Competition
The haughtily named Chartered Institute of Journalists issues a hissy fit over news organizations encouraging citizens to gather news, saying that such efforts are “totally unacceptable and border on the irresponsible.”
How ridiculous. I’d say that the CIJ’s attitude is journalistically offensive. We journalists should believe that more information, more news, more coverage, more knowledge are all good things for journalism and for society.
The CIJ frets that this puts citizens in danger. Well, we’re all big boys and girls and we can make those decisions. It also complains about copyright and payment to citizen journalists. There, too, they can take care of themselves and chose to share or sell or not.
I think the real problem here is that they can’t stand the idea the competition — maybe even competition who work for free because they believe in sharing what they know.
Tags: citizensmedia, Media, Weblogs
August 10th, 2005 at 3:00 pm
A website named scoopt.com has been set up to help new ’snaparazzis’ sell their pictures to mainstream media.
August 10th, 2005 at 3:22 pm
What a bunch of hogwash! You should have heard the media leaning on citizen reporters last night when a chemical plant blew up near here. The reporters were all over people, using them to report news by phone and then live as they came out of the scene.
August 10th, 2005 at 3:26 pm
Forget about scoopit.
If you have a photo of a newsbreaking event, you can make your own phone calls to the MSM.
You don’t need to split the take 50/50 (outrageous!) with them.
August 10th, 2005 at 3:54 pm
If a tree falls, and no “credentialed” journalist is there to document it, did it even fall in the first place?
August 10th, 2005 at 4:10 pm
When we are having a flood or other big storm, the local TV news asks viewers to send pictures of damage via email. A few people are complaining about how all this personal information is being collected by websites and then stored with no security and stolen by ID thieves. That would make a good citizen journalism story. There is no shortage of victims of ID theft. Steal my ID so I can hunt you down. I like a good hunt. There’s a challenge for you detectives out there. Hunt the ID thieves and make plenty of maps. We can play follow that Visa number.
August 10th, 2005 at 4:46 pm
Chartered by whom?
August 10th, 2005 at 5:10 pm
I think its a great idea for citizens to gather news I would believe an eyewitness account from joe smoe any day over a story on CNN
August 10th, 2005 at 6:47 pm
off topic, but related……ESPN kills the zen of PTI with a bait & switch worthy of any local news channel.
http://democracyguy.typepad.com/democracy_guy_grassroots_/2005/08/espn_mangles_th.html
August 10th, 2005 at 7:38 pm
Reality TV, meet the blog. This has to be a possibility. Instead of trying to compete with the news or change the news, I think for blogging to really go to the next level we need to think entertainment. The political stuff is a drag, recasting the news is limited, but entertainment has unlimited potential to tap into the creativity of bloggers. Not just TV, the movies also fit into this. Hollywood is showing its age and needs fresh ideas. There are millions of ideas in the blogosphere, just no real tie ins with entertainment. Ignoring the blogs is like ignoring consumers, which business people won’t do. I’m not sure if it’s the next big thing, but it has to fit into the creative picture.
August 10th, 2005 at 8:19 pm
The story of King Canute and the tides comes to mind.
August 10th, 2005 at 8:33 pm
While this is a post only related to the subject, I’ll come out and say it. Peter Jennings died. MOVE ON!!! A two hour special on ABC? Sorry, he really wasn’t a member of my family. I never considered him very important in my life.
While I am sorry for his family, and his colleagues, I’d much rather watch a special about my mom who passed away from lung cancer a year ago. The two hour special about his life really jumps the shark. Sorry, it does. ABC can do whatever it wants with its programming, but to think that I want to watch it really highlights how out of touch main stream media finds itself.
August 10th, 2005 at 10:15 pm
Jeff
You must read this commenting on bloggers from the MSM
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0809/p09s01-codc.html
Chancy
August 11th, 2005 at 12:33 am
I just went over the Dante Chinni story. I’ve blogged while drinking gin and tonic or a few beers. You can’t do that at the AP or the NYT office. Then you have these bloggers who are political, in a Goebbels kind of way. This became o-so-official when Talon hit the scene and got the bloggers working OT (with no pay) with the Jeff Gannon story. Gannon was making a financial killing with his White House insider vibe. He quickley became an outsider. That was as looney as Novak falling off his rocker. I was drinking more and blogging…well I can’t remember. Don’t ask me for my sources. I was really drunk at the time, with a glass a pretty handy. Don’t worry about today, get hell to pay. Time for a night cap and another nightmare.
