Much of the discussion during a citizens media summit last weekend in San Francisco's Presidio focused on the need to educate and train non-journalists as opportunities grow for them to write about City Hall, their schools and their neighbors.
What emerged during a discussion that lasted more than four hours: At a minimum, expose them to the practices that make for good journalism. And for those inclined to learn more, develop training programs and offer editing.
But if we build it, will they come? To the training, that is -- be it online or in some other form.
At GetLocalNews, we've tried to guide citizen journalists toward some basic tenets. We greet message board users with our guidelines, and we offer tips for people posting articles.
The guidelines and tips are passive efforts to encourage quality work; authors can ignore our suggestions. It's a little harder for them to ignore the comments that other users make if they fall short of expectations. That feedback, as much as anything else, holds people somewhat accountable for what they publish.
Some citizen journalists -- those who have a message they want to deliver truthfully and effectively -- may go that extra yard to get training. I'm not so worried about those folks, because they come to the game with honorable intentions (what Dan Gillmor suggests they aim for) and won't lie or sell out (Jeff Jarvis' hope).
However, we know that a minority will be dishonorable and opportunistic when given the freedom to publish. That's why many MSM sites have slammed or jammed the door, shutting down their message boards or burying them. That's one reason they've stayed away from citizen journalism. But in doing so, they've put up barriers to the honorable would-be citizen journalists as well as the dishonorable ones. Those citizen journalists -- as well as the less desirable ones -- are finding other outlets.
So, at the same time we work to develop standards for citizen journalists, we need to keep enhancing user feedback, possibly incorporating Slashdot-like systems, giving people an incentive to take advantage of the training and education that's available.
Look for some of my future posts to explore specific ways to motivate citizen journalists to produce quality work and take advantage of training.
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