Before it disappears behind their subscription wall, zip over to Editor & Publisher and read Steve Outing’s piece addressing mainstream media’s reticence at jumping all over citizens journalism. He takes on some of the complaints and criticisms of legacy media editors and offers not just arguments, but advice.
Outing is an early adopter of the idea of citizen journalism and has been one of the most enthusiastic proponents of it. There may be tendency by some to write off some of what he says as overstated, but given what’s happening in the mediascape, and the rapid change that’s taking place*, it’s going to be difficult for them to argue with his conclusion:
…the seeds of thinking among top editors … eventually will sprout into real citizen-journalism initiatives among mainstream news organizations. But there’s also plenty of old thinking and let’s-go-slow intent.
The trouble is, as with most new developments on the Internet, others outside the news industry are moving faster. The danger is that news executives will once again go slow while others run with the new opportunity in citizen or participatory journalism. And once again mainstream news companies will be left trailing behind.
* If you’re a regular reader, you’ll have some sense of the accelerating rate of change and innovation that’s taking place among mainstream media (Bakersfield, Greensboro, Ventura County, the rapid spread of RSS), the growing number of hyperlocal journalism projects, and some larger, locally-based citizens journalism projects scheduled to go live later this year in cities like Washington DC and Dallas.
SOURCE: DAN GILLMOR | TECHNORATI TAGS: CITIZEN JOURNALISM, REWTHINKING MEDIA
