The role of citizen journalism
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008By now, the issue Are blogs credible? is outdated. Surely, no reasonable person would claim, in a sweeping generalization, that blogs should not be considered a reliable source of news. Perhaps this was an issue in PdF’s inaugural year, back in 2003 when the blogosphere was still struggling for its place in the news cycle. But not today or yesterday.
On the first day of PdF, the issue most discussed may have been:
What is the effect of “citizen journalism” on news reporting?
The issue was already on my mind, having just read the short New Yorker piece on Mayhill Fowler on the Subway ride to the conference. Fowler became the most famous citizen journalist in the country while writing for Huffington Post’s offthebus.com and recorded two quotes from Barack Obama and Bill Clinton that made national news.
The role of citizen journalism was brought up time and time again, first by FireDogLake blog founder Pam Hamsher, who famously captured an angry anti-Hillary activist being escorted from the Capitol floor on her cellphone, which eventually made network news. She praised the efforts of blog communities to move legislation in Congress. She mentioned an ad that her fund-raising organization ran against a US Senator (Evan Bayh? - I forget), who had stalled in pushing a pro-immigration agenda.
Arianna Huffington was most outspoken in her defense of citizen journalism (and offense of everyone else). She believed online media provided three things that were advantageous in terms of credibility over traditional media: transparency, accountability and community. No individual can be inherently objective, she said, acknowledging that The Huffington Post held certain beliefs and views on policy and that readers deserved that transparency…to know where the bylined writer stood so they could make their own conclusions.
The open-sourced nature of the blogosphere holds stories published online more accountable, Huffington insisted. Not to editors, but to readers in the form of email, comments, message boards, blogs, etc. If you get it wrong on something, chances are that someone will call you out on it.
Citizen journalism was criticized most by a panel of journalists who discussed the effect of Internet on politics and explored with most in depth analysis was at the “Clickocracy” breakout, with Ana Marie Cox, founder of wonkette.com, Ben Smith of Politico, Jose Antonio Vargas of WaPo and Sarah Lei Stirland of Wired and moderated by Jeff Jarvis.
Smith, Vargas and Stirland seemed to be somewhat traditional journalists, in that they spent at least some time working for a print newspaper and they each acknowledged the concern about citizen journalism. Namely, that it thrives off of “gotcha”-type tactics, like capturing public figures in their most vulnerable state, saying or doing embarrassing things. The result is that the news cycle will become more about the “horse race” than the important issues .
Another concern is that citizen journalism don’t feel any responsibility to disclose themselves as members of the media. As a result, public figures, especially politicians, have grown increasingly distrustful of the press and close off their already limited access. It hurts news reporting because journalists have less inside sources to disclose information.
Ultimately, the panel agreed there’s nothing to do but embrace the momentum of news reporting’s shift to citizen journalism. There was little elaboration on what, if any, regulation should be in enforced to ensure that it isn’t taken advantage of.
Elizabeth Edwards, the final guest speaker of Day 1, said flat out that online news actually has done a better job of reporting on the political world. She acknowledged that there’s a “mixed bag” when it comes to accuracy and dependability but had no problems saying that they’re not only credible, but more credible than print.
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