Citizen News 2.0: Careful with the Stones!

The rapid growth of social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and online information sources such as Wikipedia have revolutionized the dissemination and availability of information. The number of bloggers worldwide has exploded so quickly that estimates are unreliable. One estimate in 2013 put the number of blogs at 152 million, with about two million blog posts being written daily.

At one level, some of the criticism aimed at these media, and blogging in particular, is justified: professional journalists who heap scorn on them because now anyone can have their 15 Andy Warhol minutes of fame. Yet the lack of rigour in writing (and fact checking), journalists argue, makes the content of their writings suspect.

One well known and respected journalist who was vocal about blogging is the late 60 Minutes’ Morley Safer (a Canadian journalist). In one interview on 60 Minutes, he stated that he trusted citizenship journalism as much as he’d trust citizenship surgery. Cute analogy, Morley, but you flatter yourself. Journalists don’t have anywhere near the same impact as surgeons do on the health of people. Perhaps, he would have said the same about citizen pilots, nurses, firefighters, etc.

It’s instructive to reflect on the numerous instances in the past where so-called professional journalists with major news organizations were later exposed for creating false news stories. When it comes to a lack of ethics and competence, professional journalists should remember that they, too, live in glass houses. Careful with the stones.

I agree with the importance of content accuracy when writing. However,  would I prefer to turn back the clock to the good old oligopolistic days when a small group of media organizations controlled the news, and when information was distributed on their schedules, not that of the consumer?

Not a chance.

As a retired economist I believe in consumer choice. Just as people will support media sources that meet their needs, the same applies to the blogosphere and new social media technologies. Major news organizations have been encouraging citizens to submit their ideas and stories for the past several years. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation calls this “user-generated content.” You get the drift.

At the core of this trend towards the democratization of information is self-empowerment, in which people take the initiative to express their views, synthesize and share information, and, in extreme cases, risk their lives to get information to the outside world. The allegations that social networking technologies are callow and aimless are now being challenged by world events that would be otherwise mostly unreported.

“Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t want plastered on a billboard with your face on it.”

—Erin Bury (Canadian Marketer, Entrepreneur, Technology Commentator)

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Visit Jim’s e-Books, Resources and Services pages.

Take a moment to meet Jim.