August 11th, 2005 at 1:21 am
In their eyes we’re threatening their territory and their control. So they fight back. However, the borders have become so permeable, so amorphous they are nigh impossible to watch and ward.
You could say that the realm of reporting hasn’t so much been invaded as it has grown to incorporate lands and peoples once outside its bounds. What was once a neat and tidy polity has expanded to such an extent most anyone can claim residence therein, including folks ‘proper’ journalists would much rather see on the other side of the fence. What barriers remain are not between journalism and non-journalism, but between those who would claim some special status for themselves, and those who are only interested in telling about what they’ve seen going on?
When journalism can be done by anyone, do journalists need special protections?
August 11th, 2005 at 7:41 am
I have never really understood why bloggers are using the term citizen journalism.
I believe most bloggers don´t see themselves as “journalists”, they are simply discussing, combining, commenting, collaborating. And I believe the web (a blog) is an excellent tool to do this.
But it is an interesting debate!
Anybody has a good definition of what a journalist is supposed to do?
August 11th, 2005 at 9:09 am
Klas, That’s a fair question. I remember going to the ball game as a kid. One game was bat night and everybody who attended was given a nice little Louisville Slugger. Well as things turned out, the law of unintened consequences entered into the evening of fun at the ballpark. After a few thousand fans got several thousand beers into them, the real fun started. It just wasn’t on the field. The whole place went crazy as I recall it and you think the football fans can get out of control. You ain’t seen nothing until you have been to bat night. Baseball then evolved and the boys of summer started using coke and bat night was no more. This was a strange time for baseball, followed by bobble head night. What’s a bobble head supposed to do? I guess all a journalist is supposed to do is show up and the people will decide what to do with their bats, bobble heads and other assorted goodies. Having a bat doesn’t make you Barry Bonds and having a blog doesn’t make you a journalist. A journalist is supposed to make the public remember the truth and the truth shall…
Finding the truth is easy, it’s the explaining it to the bobble heads that is difficult. Sports blogging is becoming a big thing now and football season is around the corner. Hockey is getting restarted too. Journalism never took a whole season off. The presses always keep rolling unless there is a strike and then it is like bat night and everybody is a home run hitter sitting at home. Babe Ruth was asked by a reporter if it was true that his salary was higher than that of President Hoover. Babe replied, “How many home runs did he hit last year?” That’s journalism folks.
August 11th, 2005 at 10:22 am
When journalism can be done by anyone, do journalists need special protections? Alan posts a fair question, worth exploring.
No. You can’t regulate journalism and have a government agency control it.
I think it was President Kennedy that said he got good intelligence from the CIA, but sometimes he got better intelligence from the New York Times. Now things have changed. Judith Miller is in jail and journalism is in crisis. Atta and the terrorists ran free so now the country is in crisis. They got Martha Stewart off the streets and we all know what a danger she was to society. It’s like some sort of gestapo operation run by the men on high. The only protection you have is faith in the truth and these morons can’t take that away from you. They can put you in jail, but remember William Penn was an ex-con and he started Pennsylvania. In America, anything is possible. Mr. Franklin ran this little Pennsylvania press and the rest is history. Today the press is bigger, but the basic idea remains the same.
Some stuff never changes. Laws are passed and the buck gets passed and the blood gets shed. Live free or die.
August 11th, 2005 at 10:35 am
The problem with the gestapo tactics is that all the decent people are treated as criminals and all the criminals are given public defenders and probation for things like rape and assault. Now you have a whole new crew of thugs. They aren’t too smart, but they have diplomas. I’m a dropout myself.
August 11th, 2005 at 10:49 am
Dept. of the Clueless
We have an airport that is almost worthless where I live. It wasn’t destroyed by competition. About the only thing worth security or securing is the Air Force base at our airport and now the government want that closed. They are keeping the airport shopping mall open because shopping is somehow a high priority for national security and there are malls and shopping centers all over the place. Call me dumb, but I sort of believe we might be more secure having an Air Force base than a shopping mall. Maybe the plan is to turn the Air Force base into another shopping mall. We’ll shop or way to national security. I guess it’s a mob mentality or something.
August 11th, 2005 at 10:55 am
More clueless stuff from the race to kill logic.
