Citizen journalism might try to kill you
Summary: The expansion of social media and "blogs" has created more avenues by which we can all communicate, which is great. However, it's also created more opportunities for error.
Citizen journalism is often described as a way of policing the content of bona fide news organizations for errors and fairness or community members writing news of their own. Though not without its own faults, as citizen journalism has been the culprit of many inaccuracy crimes over the last handful of years. It's even attempted physical harm -- and poor Steve Jobs didn't know what hit him. It's a serious issue. Serious as a heart attack, even.
One of my biggest frustrations with this notion of people taking reporting into their own hands is the lack of fact-checking and journalistic integrity that comes with it. Not only could it hurt a potential subject or company, i.e. Jobs and Apple, but it can discredit the news agency that proliferates the incorrect message. Yes, even CNN.
The expansion of social media and "blogs" has created more avenues by which we can all communicate, which is great. However, it's also created more opportunities for error. How do we know what is true? And how do we put measurs into effect that better police this content before it goes out?
It appears that some people might be more interested in breaking a story rather than confirming that their facts are accurate. That is a dangerous practice. Is it really worth the page views to create a liability to yourself or the news organization you may drag into this?
We're a society where people are famous for being famous. Young attractive women picking their nose on YouTube can bring 100,000 page views or even a sponsorship contract. Our information priorities are out of whack and we need to get them back on track. There need to be some checks and balances. Plus, anonymous reporting or blogging should just not be tolerated.
Interestingly timed, I received an email this week from a company called gooseGrade, which both enables citizen journalism and also calls its accuracy into question. Writers can install gooseGrade on their blogs and open themselves up to fact-checking and even spelling and grammatical corrections from the readers at large. Bloggers can choose whether or not to take the proposed changes from readers and readers are kept honest by being assigned their own grades that reflect how accurate they really were (rather than just being snooty grammar police).
In theory, I think gooseGrade is onto something. With so many bloggers at large spewing their opinions (like me) and doing copy-paste blogging and not checking their content before publishing, it's no wonder we have so much confusion in getting together as a community, and say, try to elect a president?
Citizen journalists, please be careful. You almost put Jobs in ICU. Let's not do that with anyone else.
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Talkback
Double edged sword
Take the earthquakes we've had recently around the world. CNN reported it a full hour after they happened because it needed to be verified, but when 200 people report an earthquake within a span of a few minutes, changes are there's an earthquake, or SOME kind of natural disaster in that area.
But then you have people that, as you said, try to be popular. They don't check their facts properly, or worse, they could set the whole thing up as a fake story. I wrote that it could have been someone trying to get the price of Apple down so that he could make a quick buck today. If that's the case, he succeeded.
So what's the solution? Can there be trusted people on the web that have a better reputation than others? I'm sure something will shake out soon, but CNN needs to be more careful with their iReport section now.
RE: Citizen journalism might try to kill you
I'm more worried about
violations
- militarized 'law enforcement'
Rubber bullets, tasers, gas & truncheons are a bit more of
a threat... thank you for your concern... but when the
PRESS isn't covering the issues, the People have to do it for
themselves.
Ask Amy Goodman.
That is correct!
But the bottom line is that I have a zero to miniscule chance that the government will use any of these things on me.
Statistics show I have a much, much, greater chance of being assulted with one of the above netioned devices by a fellow citizen
Not Sure About That
Were you joking?
RE: Citizen journalism might try to kill you
or put in this way.
So, really there are a thin line between professional and aficionado, and the main difference is the salary.
Big difference
Blogs can do a lot of things well, but none have the sheer scope of even a modest broadcast or print operation.
As far as Fox News is concerned the position many of their commentators take is that global warming is probably happening but it is far from certain that mankind's activities are to blame. In addition their commentators are not reporters, which is a distinction many of their detractors fail to make. Shepard Smith is a reporter, Bill O'Reilly is a commentator.
Both kinds of operations have a place at the table. It is up to the consumer to figure out how much weight to give information they receive from various sources.
gooseGrade could itself degrade Journalism
RE: Citizen journalism might try to kill you
The same way you apparently put measures into effect that police your spelling.
RE: Citizen journalism might try to kill you
Horrors
Knowledge is power.
<br><br>
<i>Anything</i> that might help disseminate more knowledge more widely among more American citizens is a good thing, even if that knowledge isn't necessarily accurate--it just puts individuals in the same position as news organisations of having to check and verify from multiple sources and so on.
Bloggers and readers, both
When people do actually engage in fact-checking, the next error is not checking primary sources. This is a problem with history as well as journalism. (Heck, it's a serious problem with U.S. K-12 historical textbooks, even discounting for over-simplification and sheer propaganda.)
Perhaps this Goose thing could be good for fact-checking, depending on how it is set up and how it evolves. Like most things, it can possibly be used in ways not intended by it's creators, with the opposite result of burying facts. I'll hope for the upside, though, it is an interesting concept.
Thanks for the article.
RE: Citizen journalism might try to kill you
So if I can't get honest, accurate, and timely information from the professionals, exactly where is it that you think I should get it?
RE: Citizen journalism might try to kill you
Safety in numbers
I agree our information priorities are out of whack.
Citizen journalism covers additional stories newspapers won't.
Seven deadly sins of citizen journalism expand beyond "cut and past blogging", "email to blog", Writing under the influence (anger, alcohol or allusion of facts) to down right bad information and beliefs. Originally people who believed the sun was cold because the outside was so hot where found mostly at parties after too many drinks. Now they get their own webpage.
Mass media faceplants
For low-information voters who need to be spoon-fed valid information, this blog post is probably well-suited. But for citizens who recognize the societal danger of media ownership consolidation, more independent writing can help lead to better media literacy. We'll all teach each other enough, sooner or later.