backtracking a tad September 8, 2007
Posted by deene in interactivity, participatory journalism.trackback
So this is a little off track, but still on topic. I posted this in a comment but figured it would make more sense to make it into a formal post.
The ENC of my paper holds this thing once a week called “The Tony Awards” (it’s an attempt at punnery-his first name is Tony) where he talks about what was good in the previous week’s paper. It’s to give a little recognition to staffers etc. . . So anyway, one of our reporters did an indepth on the resurgence of heroin in the Flint area. It was a really excellent story and it stirred a great deal of response from our community, including a fairly well written letter from a girl in her 20’s who has struggled with heroin addiction for years. We edited it for length, but not much else and published it on A1. During the Tony awards our ENC pointed out the reporter’s story as being really good because of the community response. What he said really struck me and I wrote it down. This isn’t a direct quote, but it’s a decent paraphrase.
We used to be all riled up about this thing called citizen journalism. Well, after dealing with it for a short time we, of course, realized that there is no such thing. Journalism is a craft practiced by trained professionals. But writing is not. [Brin’s] story was an example of good, solid journalism, but this letter was an example of reader provided, well written content. And any time we can generate a response that gives us that, then you know it’s been a good day.
I thought it was an interesting view of a topic so many of our contemporaries are struggling with. What do you think?
Excellent story, This shows the true strength in cit journalism that our project should consider, not that everyday people are going out and getting sources and writing stories, but that they can contribute to the base of knowledge and help to build a platform of multiple sources with a varying use of mediums and technology, and this is a really long sentence.
definitely. excuse me if I’m behind a bit, but are the finished products of collaboration going to be able to be used by news sites? what is the dynamic of that relationship?