Encountering Citizen Journalism

The first time I found myself in iTalknews.com I was entertaining other thoughts. I found myself mixing with would-be journalists who I doubted of their ability to write - just judging from the way they constructed their headlines. I said to myself, “Yuck! Why did I have to come here?"

Since there were buttons for editing options, I began correcting some outputs. I felt that by doing so, I was also contributing to some people's attempts at getting published. Most of these were captions of photographs from developing countries and they do have a lot to tell. I noticed that they knew how to project social implications just through these captions, especially the Indian writers. I am touched by most of them.

I found myself lamenting the fact that I cannot touch other people’s work for correction. While the site recognizes the liberty of one to edit other people’s work, it reserves the right of the writer to deny such editing.

I also found myself wanting to have something published that would normally never see print in my own country. I see that I am able to do it in iTalknews.com without fear of reprisal. From here, I began to realize the significance of citizen journalism.

Before I came to iTalk.com, however, I didn’t have a name for this practice. Mixing the work of unschooled journalists with those of professional writers was unheard of before. Until one day, I read of Poynter’s piece.

Steve Outing wrote about “The 11 Layers of Citizen Journalism” in Poynter Online. Poynter Institute is a school for journalists. In this article, Outing discussed models of this mixing practice being adopted by many news websites. I also happen to have come across the feedback of Liz Lee who said iTalk.com was “loosely following models #6 and #10, from Steve's article.” I began to check.

Steve Outing said Model #6 is the stand-alone citizen-journalism site, edited version. This is the news-oriented website that is “comprised entirely or nearly entirely of contributions from the community.”

Outing also said Model #10 is integrating citizen and pro- journalism under one roof. Outing described it as "a news website comprised of reports by professional journalists directly alongside submissions from everyday citizens."

From there, I began to understand the mixing, and am quite happy for this development in the field of journalism. I am not sure, however, how everybody views this practice. But, of course, why shouldn't every citizen be able to speak?

I support Citizen Journalism all the way. I am also with those who think that formal journalism has its strait-jacket becoming too tight for modern journalism.

And may I add: In a country where there are structures that do not permit the voice of some sectors, Citizen Journalism comes in handy – especially in cyberspace.

[World] Citizen Journalism: For Every Daring Write
http://www.italknews.com/view_story.php?menu=top&submenu=&sid=5201