JD Lasica Archives: August 2003
What is participatory journalism?
A roundup of the different flavors of this new journalism form
This article appeared Aug. 6, 2003, in the Online Journalism Review. Here’s the version on the OJR site.
In this series:
• Personal video journalism hits the Net
• Participatory journalism puts the reader in the driver’s seat
• What is participatory journalism?
• When webloggers commit journalism
• Citizens as budding reporters and editors
By J.D. Lasica
Participatory journalism is a slippery creature. Everyone knows what audience participation means, but when does that translate into journalism?
Alas, there’s no simple answer. In a segment on PBS’s “NewsHour” last April that asked, “Is blogging journalism?” Joan Connell, an executive producer at MSNBC.com, suggested that independent bloggers aren’t journalists because no editor comes between the author and reader. “I would submit that (the newsroom) editing function really is the factor that makes it journalism,” she said. (Bloggers disagreed.)
Yet in the same segment, reporter Terence Smith pointed to “opinion journalism Weblogs, like instapundit.com and andrewsullivan.com, that can and have made a difference in the public policy arena.”
And last month syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman bemoaned the fact that Web sites were posting “news” withheld by the mainstream media about the identity of Kobe Bryant’s accuser.
Part of the problem in the is-it-or-isn’t-it-journalism debate arises from the relatively new idea of ordinary people publishing online — some of them reporting news.
“For the first time, people at the edges of the network have the ability to create their own news entities,” says Dan Gillmor, a San Jose Mercury News journalist who is writing a book about participatory journalism.
So what is participatory journalism?
When small independent online publications and collaborative news sites with an amateur staff perform original reporting on community affairs, few would contest that they’re engaged in journalism.
When citizens contribute photos, video and news updates to mainstream news outlets, many would argue they’re doing journalism.
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Participatory journalism puts the reader in the driver’s seat
New forms of journalism let citizens become partners in the news
This article appeared Aug. 6, 2003, in the Online Journalism Review. Here’s the version on the OJR site.
In this series:
• Personal video journalism hits the Net
• Participatory journalism puts the reader in the driver’s seat
• What is participatory journalism?
• When webloggers commit journalism
• Citizens as budding reporters and editors
By J.D. Lasica
Over the past few years, the outlines of a new form of journalism have begun to emerge. Call it participatory journalism or one of its kindred names — open-source journalism, personal media, grassroots reporting — but everyone from individuals to online newspapers has begun to take notice.
“It’s about readers participating in the editorial process, and it’s long overdue,” says Dan Gillmor, a blogger and technology columnist for the San Jose Mercury News, who is writing a book on the subject called “Making the News.” “People at the edges of the network are getting a chance to become more involved in traditional journalism by using many of the same tools of the trade. This is tomorrow’s journalism, with professionals and gifted amateurs as partners.”
Gillmor put his credo in action by publishing his book outline online and asking his readers to react and contribute to it.
A new report on participatory journalism by New Directions for News concludes: “Journalism finds itself at a rare moment in history where … its hegemony as gatekeeper of the news is threatened by not just new technology and competitors but, potentially, by the audience it serves.
“Armed with easy-to-use Web publishing tools, always-on connections and increasingly powerful mobile devices, the online audience has the means to become an active participant in the creation and dissemination of news and information.” (Disclaimer: I edited the NDN report).
Today, you can see glimmers of participatory journalism seeping into online news sites. The new media managers at the Santa Fe New Mexican have been won over by the idea and hope to broaden the various forms of reader participation on the newspaper’s Web site.
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Personal video journalism hits the Net
A camera, firewire, Internet connection and some gumption are all you need to Webcast
This column appeared Aug. 6, 2003, in the Online Journalism Review. Here’s the version on the OJR site.
In this series:
• Personal video journalism hits the Net
• Participatory journalism puts the reader in the driver’s seat
• What is participatory journalism?
• When webloggers commit journalism
• Citizens as budding reporters and editors
By J.D. Lasica
By night, Raven — the name everyone uses for 47-year-old Harold Kionka — works as a janitor, mopping the floors and cleaning the grease traps in TGIFriday’s in Daytona Beach, Fla.
By day, he operates almost single-handedly a 24-hour Internet TV station, serving as owner, station manager, producer and on-air personality. Daytonabeach-live brings live coverage of events in the Florida resort town to as many as 17,000 viewers a day.
Raven and a handful of others are at the vanguard of a new breed of journalism: personal broadcasting. Using equipment that is now relatively inexpensive and simple to use, these video pioneers are claiming a stake in territory that was once the exclusive province of big media.
But let Raven tell it. “I consider a lot of what I do real reporting with no strings attached. When a major event comes to town, I’m there with my camcorder to record everything that goes down while adding some color commentary. On slower days, I still capture the city’s day-to-day life.”
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