They were going to build an indoor NASCAR race track at the PIT airport years ago. It never happened. Maybe this is the big plan, converting all the military bases that are closed into indoor NASCAR race tracks. Maybe they are going to turn the outdoor NASCAR tracks into small airports with circular runways. I think these people could be sniffing their own exhaust.
August 11th, 2005 at 11:09 am
Government on Speed: Baseball, Apple Pie in the Sky and NASCAR
It was a great idea but it was highly speculative. It was premature to make it sound like a done deal. According to the Allegheny County high command.
Who wants to go to Daytona, when you go to Pittsburgh in the dead of winter?
Indoor NASCAR, what an idea! It’s time never came. There is a spider on my screen. 1999, that was the year that was the year.
August 11th, 2005 at 11:13 am
Oh, the poor journalists that had to sit through the meeting and cover the NASCAR PIT Airport story. Those were the days. Maybe they can turn the runways into drag racing strips for funny cars.
August 11th, 2005 at 11:28 am
Sorry if I was a little bit loud Jeff. I’ll be quiet for the rest of the day.
August 11th, 2005 at 12:25 pm
Klas K asks: Anybody has a good definition of what a journalist is supposed to do?
A good journalist contributes food for thought.
When the “food” is good, the result is a conversational banquet.
August 11th, 2005 at 12:34 pm
Well, if it’s of interest, I’m a British journalist and I’d never even heard of the CIJ, described in the link as a UK outfit, before I read this. The professional body is the National Union of Journalists. I can’t imagine many working reporters here agreeing with the CIJ statement…
August 11th, 2005 at 1:18 pm
“The haughtily named Chartered Institute of Journalists ”
Jeffo, you apparently bit on a hoax.
Way to go, oh haughty one.
August 11th, 2005 at 2:28 pm
Well, Edo (can we drop the stupid ‘o’ thing, Eddie?) the Poynter Institute gives them credence. I had never heard of them, but that doesn’t mean much; I’m not a joiner. If it’s a hoax, then judging from the web site, somebody doesn’t have a life (or much of a sense of humor).
August 11th, 2005 at 3:10 pm
By the way, I didn’t mean I didn’t think they exist. They do, and there’s no reason to assume the statement is a hoax. It’s just that the CIJ is not a major professional body for UK journalists, that’s all, so shouldn’t be taken as representing a widely held view.
August 11th, 2005 at 8:30 pm
Klas,
I keep a journal, I’m a journalist. I also report on events, that makes me a reporter. People don’t like it, they can go back to their own planet.
August 11th, 2005 at 9:25 pm
Alan is right. It’s a free country.
August 12th, 2005 at 5:02 am
Alan,
Good points. I think you are right. But isn´t it funny how we always have to put a label on everything?
August 13th, 2005 at 3:17 am
You know, one of these days, there will be more people who realize they can tell their own stories. Going to be a grand day. Yes, there will still be journalists, but they’ll be the ones talking with (not to) the audience, the citizens, why we do this, why we were given the power to do this.
I mean, once the masses understand what’s happening in the media landscape, they’re not necessarily going to trust the old media masters. Don’t want to call what I do a newspaper? Well, don’t yet. It’s not there. It’s just a small, furry mammal. It will grow, though, when the citizens are given a choice - is it about money first?
Don’t call be just a ‘blog’ though - or just another website. Please. Collaborative Media still has a ring after all these years…
August 13th, 2005 at 7:35 am
As a UK journalist I have heard of the CIJ and even met a member of it, but have never considered joining. Most people favour the NUJ. That does not mean the letter itself was nonsense. However, the comments that have ensued have steadily become more non-sensical and clearly not based on what was actually written in the first place.
The letter itself was not about reporting in general, it was about photography. And far from claiming that news organisations should not accept citizen reporting, it simply said that the exortations used by some to get pictures were getting irresponsible. On top of that, those news organisations are not only refusing to pay for pictures, some have put in ridiculous demands for indemnification, particularly CNN. Is it so unreasonable to criticise an organisation that pays you nothing for what it uses and syndicates and yet wants to charge its legal fees back to you if there is a problem?
Organisations such as the CIJ have a lot to gain from an enlarged community of journalists who might pay them fees, so they are hardly going to argue against having more people writing or taking photos. But they do seem to want people to go into it with their eyes open and for news organisations to not rip them off.