Absolutist declarations of the form "______ is dead" are a cheap way to get links, and universally they are nonsense. Steve Boriss' declaration that "citizen journalism is dead" and "expert journalism is the future" is an example. He incorrectly cites Mark Potts' Backfence and Steve Outing's shutdown of the Enthusiast Group as examples.
All journalism has political implications, and we're seeing that play out in the citizen media space.
Kevin Anderson describes how Google/YouTube has muzzled Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas, who has been posting videos of torture and official violence in Egypt.
The Guardian examines the dilemma of the headline writer as newspapers "integrate their web and press productions:"
Headline writing, of the clever, punning variety that is their stock in trade, is fast becoming an anachronism. For the role of subeditors is changing as media organisations do as the Sun has done and establish integrated newsrooms; producing papers, website, blogs and broadcasts from one desk.
CNN International is the good CNN, the serious global news service that I want on my TV, as compared with the pathetic pandering trash network CNN has become in the United States. It's announced that it's dumping its $10 million Reuters service in favor of spending the money on its own reporting infrastructure. Since Reuters now puts all its content on the Web for free on its own site, CNN doesn't need to subscribe to know what Reuters has discovered. Philip Stone has an interesting analysis.
Mark Potts criticizes breathless misreporting by journalist-bloggers:
Tuesday I'm in Pickerington, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus, to lead a daylong "citizen journalism" training workshop. Undoubtedly the meltdown at the Plain Dealer will be one of the topics of conversation. Noteworthy links:
MinnPost.com launched today with a roster of familiar writers (many ex-Star Tribune), a printable PDF edition, and a homepage ad for the St. Paul Pioneer Press "e-edition."
I just discovered that the Andy Rubin who's working on Google's phone project, profiled in the New York Times by John Markoff, is the same Andy Rubin who ran the Spies in the Wire multiuser Citadel system back in the 1980s.
Over the last five or six years we've seen a tremendous shift in power from destination sites to search. Google has been the big winner. In general, newspaper websites have been slow to recognize the implications of this shift, and have adjusted poorly to the new realities.
In the last 24 months a new contender has arisen: social networking sites, which are so "sticky" that they're displacing everybody else, even Google. And again, newspaper sites are slow to recognize the implications.
How thin can a newspaper staff be? MediaNews is looking for an editor who may find out. Clyde Davis, who blogs about free newspapers, points to a job posting for Flash, a "daily commuter tabloid" planned for Salt Lake. The editor will supervise a staff of four.
