The State of Citizen Journalism

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

Dan Gillmor of the Center for Citizen Media has written a thoughtful assessment of the current state of citizen journalism. "We've come a long way," he says. "But we have a long, long way to go. We need much more experimentation in journalism and community information projects. The business models are, at best, uncertain — and some notable failures are discouraging." He points to examples of citizen journalism in action such as the following:

  • the infamous "Macaca" video that helped lose last year's election for Virginia Senator George Allen
  • Placeblogger, which lists thousands of community-focused weblogs.
  • Pambazuka News, an African podcasting service that calls itself a "weekly forum for social justice in Africa."

Gillmor also notes that some heavily-hyped efforts at commercial citizen journalism have failed, such as Backfence.com and Gillmor's own Bayosphere.com. However, he adds, "The cost of trying new ideas is heading toward zero. That means lots and lots of people will — already are — testing the possibilities of new media. ... So the R&D that the news industry should have done years ago is now being done in a highly distributed way. Yes, some is being done by people inside media companies, but most is not — and increasingly it won't be. It'll take place in universities, in corporate labs, in garages and at kitchen tables."

Main Source: 
Center for Citizen Media, July 15, 2007
Topics: 
Journalism

Comments

Mutternich replied on

currently showing on Pambazuka News are worth quoting here just for the whallop they pack:

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/42505

Stopping intellectual genocide in African universities
Prince Kum'a Ndumbe III (2007-07-12)

'You have not mastered the white people’s foreign tongue? Then you do not have the right to education in your own country, not even at primary school. You have no right to any worthwhile education, however brilliant you are.' Prince Kum’a Ndumbe III calls on Africans to re-appropriate their own languages or face intellectual genocide.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/42387

Africa in the new millennium: Interrogating Barbie democracy
Francis B. Nyamnjoh (2007-07-04)

Inspired by the market logic, the world is currently hostage to a stifling vision of democracy informed by a very narrow idea of what it is to be beautiful, healthy, successful and free. Nowhere is this better exemplified than in the colossal investment that consumer capitalism has made in slimness, the greatest icon of which is Barbie. This image is made and sold aggressively around the world by global consumer and entertainment media to be consumed as the ideal to which all must aspire, if they are to attain the good life. Francis Nyamnjoh assesses the lessons Africa has learned from the implementation of Barbie democracy and examines alternatives to the market model for Africa.

Nice to see that the Internet is not a total Barbie democracy quite yet.