Abstract: The Impact of Citizen Journalism on Mainstream Media

     The introduction of new communication technologies is changing the face of journalism, and the dissemination of the news is shifting from something controlled by reporters and editors to an activity shared between media organizations and members of their communities. To maintain their position as the news leaders, mainstream media outlets must react to that change and incorporate these new technologies and citizen journalists into their transmission of the news. This paper, “The Impact of Citizen Journalism on Mainstream Media,” explores the ways in which mainstream media organizations are incorporating citizen journalism. The paper cites examples of the important role citizen journalists can play in creating the news and recognizes trends now popular among mainstream news organizations such as RSS feeds that began in weblogs by citizen journalists. Using well-respected professional journalism Web sites, online news organization, citizen journalism Web sites, Wikipedia, and weblogs, the paper identifies and cites specific examples of changes being made in news organizations around the world due to these emerging technologies.Ultimately, media organizations need to think outside of their traditional communication methods and invite the public in. By working together, citizen journalists and professional journalists can create better, more accurate and more heartfelt stories. Citizen journalism does not mean an end to traditional journalism, rather a growth and change in it.

The final paper can be viewed here- Lisa Bistreich- Citizen Journalism 

Technology in Schools

A few weeks ago, I was at my parents house and like many young adults, forced to go through my childhood belongings to decide what to keep (at my house of course) and what to discard. In the process, I found a note from my Kindergarten teach mentioned my skills on the computer. I was actually pretty shocked, not at my computer skills but that in 1983 in Birmingham, Ala. the school system had computer access and skills learning for students, particularly students so young.

Yet here we are 25 years later where being able to use computer is now a necessity, and as Amanda Toler’s  blog suggests, most school systems continue to struggle to afford not only the costs of the equipment but financing the maintenance and upkeep as well as the faculty to maintain and the systems and teach the students. And many schools can simply not keep up.

Several recent news articles have talked about nonprofit groups efforts to provide affordable laptops for children around the world such as the One Laptop per Child Foundation described in the recent Reuters article. This is obviously a great idea and hopefully will a have a huge impact on improving the education and opporunities for children around the world. I haven’t done the research, but I’m wondering if these laptops  will also be offered to children in the U.S. public school system many of whom suffer the same technology gap as children in developing nations? I hope so…

Food Labeling

I share Marcie Barnes’ concern about misleading food labels and the quandary it leaves consumers in when trying to eat healthy. More and more research shows that our diet is directly linked to serious health problems including heart disease, diabetes, and as reported yesterday– cancer.

There is also a rising concern about food safety with the recent e coli outbreaks, hoof and mouth disease, and the concern over the avian flu.

So knowing what we’re eating is essential.

In article in yesterday’s New Zealand Herald reported that more than one in five New Zealanders are reading food labels, a much higher number than found just five years ago. I imagine the trend is similar in the United States.

But if what we’re reading is misleading or inaccurate, it makes it difficult to make the right choices for the health of ourselves and our loved ones.

The Virtual World

Although I spend most of my day on computers and have readily used many new computer technologies, I have to admit that I have never visited a virtual world and had no idea how huge a community it has, and the changes that could result from it.

My first real impression of the virtual community was a few weeks ago watching Law & Order SVU, where fantasy became reality for a young woman. Cynthia Anderson addresses the dangers of these worlds on her blog but also addresses the educational value and the increasing use of them to hold virtual classrooms (talk about creating a different persona for yourself as you send your avatar to class!).

Just yesterday, The Guardian ran story that says the Beijing municipality is planning to launch a virtual world that includes nine virtual universes. “China is converting a 100 sq km site (yes, that is a very big space) on the former nationalised steel mill site to house, among other things, virtual worlds able to support not millions or tens of millions but billions of avatars.” According the article, the popular SecondLife site rarely has more than 50,000 visitors.

The bigger plan with this virtual world is to further flatten the global market. Western markets make money by inflating prices from cheap Chinese manufacturing costs. Now the Chinese want people to buy their products and services directly (who can blame them?). And this virtual world may make that a reality. But if that happens, the impacts on the Western economy could be severe.

As the Guardian reporter wrote, “Britain and other western economies benefit from cheap Chinese manufactured goods and the low inflation they bring while also benefiting from huge wholesale, retail and distribution markups on the same goods. If they too migrate to China, what will there be left for us to do?”

The Future of Journalism

In her recent post, Andria Krewson discusses the future of journalism and the fears journalists have about the changes new technologies and citizen journalists will have on their field.

She says “years of habit and corporate ownership slow us down. We fear our jobs won’t last until we can retire, and we fear that the future of journalism is threatened, and thus one foundation of democracy could crumble” (Bill Moyers).

An article on the Poynter Web site “Are Journalists Obsolete?” also addresses this topic, highlighting some of the recent drastic changes in traditional media. She reminds us that almost all media organizations are losing readers or viewers, and last year Knight-Ridder, one of the country’s biggest publishing chains was bought out. But like Andria, the author also points to hope, “whatever the problems, whatever the growing pains, whatever creative destruction the market system produces, the demand and the need for high-quality content will persist.”

