Upcoming in July: a citizen media workshop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, under the aegis of the international newspaper technology organization Ifra. From the webpage:
First Time In Asia! Citizen Media Summit
How to Ride on the Wave of the Digital Deluge
Date: 2 - 4 July 2007
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Language(s): EnglishSummary / Composition / Zusammenfassung
A couple of recent launches highlight just how much participation has become part of the mainstream.
Howard Owens points to a Media Life story quoting UNC J-prof Frank Fee, raising questions about "citizen journalism:"
“It goes back to the days of country correspondents or stringers. They are limited in what they can do, and newspapers have never been very good about training those people. ... I have seen some horrendous mistakes made by people who don’t know what they are doing."
In a recent report on Web 2.0, the Pew Internet & American Life project documents the performance of three participatory websites against their more conventional counterparts: Photobucket vs. Kodakgallery, Wikipedia vs. Encarta, Myspace vs. Geocities. The comparisons are compelling. I'll skip the thousand words and just pass along the pictures:
Last year Tom Grubisch examined a number of local "citizen journalism" projects and declared that what he found, "apart from a couple of honorable exceptions, is the Internet equivalent of Potemkin villages -- an elaborate façade with little substance behind it."
A year later he reexamines these projects for OJR.org. He finds some signs of progress, but also has some harsh criticisms.
Over at pbs.org, Mark Glaser takes a look at the history and various labels applied to so-called citizen journalism. None of them seem to fit, making me wonder if we need to admit that these furry, warm-blooded, neocortex-driven reptiles need some other name.
