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"Citizen journalism in all its forms, as it has emerged and developed during the first decade of the twenty-first century, is driven by similar motivations: it, too, acts as a concrete and a supplement to the output of commercial, industrial journalism" (69). At least, according to Axel Bruns in Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond. When I read this, though, the first thing that came to mind was the latest reports in "citizen journalism" that Bill Cosby had died. And this is not the first time that rumor has started.
However, after reading the entire chapter on "News Blogs and Citizen Journalism: Perpetual Collaboration in Evaluating the News," I began to see the value in what Bruns refers to as the produsage in journalism. He describes the difference between gatekeeping in traditional journalism and gatewatching in citizen journalism. He also takes the four key elements of produsage--open participation and communal evaluation, fluid heterarchy and ad hoc meritocracy, unfinished artefacts and continuing process, and common property and individual rewards--and explains how citizen journalism, like open source software, meets all of these key principles.
I would say the most important element in gatewatching is that news is put out there first, and then critiqued and discussed second. This is not the way traditional journalism works at all. In the traditional form, news has to be deemed worthy by editors before it ever makes it out the door (gatekeeping). The other most interesting factor is that the news does not die once it is reported. Once the news is reported in citizen journalism, it is discussed, added to, and perhaps debated. It does not just die. Often, related stories or issues are added to it and thus the story lives on for much longer than traditional journalism.
These are the points that I would say I found the most interesting. News is definitely changing, and traditional journalism needs to change with it. If they refuse to, chances are they will have a difficult time surviving in the twenty-first century. And, as Willis notes, "'eventually, licensing and copyright policies will need to be reexamined to come into harmony with a collaborative audience model" (qtd in Bruns 94). No longer is the professional trained journalist the end all be all of knowledge: the audience also has a voice, and the two need to come together.
However, after reading the entire chapter on "News Blogs and Citizen Journalism: Perpetual Collaboration in Evaluating the News," I began to see the value in what Bruns refers to as the produsage in journalism. He describes the difference between gatekeeping in traditional journalism and gatewatching in citizen journalism. He also takes the four key elements of produsage--open participation and communal evaluation, fluid heterarchy and ad hoc meritocracy, unfinished artefacts and continuing process, and common property and individual rewards--and explains how citizen journalism, like open source software, meets all of these key principles.
I would say the most important element in gatewatching is that news is put out there first, and then critiqued and discussed second. This is not the way traditional journalism works at all. In the traditional form, news has to be deemed worthy by editors before it ever makes it out the door (gatekeeping). The other most interesting factor is that the news does not die once it is reported. Once the news is reported in citizen journalism, it is discussed, added to, and perhaps debated. It does not just die. Often, related stories or issues are added to it and thus the story lives on for much longer than traditional journalism.
These are the points that I would say I found the most interesting. News is definitely changing, and traditional journalism needs to change with it. If they refuse to, chances are they will have a difficult time surviving in the twenty-first century. And, as Willis notes, "'eventually, licensing and copyright policies will need to be reexamined to come into harmony with a collaborative audience model" (qtd in Bruns 94). No longer is the professional trained journalist the end all be all of knowledge: the audience also has a voice, and the two need to come together.
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