Grassroots journalism: Actual content vs. shining ideal

Grassroots journalism: Actual content vs. shining ideal Grassroots journalism: Actual content vs. shining ideal Community news sites get a lot of hype, but can they produce quality journalism? A survey, from pineapple salsa to virtual village greens.

CITIZEN JOURNALISM

Traditional media experiment with citizens as news producers MSNBC
invited viewers to share photos of their interactions with the late
Pope John Paul II, while The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash.,
anointed eight readers with the power to publicly criticize the
newspaper's coverage on its very Web site. Newspapers in Greensboro,
N.C., and Boulder, Colo., are even letting citizens write their own
news stories -- on weddings, awards, even a missing cat named Banjo.
Most go on the Web, but the best of the "hyper-local" news stories get
printed. Traditional news organizations are dipping their toes in
citizen journalism, engaging readers and viewers in news production
with the help of the Internet, camera phones and other technologies.
Yet there's frustrations in some circles that so-called mainstream
media aren't going far and fast enough. Source: Anick Jesdanun, The
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&sl
ug=Citizen%20Journalism

We don't own the news any more...

Media execs ponder the role of citizen journalism The avalanche of
high-quality video, photos and e-mailed news material from citizens
following the July 7 bombings in London marked a turning point for the
British Broadcasting Corporation, the head of its global news division
said Wednesday. Richard Sambrook, director of the BBC World Service
and Global News Division, told a conference the broadcaster's
prominent use of video and other material contributed by ordinary
citizens signaled that the BBC was evolving from being a broadcaster
to a facilitator of news. "We don't own the news any more," Sambrook
said. "This is a fundamental realignment of the relationship between
large media companies and the public." Sambrook likened the increasing
use of user-generated news material to a sports game in which the
crowd was not only invading the field but also seeking to participate
in the game, fundamentally changing the sport.

Sambrook was speaking on a panel with other media professionals at a
conference on "citizen journalism" organized by The Media Center, a
media think tank based in Reston, Va., and hosted by The Associated
Press at its headquarters building in New York.

Source: Seth Sutel, The Associated Press via Breitbart.com
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/10/05/D8D200902.html