SocraticGadfly: Ego, skill, taste and citizen journalism

November 12, 2009

Ego, skill, taste and citizen journalism

At Tech Crunch, in the wake of the Fort Hood shootings, Paul Carr totally nails a lot of things on my mind about what happens when you mix “new media” social media tools with “citizen journalism.” It ain’t pretty.

CJR has some good follow-up. But Megan Garber misses part of the point on the ethics of citizen journalists being framed by their audiences. What if the audiences of more and more “citizen journalists” wants non-detached stuff like this? What if they boost reputations of people who write like the Fort Hood Tweeter? Without necessarily having the same political angle, and while acknowledging that MSM sources did the same (that’s you, above all, Judith Miller), aren’t we opening the doors to “cheerleader journalism”?

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