A New Watchdog: Open Source and Participatory Journalism

We Media Introduction by Dale Peskin

Participatory Journalism= The act of a citizen, or group of citizens, playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information. The intent of this participation is to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging, and relevant information that a democracy requires.It is a bottom-up phenomenon that is the result of many simultaneous, distributed conversations.

Time to Get Off the Bus by Zack Exley

Off the Bus Website -click around

Off the Bus is a citizen journalism project, co-published by Arianna Huffington and Jay Rosen, to help “radically improve” the coverage of the 2008 presidential election by empowering new kinds of people to write a new kind of news.

I. Gaps mainstream media can’t reach

A. Inaccuracies around reporting the “new” aspects of campaigning that involve the Internet, technology, new kinds of voter data and targeting practices, new kinds of field organizing

B. Lack of time and resources

C. Poor positioning: only chasing candidates and campaign spokespeople

II. Embraces the concept of “You”=average person

A. Understand the new rules of the presidential campaigns

B. Support one, both, or neither party

C. Volunteer by making phone calls, knocking on doors, donating money, and using the internet to connect with others

III. Unlike mainstream media, this will give a more complete and accurate picture of American politics

A. A whole new approach, including thousands of opinions, coverage from many angles (Healthcare example: analyzing from policy experts, health care workers and patients’ viewpoints)

B. Not restrictive writing like mainstream media’s “master narrative” because they are not restricted to the professionalism rules, ethics and editor mechanics like the mainstream media.

C. Thousands of people from “you” group will investigate how campaigns are operating in individual communities which will keep the nation connected. Example: June 9th Obama campaign launched an organized field operation called “Walk for Change.” 10,000 people gathered at more than 1,000 events (mostly organized by volunteers) to door-knock Democratic primary voters. This event didn’t happen on “the bus”-meaning it was not a typical, routine organized campaigning event (by way of means other than the internet) mainstream news barely covered it.

Bloggers vs. Journalists is Over by Jay Rosen

The everlasting argument of bloggers vs. journalists has ended. The question is not whether blogs can be journalism or if bloggers are journalists, but rather to find a deep pattern of which the two are a part.

I. Extension of “the press” to the people that were traditionally and once formerly known as the public

A. Press has shifted social location from media to include open-source media and participatory journalism (in the hands of the public) because of the Web and blogs.

II. Not Sovereign- professional journalism no longer has total control over the territory it once patrolled. This doesn’t mean it will disappear, it just means its influence is no longer singular.

A. There are more centers of power and influence.

B. Journalism is no longer a “gatekeeper” of the news: it has been challenged by technology, competition and its audience

C. Tools that make this shift possible: easy Web publishing tools, always-on connections, mobile devices.

D. The audience has now become an active participant of creating and disseminating news and information.

III. “The paper doesn’t have a voice”

A. Mainstream big media lacks a voice. There is no personal connection.

B. Objectivity is part of this problem. Once an ethical touchstone for journalism, objectivity now represents a control over the message and producing a rigid story that excludes voices beyond the narrowly conventional.

C. Natural disasters (earthquake and tsunamis in South Asia and their aftermath) represent the tipping point in citizen journalism because there is more of human connection among readers and writers, a feeling of empathy, not just stark reporting.

IV. The rise of blogs does NOT equal the death of professional journalism

A. Internet is turning into a symbiotic ecosystem=different parts feed off each other and t he whole thing grows

B. Participatory media and journalism are different but online they exist in a shared realm

C. Both bring different strengths to the table and both benefit

Ending Key Points:

1. Blogs are “little First Amendment machines.”

2. Trust/reputational capital is the number one asset of the news organization. This is accomplished by professional standards being met which will maintain the brand. Blogs too require trust, but they have to build their reputations from the ground up. If you blog responsibly, you will build a reputation as a trusted news source. To gain this trust, they must focus on uses and have to be in dialogue with other readers and bloggers.

3. Pro-Ams are amateurs who work to professional standards. They are knowledgeable, educated, committed and networked by technology. They are new sources of authority and new kinds of organizations. (Citizen Journalists)

4. News as a conversation will create greater credibility and trust among journalists and the audience.

Strengths of citizen journalism: Vividness, mass volume, and wide availability of first person accounts on news and events. Shared via blogs, text messages, and videos on the Internet.

Weakness of citizen journalism: Lack of shape, structure and meaning of the story.Traditional media has disciplines such as space, deadlines, headline, intro, cohesive story in a specific structure (like inverted pyramid), and layout give the stories priority, meaning and understanding to make better sense of the world.

“The point of innovation in media is to expand, not simply to displace, the voices that existed before,” blogger and Web philosopher Mitch Ratcliffe.

YouTube Video "Behind the Citizen Journalism Revolution"href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xse5aKtJQg">

Crowd Sourced Journalism
I found this article online explaining Assignment Zero, an experimental project in Pro-Am Journalism. However, I think this article’s definition of Pro-Am is much different than Rosen’s. Here, the concepts of Pro (that of professional journalists) and amateurs (citizen journalists) are combined to work together in a “win-win situation,” claims the author where amateurs write and report and journalists edit. What do you think? Are the negatives of citizen journalism that are mentioned in this article valid and/or relevant? Will this solve the “problem” or bridge the gap between journalists and bloggers?

Discussion Questions:

1. Are there additional “tipping points” other than natural disasters that can create an upsurge of participatory reporting/journalism?

2. Can professional journalism transform to have more of a voice? How? Will it benefit from the change?

3. How does a writer “blog responsibly” in order to gain readers’ trust?

4. Citizen journalism’s weakness is said to be that blogs lack shape, structure and meaning as opposed to traditional journalism’s rigid structure and construction of understanding. Is this truly a weakness? Why or why not?

5. Do citizen journalists play the role of “watchdog?” Who are they watching: professional journalists, the sources of news, or both?