As I casually watched the 11 p.m. news Monday night, I perked-up when I heard a story on NBC 4 Washington discussing the Washington Times’ plans to use content from unpaid citizen non-journalists in the paper six days a week. I made an immediate mental note, to look into it. One advantage to working at BurrellesLuce is that I could easily search the Monday and Tuesday print editions of the Washington Times. However, I could not find the story. It seems the Washington Times released the story to other media outlets and on their website, but not in the print edition of the paper.
For their part, the Washington Times is planning to provide the contributors with rules and ethics guidelines. The non-journalists will need to follow the same criteria as other journalists at the paper. As a reader, this is comforting – assuming the editors are really fact checking the stories.
For public relations professionals, this is a great opportunity to get stories published, and not have to worry about grabbing the attention of the busy paid journalist. With newsrooms stretched thin, I hope this will mean more community information and stories.
I wonder if other newspapers will take on this approach to get free content. Will this be a way to help papers become profitable? If so, what does it mean for the future of journalism as a profession? What does it mean for media relations?
What newspapers are discovering is that since their online publications can’t yet float financially on their own, it’s better to get content for free than to pay staff journalists for it. “Citizen Journalist” is often a code word for “free.” When it comes to “free” content — you get what you pay for … and readers are not so discerning that they frankly care (in most instances.) As a former journalist, this is frightening to me, yet I fully understand and embrace the ‘everyone has an opinion’ concept of web ‘reporting.’ The key is for readers to have enough common sense and understanding to be able to frame their reading in the context of what could be ‘true’ and that which is faulty or mere opinion. As a college professor, I’ve noticed that many of my students have not yet developed this skill. So I try to help them get their truth-RADAR developed.
If ‘Citizen Journalists’ were exactly that, they’d be called ‘freelancers’ and be made to comply with editorial standards in order to be paid a fair wage for their work.
Reader (buyer) beware.
John,
You address common concerns. I think anyone who has been a journalist should be concerned for the wages of the profession, as well as the standards they represent.
Thanks for your comments!
I am really excited about newspapers going with online news and the process of getting media attention by giving them a voice to make comments about features stories. Giving the readers a chance to be heard and giving a voice, will prove to be very successful for newspapers.
[...] Washington Times Moves to Citizen Journalism [...]
Success With Goals,
I agree. Giving the community a voice is great! Informed citizens who want to share with their fellow citizens can only make it better. But I worry that the there may be biased stories, which do not benefit the community as a whole. We can only hope for the best.