects many of these aspects in negative and positive ways. For example, the first component of editing is checking stories for accuracy. This can become an issue with the citizens not being skilled reporters and they may not check sources as a journalist would do and have been taught to do. Outing suggests that the writer before acknowledging anything to be correct from citizens to check facts as to not get duped (Poytner Online). Another downside I feel there is to this that Outing addresses thoroughly is sense and writing style. A journalist has experience and knows not to be biased in a story, whereas in the world of citizen journalism you may get a story that is inherently biased. Outing brings out a point that is occurring, “Some news websites have had trouble with readers posting objectionable content in comment areas.” This showcases how some sites are hesitant to reader comments and moving toward citizen journalism. With these changes to the editing of style, and writing accurately, I plan to look more into the pro side of this change in journalism that is affecting editing. (504)
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