Citizen Journalism
There has been much talk in the blogosphere over the past number of months about citizen journalism and what it means for the mainstream media and for media consumers. To say that opinions vary on this matter would be an understatement. So, how about letting the facts speak for themselves. For instance, one of Canada’s national daily papers - the National Post - arrived in my mailbox this morning with a full front page photo taken with a cell phone in a train moments after one of the horrific explosions in London. The photo showed up on the Net shortly thereafter. The paper also featured an article - People are the new reporters - that chronicled how accounts of the attacks started showing up on various blogs and photo-posting sites within minutes. Mainstream media began picking up the information, including photos, that had been posted on the net. In fact, I saw the Post’s front page photo yesterday while poking around on various blogs reading first hand accounts.
Has the way news is gathered and disseminated changed? You be the judge.
What does this mean for professional communicators? First, it underscores how important it is that we understand the technology and how the blogosphere operates. Second, it underscores the need to consider new media when developing communication strategies, when we are thinking about media relations, when we are involved in issues management or when we are helping our organizations / clients with their business continuity and crisis communication plans. Third, we need to think through what this means in terms of openness and transparency.
To quote Bob Dylan, “The times they are a-changin’”
July 8th, 2005 at 1:11 pm
I just sent a note along with a link to Flickr with the same message. Thanks for sharing with a much larger audience.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/antarcticlemur/
My sympathies to all impacted.
John
July 9th, 2005 at 7:45 am
The idea of getting Person on the Street information to a wide audience has been around for a while. The best example I can think of is CBC Radio’s As It Happens. Their Rolodex must have been incredible. When an event was happening somewhere in the world, they would call the nearest pub, or public phone booth or prime minister to get the story.
Blogs and photo-sharing sites change the dynamic. Now, people don’t have to wait for a news producer to pick them out of the crowd and ask their opinion. We all have the potential to be taht news producer, if we want to.
I think the world will always need professional journalists to keep up with events, chase the stories and use their experience to get beyond the press release. The difference is, they’ll be sharing that function from now on with citizen journalists.