"Citizen Journalism: Embracing the New Power of Your Audience," explored the contributions of ordinary people to Web-based journalism, both in the form of blogs and contributed material.
As we all know, the easy availability of digital cameras, camera cell phones and inexpensive home video equipment have created a vast number of potential "photojournalists." The BBC, represented on the panel by Adrian Van Klaveren, controller of production and deputy director of news, received thousands of images immediately after the London subway bombings.
Yahoo! News General Manager Neil Budde encouraged the media to cultivate these amateur news-gatherers. He cited WKRN-TV in Nashville which has held workshops for these people on how to shoot video.
But with all these would-be photojournalists out there, how do you verify the authenticity of such material? Van Klaveren suggested that you have to use standards of traditional journalism: Describe to the audience what you have and where you got it. Laura Ling of Current TV, which uses a lot of viewer-contributed programming, said her network has an editorial team for fact checking. But she acknowledged that they often depend on the audience to correct mistakes.
Another question in the use of such material is payment. An audience member asked if this doesn't amount to using unpaid freelancers. No one on the panel answered that directly, but Budde predicted a kind of dual model using paid journalists and unpaid contributors. He also said Yahoo! is adding journalists to vet its news content. Currently, however, it uses a "spider"--computer software which automatically combs news sites for material. Van Klaveren made a similar prediction, saying the BBC would still need journalists to verify contributed content.
Robert Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association, said most bloggers aren't interested in money, they just want to get their message out.
Cox said he thinks that legal protections that apply to journalists also should apply to bloggers--such as the right to protect anonymous sources.
An educator in the audience asked if journalism schools should tear up their curriculums and start over. Ling said they need to be flexible. Van Klaveren said the media will still require "traditional" journalists because it's the only way to give people what they expect. And Brown urged supplementing the curriculum to familiarize students with the technical and business sides of the developing media.
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