For those of you out there who have been keeping tabs, yes I do in fact reference Time Magazine a lot! During the course of my degree, I have developed a sick addiction to the publication, both physical and virtual, as a result of my journalism major. However Time Inc.’s recent announcement that it has again decided against public contribution as a source of news, unlike network broadcasters like CNN and ABC, has caused a sway in my opinion of the company.
As a student in the Creative Industries faculty also, I am continually introduced to innovative styles of relaying news to the public, which have been enabled through development of Web 2.0. An example of such a style includes citizen journalism.
As described in Bruns’ lecture, citizen journalism stems from individuals with no professional journalistic education who rely on the internet as a voice medium (Wilson, 2008). Consequently, people are using blogs, video sharing sites like YouTube and podcasts as a means of both publishing and consuming informative and up-to-date news broadcasts (Wilson, 2008).
Through this, dependence on the elite reporters for news information is reduced and replaced by reliance on a wider group of informal writers (Bruns, 2008, pg 77). This idea is expressed through Surowiecki’s theory (2005) which describes a group’s collective intelligence as more valuable compared with that of an elite few.
Through assessment of my own experiences, I found this to be of great reality. For assessment in another subject, students were divided into groups and presented with a number of facts on a recent incident. These facts were identical to those presented to Channel 7’s Brisbane reporters a month ago. Through this exercise it was concluded that often the material created within a group of students was of equal if not greater quality to the material produced by professionals.
Another description of citizen journalism is expressed by Saunders (2006), in his 2006 thesis Citizen Media and Investigative Journalism. In this thesis, Saunders claims that journalism is created through continual editing and public critique of existing stories (Saunders, 2006, pg 113). Consequently for Time Inc., a company recognised for innovative broadcast practices, to dispute the value of public contributions, seems very backwards.
Interestingly, Time Inc. did provide reasons for its decision, which largely focused on concerns about monitoring content quality of contributions associated with the Time name. Subsequently this apprehension is understandable as the company is acting in a manner which protects their interests. However I felt it naïve of Time Inc. to believe that the traditional news process of gatekeeping would not evolve to match the growth of citizen journalism.
This is evident through similarities existing between citizen journalism and open source software. Thereby, in citizen journalism the notion exists that pieces are never complete as there is always room for improvement (Wilson, 2008). Since production is made available to everyone, an illustration of produsage (Bruns, 2008, pg 78), better quality sources are realised through ‘power of the eyeball,’ a concept, which, through critique and debate of articles, results in better articles ‘rising to the top’ (Wilson, 2008).
As a student in the Creative Industries faculty also, I am continually introduced to innovative styles of relaying news to the public, which have been enabled through development of Web 2.0. An example of such a style includes citizen journalism.
As described in Bruns’ lecture, citizen journalism stems from individuals with no professional journalistic education who rely on the internet as a voice medium (Wilson, 2008). Consequently, people are using blogs, video sharing sites like YouTube and podcasts as a means of both publishing and consuming informative and up-to-date news broadcasts (Wilson, 2008).
Through this, dependence on the elite reporters for news information is reduced and replaced by reliance on a wider group of informal writers (Bruns, 2008, pg 77). This idea is expressed through Surowiecki’s theory (2005) which describes a group’s collective intelligence as more valuable compared with that of an elite few.
Through assessment of my own experiences, I found this to be of great reality. For assessment in another subject, students were divided into groups and presented with a number of facts on a recent incident. These facts were identical to those presented to Channel 7’s Brisbane reporters a month ago. Through this exercise it was concluded that often the material created within a group of students was of equal if not greater quality to the material produced by professionals.
Another description of citizen journalism is expressed by Saunders (2006), in his 2006 thesis Citizen Media and Investigative Journalism. In this thesis, Saunders claims that journalism is created through continual editing and public critique of existing stories (Saunders, 2006, pg 113). Consequently for Time Inc., a company recognised for innovative broadcast practices, to dispute the value of public contributions, seems very backwards.
Interestingly, Time Inc. did provide reasons for its decision, which largely focused on concerns about monitoring content quality of contributions associated with the Time name. Subsequently this apprehension is understandable as the company is acting in a manner which protects their interests. However I felt it naïve of Time Inc. to believe that the traditional news process of gatekeeping would not evolve to match the growth of citizen journalism.
This is evident through similarities existing between citizen journalism and open source software. Thereby, in citizen journalism the notion exists that pieces are never complete as there is always room for improvement (Wilson, 2008). Since production is made available to everyone, an illustration of produsage (Bruns, 2008, pg 78), better quality sources are realised through ‘power of the eyeball,’ a concept, which, through critique and debate of articles, results in better articles ‘rising to the top’ (Wilson, 2008).
References
Bruns, A. 2008. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage. New York: Peter Lang.
Saunders, B. 2006. Citizen Media and Investigative Journalism . Honours these, Creative Industries - Media and Communication, Queensland University of Technology.
Surowiecki, J. 2005. This Wisdom of Crowds. New York: NY Ingram International Inc.
Wilson, J. (2008). KCB201 Virtual Cultures: Week 10 lecture notes. http://blackboard.qut.edu.au (accessed May 8, 2008).
Bruns, A. 2008. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage. New York: Peter Lang.
Saunders, B. 2006. Citizen Media and Investigative Journalism . Honours these, Creative Industries - Media and Communication, Queensland University of Technology.
Surowiecki, J. 2005. This Wisdom of Crowds. New York: NY Ingram International Inc.
Wilson, J. (2008). KCB201 Virtual Cultures: Week 10 lecture notes. http://blackboard.qut.edu.au (accessed May 8, 2008).
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