[Keyword: online journalism, citizen journalism, blogging]. Following my column in The Stirrer last week about the surge in free newspapers, there was something of an outcry when a Media Guardian article dared to do the maths on what would happen if all newspapers were free.

One line from the article caused particular offence, as it looked at ways to cut the imaginary budget of a typical paid-for paper to break even as a freesheet:

“Will a £5m reduction in budget be catastrophic? Unlikely. With a thriving website it should be possible to make better use of citizen journalism from our readers, thus cutting the editorial freelance bill. This might save another £1m.”

How simple! We just get the readers to create the content, and hey presto! We save a million.

The National Union of Journalists’ new media mailing list was aflame at this. “No need for journos” was the summary – ‘they’re trying to put us out of a job’ was the implication. Indeed, the trend for citizen journalism had previously so frightened the NUJ that, when last year they drew up a code of practice for citizen journalists, they decided not to use that phrase, but instead to refer to these people as “witness contributors”.

That phrase caused much laughter and backlash from writers who saw in the phrase a stubborn resistance to seeing their readers as anything other than passive consumers. But it’s not surprising that industry managers should see the rise of citizen journalism and user-generated content as a source of free content, not to mention a way to be seen to be cutting-edge.

But this perception of users as only a source of free content will ultimately backfire. Indeed, “free” is misleading, because a truly successful project will require substantial investment. The Guardian spent time and money building the technology behind the commentisfree website, while the BBC has a whole department paid to sift through user-generated content. On the other side of things, thelondonpaper has been criticised for setting up a section on its website for people to simply ‘contribute content’, with no apparent investment in giving them reasons for them to do so.

As more and more media organisations compete for users to create their content, citizen journalists may find themselves realising that their content is worth more than just a byline. Already agencies like Scoopt have sprung up to broker fees on behalf of ‘witness contributors’ who are lucky enough to snap something newsworthy.

Ultimately, if the news agencies competing for ‘free’ content increase in number, will it become a sellers’ market?

Related links:
Newspaper free-for-all
Citizen journalism – NUJ launches Code
Comment is free
Scoopt

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[Keyword: online journalism]. Heartening news for online journalists comes from an unlikely quarter: the previously awful Daily Mail website, reports The Guardian, “has seen massive online readership growth this year since it … increased resources for the website and put more content from the print edition on the web.”

“Web traffic on DailyMail.co.uk has grown from 1.3 million unique users in January to the current 6.6 million.”

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[Keyword: online journalism]. So a Belgian court has ruled that Google must de-list news stories from French-language newspapers, the latest move in an increasing grumbling from newspaper executives who see the search engine company as profiting from their material. (Agence France-Press brought a similar case last year).

Margaret Boribon, general secretary of Copiepresse, the company who brought the complaint, (and responsible for the copyright interests of French and German-language newspapers in Belgium) is quoted as saying “Google sells advertising and makes money on our content,” although Journalism.co.uk helpfully corrects: “Google News sites do not carry any advertising, however Google search results, which can link to news stories, can carry paid for adverts.”

However, Jupiter Research analyst Benjamin Lehmann points out that by removing themselves from Google News, publishers may be cutting off their nose to spite their face:

“It is difficult to see what these organizations stand to gain in the long term from suing Google. By cutting themselves out of Google News, the Belgian press is only curtailing traffic to its online properties. Instead they should be competing to attract audience onto their sites via news feed aggregators, and adopting strategies to keep that audience onsite once they have arrived.

“Tactics for pursuing this strategy include:

a. Maintaining homepage-style navigation panels throughout site;
b. Embedding textual hyperlinks to related stories;
c. Selling banner and contextual advertising throughout the site;
d. Deploying audio and video to add value to stories.

In a nutshell, publishers should perhaps see the money that Google make off advertising as a fair ‘fee’ for the advertising and services that Google in turn provides for publishers’ content.

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[Keyword: online journalism, citizen journalism, blogging]. Another fascinating piece about the rise of blogger power – The Guardian reports on Bill Clinton meeting with prominent liberal bloggers to give them a ‘pat on the back’:

“Clinton told the group that over the past two years he had become an avid reader, and that he now included blog posts in his daily news cuttings service. For the bloggers, toiling away in their front rooms, it was heady stuff. “Here I was with a group of my friends and colleagues, meeting with one of our nation’s presidents because our small, do-it-yourself political operation had drawn his attention,” writes Chris Bowers on the MyDD blog. “I mean, this is largely work I have completed from the bedroom of my apartment in West Philly.””

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[Keyword: online journalism, citizen journalism]. Salutary piece on Journalism.co.uk about a snap sold by Scoopt which turned out not to have been taken by the person selling it – but also was already widely available online. Here’s some points from the piece:

“‘Citizen journalists’ – as distinct from professional photographers – don’t always appreciate that content can be commercially devalued by dissemination on the web. But nor do they necessarily care. If you capture a breaking news story, you might want to share the story with the widest possible audience as quickly as possible, with financial gain a distant consideration or of no concern at all. But can you do both? Can you share and sell your content? Does a copyrighted picture that’s all over the web still have value in print, or a video submitted to YouTube have value when broadcast?

“Perhaps surprisingly, our experience says yes. In the Zidane case, we licensed the images several times over in print despite widespread and simultaneous appearance electronically on blogs and football sites. Picture editors could have lifted them for free but didn’t. I find that encouraging. Of course, it’s in part because we made their lives easy by pushing the content to them in an industry-standard manner, but also (and I hope I’m not being too naïve in saying this) I think it’s because most picture editors, so many of whom are themselves photographers, would rather spend their budgets fairly than exploit amateur snappers.”

