But do citizen journalists know what they’re talking about?
It used to be when I heard the term “citizen journalist,” I reacted like Hermann Goering did to the word “culture”—I wanted to reach for my gun. Not because I hate community watchdogs, who are absolutely necessary to journalism, contributing as leakers, tipsters, eyewitnesses, whistleblowers and “informed sources.” And not because I’m opposed to waves of amateur guerillas pulling the tail of, and sometimes running circles around, the mainstream media on blogs or in the alternative press. I hated the term because it had a whiff of self-importance, as if bloggers were somehow the new Minutemen fighting the British at Lexington and Concord.
A fascination with its own stature has been a hallmark of the mainstream media. In the last century, it became too corporate, too much a part of the establishment, too full of itself. It evolved from a feisty trade practiced by hard-drinking individualists into a profession that required sober young journos to get master’s degrees at J-schools. News organizations spent enormous amounts of time and capital building bureaucracies and setting industry standards. As University of Washington communications professor Doug Underwood once wrote about America’s daily newspapers, it’s a problem “when MBAs rule the newsroom.”
A blue-collar trade practiced by average Joes turned into a white-collar profession with the aura of a sacred trust. Editors began spending too much time talking about themselves, attending seminars and grooming the industry as the fourth branch of government. No surprise what happens when you become part of officialdom: Many newspapers became dull and began to look alike; they were linked in media chains that often squeezed out local character. Some dailies even outsourced the task of keeping in touch with the public. Have a problem with a story? Write the ombudsman.
Now the mainstream media are dying off, especially newspapers. It’s like the Black Death creeping across medieval Europe: There’s a little sanctuary in the isolation of remote markets, but not much. The inefficient advertising formula that once allowed newspapers to reap huge profits and become boring has disappeared, victim of Craigslist, the Internet, and now an economic downturn. Across the state, newspapers are slashing staffs, shutting printing plants, reducing frequency, even folding. A couple of years ago, the Seattle-Eastside market had three daily newspapers. Now it’s basically down to one, and The Seattle Times is struggling to stay afloat. Newspaper monopolies are no longer a sure thing.
Cutbacks are genuinely affecting the way we get information. Without the Seattle dailies’ cash to push public access and First Amendment lawsuits, who will be left to provide the legal muscle on media issues? Also worrisome is shrinking coverage on vital beats, like state government. According to The Seattle Times, in 1993, there were 34 reporters covering Olympia. In 2007, there were 17. In 2009, just nine correspondents cover the state capital full time, year-round, according to the Associated Press’ Curt Woodward, president of the (dwindling) Olympia Capitol Correspondents Association. And that included the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporters.
The question is: Where will we get the news? People realize that other media have been feeding off the dailies for years: Web sites link to their stories, TV and radio steal their reporting, alt-newspapers get market position by establishing themselves as the hipper Davids against uncool Goliaths. The answer, in part, is: It’s time for the citizen journalists to stop preening and step up their game. Not to beat the big boys, but to fill the void their demise is leaving. The news business is now following the DIY model. You want news? Go find it. Report it. Tell the world. Do it yourself.
With the old media model collapsed, it’s up to the media consumer to step up. The problem is, new media models aren’t financially viable yet: Newspaper advertising is down, but so is Web advertising. The media are diversifying; it’s a multitude armed with cell phones, iPods, BlackBerrys, blogs, digital cameras, laptops, and Facebook pages. In the dawning age of the citizen journalist, Walt Whitman would hear the sound of America Twittering. But Twitter isn’t profitable yet either. Instant communication is in, but instant riches are not. The profession is devolving into an avocation, or a nonprofit enterprise. Victory will go not to the swift, but to those who care the most, who will do what is needed out of passion and drive.
Bill Gates once discovered, during Microsoft’s multimedia heyday in the ’90s, that content was cheap because writers would do it even if they weren’t being paid. Technology has brought us closer to that with the news; what everyone’s scrambling for is a new electronic model that pays. But the market likes free, demands free. Only a few magazines and newspapers successfully charge online subscription fees, and since news stories don’t have the shelf life of songs, charging per article the way iTunes charges for songs is probably wishful thinking. In this wide-open frontier, toll gates drive online readers elsewhere.
Fast-paced, newly minted citizen journalists should leave their sense of self-importance behind in this climate. The blogosphere, like most alternative communities, is rife with self-regard, but the path of sanctimony is littered with the bones of media giants who weakened under its weight.
The best thing is for citizen scribes (and podcasters and YouTubers) to get a handle on the basics: Learn the nuts and bolts of reporting—it’s not that hard. The resources have never been more accessible for citizen reporters and freelancers: free global information, instant communication, Google (which is better than an intern). There are wiki groups and sites that provide free art, networks that help good stories get noticed. The legacy media is also a resource: the Knight Citizen News Network has a portal to guide citizen journalists to the resources they need.
Hundreds of journalists who are now out on the street can teach newbie newsies how to file a public records request or get press access (media passes are not a sure thing for bloggers, who still can’t get credentialed in Olympia). Oh, and one piece of advice from a seasoned journalist: You’ll want to bone up on libel law, something you’ll need to know if you want to have any fun as a citizen journalist and still keep your house.
We may be moving into a time with fewer newspaper Goliaths, which means all of us Davids will have to pick up the slack to help keep our communities’ mischief-makers and bullies in check. We’ll all need to hone our slingshot skills, that’s for sure. L&P
—Knute Berger
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