I think she’s right. Journalism in its current state will change because of new technologies, that’s pretty clear. But I don’t think the value of the profession will disappear. Media organizations must adapt to these new market changes and find ways to deliver their high-quality content in a new way. Newspapers faced similar challenges when the radio and television were invented but journalism continued to thrive. I believe the same will be true now.

Seniors: The Forgotten Digital Divide

When most of us discuss the digital divide, we generally only think in terms of access, particularly between people in developed versus undeveloped countries and in urban versus rural communities. However, there is another digital divide that is also of significant concern—the gap in Internet and computer usage between senior citizens and younger generations, which is as much an issue of education as access.

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project 2006, only 34 percent of the 34.5 million Americans over age 65 use the Internet compared to 89 percent of 18 to 28 year-olds and 86 percent of 29 to 40 year-olds.

Interestingly, I found no information online concerning this gap internationally, which highlights the little attention this issue receives, because I imagine that this trend reaches around the world.

As the Internet and other communication technologies become further integrated into our everyday lives, this gap leave senior citizens particularly vulnerable, and leaves society out of communication with a large segment of the population.

Seniors 65 years and older are often cited as the fastest-growing demographic on-line, but according to the Pew Center report, that description can be misleading.

“Most of the growth in this group over the last few years has come from long-time Internet users in their early sixties aging into senior status,” wrote Susanna Fox (Pew Internet & American Life Project 2006). “There is little evidence that many non-users in their seventies and eighties are suddenly getting the Internet bug.”

However, research has shown that seniors are willing and able to learn Internet and computer skills. Several studies and initiatives such as the one described in the Washington Post have demonstrated that when provided access, training and guidance, seniors are quite capable of navigating the Web and mastering new communication technologies. And once they feel comfortable with it, they often enjoy it!

According to SeniorNet, a nonprofit organization to support the use of computer technologies by individuals age 50 and older, “Computer literacy not only gives older adults access to a world of information and people, but also allows them to share their knowledge and wisdom with the world at large.”

But what’s most necessary, says John Huth, is connecting older Americans with friends, loved ones and young people over the Internet. Huth is vice president of the Barcklow Foundation, which focuses on improving the quality of life for the nation’s senior citizens (Washington Post).

Continuing to ignore the digital divide that exists among the senior population poses several significant concerns:

1. Seniors have knowledge, information and first-hand accounts that need to be preserved and shared with younger generations. If seniors are not participating in the discussion because they do not know how to use or do not have access to that technology, our society loses out on learning valuable lessons and significant details about our history.

2. By that same token, as more and more information on current and world events is shared on the Internet, seniors are excluded from access to that information, leaving them without access to topics of their interest.

3. As seniors get older they often feel isolated as they are left behind when friends and family members die. Without the ability to use today’s communication technologies it makes it difficult for them to stay in touch with their younger loved ones, leaving them further isolated.

4. Today, more and more medical information is found online, most laboratory results are now posted through secure Internet sites and soon all health records will be in electronic form. Without the ability to use or access the Internet, seniors will have few resources for informing their decisions about their health and health care options, a necessity for seniors.

5. People are living longer than ever before and thus are working at older ages than in the past. Without the ability to use the computer and Internet technologies, many seniors will be unable to obtain and retain jobs.

Solutions

The best solution for bridging the digital divide between senior citizens and younger generations is to increase both access and training opportunities for senior citizens.

By providing computer labs and offering training classes on computer technologies in community centers, local libraries, senior citizen centers, and long-term care facilities, senior citizens can learn vital skills in how to access valuable resources for them on the Internet as well as learn to communicate with family and friends and society at large through these new communication technologies. 

The Web sites listed below highlight two programs that have been introduced that seem to be accomplishing those goals. Perhaps they will serve as a model for future programs. 

Teens Teaching Seniors: The Digital Divide on a Local Level

Bridging the Generation Gap Across the Digital Divide: Teens Teaching Internet Skills to Senior Citizens 

Resources

Below is a list of six resources that provide information and insight concerning the digital divide that significantly disadvantages senior citizens.

1. Are “Wired Seniors” Sitting Ducks? http://pewresearch.org/pubs/16/are-wired-seniors-sitting-ducks. This page describes a 2006 study called the “Pew Internet and American life Project” that provides up-to-date statistics on the percentage of people in different age groups who are using the Internet and how they are using it.

2.Seniors Seeking Health Information Need Help Crossing “Digital Divide” http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/293/11/1310. This scholarly article in the Journal of the American Medical Association describes a study that researched the digital divide among seniors. The article highlights senior citizens lack of use of the Internet for health care and suggests some changes that can be made to alter those statistics. 

3. Bridging the Digital Divide: Teens Help Seniors Go Online (Washington Post) www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35598-2004Aug2.html. This news article in the Washington Post describes a program started by teenagers that helped seniors cross the digital divide. It includes quotes that describe how seniors feel more connected and independent now that they navigate the Web.

4. SeniorNet www.seniornet.org/php/default.php?PageID=5647. This Web site is run by a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the use of computer technologies by individuals age 50 and older. This page of the site is a news release describing a partnership with ebay in 2000 to create additional computer training opportunities for seniors.