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[Keyword: online journalism, citizen journalism, blogging]. The latest Press Gazette interview is worth a read: it’s with Chris Andersen, author of The Long Tail – and before you groan “not another Long Tail article”, this interview actually steers clear of the long over-exposed theory, instead offering some very refreshing thoughts on the media landscape. Here’s some choice quotes:

“There are some who require you to log in; there are some that require you to pay for content. Our sense is that if you do that, you will get some revenues, but you will not be part of the conversation. You will not have access to that extraordinary word-of-mouth effect out there in the wide-open world.”

And:

“Part of our job is making things better and part of our jobs is predicting demand. And every time we get it wrong. Not entirely wrong, but every month, there’s some story that I didn’t expect to be popular that turned out to be popular and some story that I thought would be popular that turned out not to be so popular.
“Maybe my hit-rate is better than others, but it’s certainly not perfect. The lesson right now of the long-tail world is that you now have increasingly powerful tools to measure what people want. Put it all out there and let the market sort it out.
“Obviously we look at the blogosphere to generate new ideas, to tap into ascendant people and ideas.
“This gives us a fantastic information-gathering exercise. But that’s available to all, that’s not exclusive to print. The other aspect is whether we can use this technology of dialogue, of conversation with your readers to make your product better.”

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[Keyword: online journalism, citizen journalism, blogging]. Credit to Michael De Kort who, after two years of frustration trying to get some action on what he saw as critical security flaws in a fleet of refurbished Coast Guard patrol boats, made a video blowing the whistle on his experiences and posted it on YouTube.com.

As the Washington Post reports,

“the video describes what De Kort says are blind spots in the ship’s security cameras, equipment that malfunctions in cold weather and other problems. “It may be very hard for you to believe that our government and the largest defense contractor in the world [are] capable of such alarming incompetence and can make
ethical compromises as glaring as what I am going to describe.” In response to De Kort’s charges, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said the service has “taken the appropriate level of action.” A spokeswoman for the contractors said the allegations were without merit.”

Furthermore,

“The video also has caught the eye of people in high places. De Kort’s video has been covered by defense trade magazines, and yesterday, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, wrote a letter to the Coast Guard asking for an answer to De Kort’s “extremely distressing” allegations.”

One to watch…

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[Keyword: online journalism, citizen journalism, blogging]. There’s a lengthy discussion on ‘User Content’ at NMK, with some well respected contributors, including Richard Sambrook, Head of Global News Division, BBC, and Adam Curry.

Adam Curry is quoted as saying that “within 5 years 50% of media will be created by the people”, which seems a suitably vague quote to prove or not to prove, given that if you qualify the internet as ‘media’, the figure is probably applicable now.

Meanwhile, Richard Sambrook betrays an industry-centric perspective on citizen journalism that sees it as “just like a radio phone-in for the digital age”. To compound matters, rather than citizen journalism, he prefers the term “citizen media” or “citizen storyteller”. The debate has moved on, Richard.

At the same time, he “realised that people around him knew more collectively than he did.”

“In India the “See It, Report It” banner saw UGC within 12 months go from fringe
right into the mainstream. It is changing editorial culture, he reflected. The
idea that the 6 o’clock news will tell you want you want to know is now
anachronistic, as is the view that we’ll tell you what’s good for you.”

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[Keyword: online journalism, citizen journalism, blogging]. Poynter reports on a new documentary about citizen journalism, produced by a citizen, naturally. Citizen Journalism: from Pamphlet to Blog takes:

“a wide-angle view of the citizen journalism phenomenon [and] looks at the genesis of citizen journalism in the pamphleteers of the 18th century (most notably Thomas Paine), through the ‘zine movement of the late 20th century, and into its current form online in blogs.

“Featured are some of the most recognizable names in citizen journalism: Lisa Williams of H2Otown, Ethan Zuckerman of Global Voices Online, consummate
video blogger Steve Garfield, as well as a number of others who are doing their part for the citizen journalism movement.”

The film can be seen at the Project Documentary blog and on Blip TV

Meanwhile, the Center for Citizen Media is asking What if citizen journalism is just a mirage?:

“Are we interested in “citizen journalism” in the abstract only to be disappointed when confronted with actual weblogs?

“If so, there might not be much to learn. Comparing and contrasting blogs and traditional media might be an intellectual dead end. Judging by the staleness of the conversation surrounding citizen journalism — as exemplified by the repetitive articles on the subject and the small number of examples that are consistently recycled — I’m beginning to believe that it is.

“I think that we can only learn about these new entities — big thriving online communities aimed at political change or tiny solo blogs devoted to the changes in a rural county over time — by approaching them on their own terms.”

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[Keyword: online journalism]. You can find a full list of the finalists for this year’s Online Journalism Awards at the Online Journalism Review, with links. They lead on the fact that published newspaper websites dominate the list, while the Press Gazette notes that the BBC is the only UK organisation listed (in the “Outstanding Use of Multiple Media” category for large organisations).

Well worth a browse, particularly “My Blue Eyed Girl,” a human interest interactive feature by student Heather Gehlert of the School of Journalism, University of Berkeley, while “Azerbaijan Elections 2005,” by EurasiaNet.org. reminds me of an interactive election map that one of our Journalism students at UCE Birmingham, Roslyn Tappenden, produced last year.

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