I had an interesting conversation with my Digital Civilization professor, Gideon Burton, over +Google. He offered an interesting and informed perspective on the restructuring of news organizations. This is how it went:
Prof. Burton: A very successful crowdsourcing platform for journalim is Deseret Connect. Once you register, you can get story assignments and get published in the online or paper versions of the Deseret News. I got an offer to do an assignment today to give Utah legislators a scorecard, for example. One of my prior students has published a movie review via Deseret Connect. While not without problems, the content platform has really gotten a lot of people to contribute stories and media (paying mostly in terms of reputation).
My comment: Citizen journalism initiatives like Deseret Connect both encourage and frustrate me. I like that members of the community can provide skilled or expert perspectives that might not otherwise be published in a news organization's content. But I also wonder about the quality of a lot of journalism that is produced.
Also, since I'm studying journalism, part of me thinks, 'Deseret News, stop crowdsourcing the job I'm training for to volunteers from the public!' Questions about the training, ethics, and quality of citizen journalism aside--I feel protective about my prospective industry. Still, I recognize that perhaps I'll have to adapt with the economy and apply my training in a new business model or different industry...and that could be ok.
Well, that gave me some good food for thought. In fact, I'm still digesting it. He's right that journalism has to reinvent itself. Nobody's sure what that's going to look like yet, but the idea of a new need for people to train organized networks of citizen journalists is appealing and something I hadn't considered. I wonder if that suggestion came from one of the administrators of Deseret Connect?
Prof. Burton's Response: Just like many industries being challenged today due to digital shifts, journalism is having to reinvent itself. Rather than seeing unpaid correspondents as competition, you should look at the space it opens up for much-needed expertise. As I've spoken to the leaders of Deseret Connect, it was clear that while old jobs were being phased out, new ones are on the horizon. Who will train and organize the volunteers, for example? The scope of journalism, also, is expanding to areas where it has not been before. More available data and media means more possible types of stories and again, more need for other kinds of expertise. No, it won't be the old news room anymore, but Deseret Connect has shown proof positive that they can evolve into new labor and business models that work (which is more than can be said for other failing newspapers). They are a Phoenix rising from the ashes; pay attention.
"More need for other kinds of expertise" is an intriguing idea also. What might that be? Fact-checking and other forms of verification? Ethics monitoring? Contributor managing?
Anyoody have any ideas to flesh out Prof. Burton's advice?
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