5. Encouraging Elderly Internet Users http://lockedinthelibrary.wordpress.com/2007/10/11/elderly-persons-computer-use-improved-mental- health. This is a short blog by a librarian who teaches adults how to use computers. The article describes why it is important for senior citizens to have access to the Internet and links to a journal article on the topic (the link will not work for those without membership to that university, but the citation information is valuable). The blog also includes a comment from an older man who recently learned computer skills.

6. Computers Use and the Elderly www.his.com/~pshapiro/computers.and.elderly.html. This article compiles some of the current literature on computer use and the elderly dating back as far as 1973. 

Voices still quelled around the world

In their blogs, Justin Martin and Jaclyn Barrientes discuss the lack of journalistic freedoms in countries around the world, something that many of us in America to easily forget.

In his blog “Jordan on the Cusp” Justin mentions that Freedom House lists only one country in the Middle East and North Africa, Israel, as having a free press environment.  Only, two countries, Kuwait and Lebanon, are categorized as partly free nations. 

And Jaclyn reports in her entry “The start of my research” that our neighbor, Mexico, is the second most dangerous place for journalists, behind only Iraq.  She said that the Washington Post reported more than 30 journalists have been killed there since 2001.

Despite all the progress we’ve made with increasing access to the Internet and with new communication technologies giving more citizens a voice, too many governments are still able to quell the voices of its citizens.

In some respects technologies like blogs are helping citizens to fight back for some of these freedoms, but we obviously have a long way to go.

Personal publishishing, the new printing press

I enjoyed reading Andria Krewson’s comment in the about section of her blog where she says, “On-line software has created a social climate similar to the spread of printing presses in Europe and then the United States from 1440 to the early 1800s. Some researchers and writers like Marshall McLuhan have given that technical development credit for the spread of ideas and new ways of thinking with broad implications for society.”

I think she’s absolutely right. The printing press was by far one of the greatest technological advances in our history for expanding knowledge and the reach of information around the world. Today, new communication technologies are not only expanding that reach even farther, but are providing every citizen (with access to the Internet) a “printing press.” Every person now has the ability to share his or thoughts with tens, hundreds, thousands or even millions of people around the globe.

And as we increasing this global knowledge, it will impact how mainstream media covers “the news.” As individuals have more access to people, ideas and conflicts in other cultures, I think they want to know more about what is happening beyond our borders, and we will see in increase in international news. In fact, I think we’re already seeing the beginnings of this trend. 

Friday’s Picks

Friday’s Best Web site on the Impacts of Citizen Journalism 

Citizen (Broadcast) Journalism? (CBS news). This is a blog by Matthew Felling who was a guest host on an NPR-affiliate and MSNBC. In this entry he discusses a new program being developed by ABC that will feature citizen journalists.

1. On Topic? Yes. The story talks about a new media developed as an outgrowth of citizen journalism as well as some of the other impacts of citizen journalism had on tradition media during big news events.

2. Trustworthy? Yes. Matthew Felling’s blog is posted and sponsored by CBS news, which gives the blog has the reputation and credibility of CBS news. Matthew also has an extensive resume in the media field, which leads me to believe he adheres to journalist standards and ethics.

3. Accurate? Yes. Again because the story is published on the CBS news site, I am led to believe there are editors checking for accuracy of information on the site. Matthew Felling also provides links to his referenced material, which creates more credibility for the accuracy of the article.

4. Well-Written? Visually Attractive? Yes. The article is well written and the site well layed out.

Friday’s Worst Web site on the Impacts of Citizen Journalism

Snaparrazi on Campus This is a blog by a group of college students who are asking other students to send in embarrassing picture of people on campus to be published on the blog as a form of citizen journalism.

 1. On Topic? No.This is far from the true meaning of citizen journalism and isn’t addressing my research issue, rather adding to the problem.

2. Trustworthy? No.The blog is obviously run by some college kids who enjoy playing pranks and gets their kicks making fun of others.

3. Accurate? Well… I don’t think that most of the pictures have been altered, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them have been. There seem to be no rules or requirements for submitting pictures so it’s hard to believe in the accuracy of the information provided.

4. Well-Written? Visually Attractive? No. There are ads all over the page and the page doesn’t fit inside a typical screen size, making it hard and frustrating to navigate.

Election Bloggers

I enjoyed reading Leslie Wilkinson’s blog, which is focused on the significant role women bloggers play in the political world and the impact they are having on international elections.

During the last U.S. election, I was surprised by the prominent role bloggers and citizen journalists played in the election coverage and how their inolvement was incorporated by mainstream media.

CNN actually hosted bloggers in its studio, interviewing them on their thoughts about debates, the democratic and republican conventions, and the election itself. CNN filmed and interviewed the bloggers while they were writing their daily posting.  Many viewers turned to those blogs for more information and added commentary because of the coverage. 

Today, four years later, blogging has gained even more popularity and media outlets are more accepting of citizen journalists. It will be interesting to witness how the media incorporates bloggers and citizen journalist into the coverage of the ‘08 election.