The people as partners

Tish Grier writes about a move by a local TV news station to get rid of their paid new staff in favor of citizen journalism content. It’s something college journalists should keep in mind:

I’m sick of the hype that says citizen journalism is “all the rage” when only a handful of people across the country are doing it, and only a subset of that are doing it as a concerted and journalistic effort. I’m sick of cynical news agencies wanting to “harvest” user generated content, absorb online discussions to try to make them into “news” for some other reason than including people in their conversaion. I’m sick an industry that doesn’t want to develop people into top-notch journalists like it did in the old days that it loves to allude to so very much….

Further, the People have just begun to express themselves online, to have conversations out in the open and among more than a few friends at the bar, diner, or kitchen table. We are only now learning how to use media. Some folks are good at it, some aren’t. We need time and the freedom to develop our own projects, learn to use media on our own timetable, not be forced into it by news agencies–both print and broadcast–because of some kind of hype and falling revenues.

I talk a lot about “news as conversation.” It’s a great concept, and one that I think is crucial to the future survival of journalism - quality journalism. But it’s very easy to slip into an attitude that sees citizen contributions as just another way to bump the bottom line, or a “feel-good” effort at community relations.

People deserve to be treated with respect. It’s an element of customer service that we need desperately to learn about - and teach - in our student media and our j-schools.

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