Crowdsourcing and the Rise of the Citizen Journalist
I’ll get it out of the way first: I think I’m beating La Mujer on the Winehouse cancellations predictions. She’s canceled a couple of shows due to “sheer exhaustion”, or a drugs overdose depending on which source you choose to listen to.
I don’t particularly care for celebrity gossip, so now on to the meat of the post. I’ve been following this new site, NowPublic, and I’m intrigued. I think there are some flaws but the idea and the potential there is impressive.
This site is based on the idea of collecting news from people at the scene rather than waiting for professional journalists to arrive. Similar to the explosion of the blogosphere, I see this as something that could really impact how people get their news. It has been dubbed everything from citizen journalism to crowdsourcing and networked journalism. Frankly, all those terms are silly, but the idea is great.
The impetus of the site seems to have been born in the 7/7 attacks on the London tube. News of the attacks spread instantly, but it took a while for official outlets to collect and disseminate information. Millions of people flipped through the channels and logged on to various internet sites looking for more information as it was breaking. Much of that information was provided by eyewitnesses; commuters with camera phones became the sources of most of the early news.
A site that attempts to bring together people to post consolidate breaking stories is a great idea, and a challenge to execute. The problem will be what to do with all of these sources and stories. The internet is not lacking in information, the difficulty is in organizing it. NowPublic will need to take an active role in structuring and focusing this content lest it end up like a set of encyclopedias missing an index and alphabetical order. Or worse, become like YouTube full of potential but bogged down by mindless drivel in the commentary.
The creators of NowPublic need to remember that while user created content has near unlimited potential, no real news source can survive without editorial control.
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August 15th, 2007 at 9:24 am
It looks like an interesting concept. I will be checking it out regularly for a while to find out if it is worth while.
August 15th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
I agree on editorial control. Although all of this is fascinating, there’s the problem of glut.
August 15th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
Love this idea-I see there’s a story there about bikini clad coffee servers in Sacramento. I’m from Sac and I wish I had posted the story. I think “reporting” what’s happening around us changes our mindset and forces us all to be more aware! Very cool!