I am writing a profile on the founder and editor of RethinkCollegePark.net for another class, so I've been spending a lot of time on the site in the past week. I was happy to see it on the first list of citizen journalism sites, because it definitely fits that criteria. I've been getting an idea of what moved Rob and his partner, David Daddio, to start the site and what has caused it to keep growing and gaining traction as a source for news and information in the community.
What impresses me the most is the focus on news and information on the site, and from what I've read so far, it's quite balanced. Whereas the editors are obviously very involved with community issues, such as smart development to make College Park a better place to live, work and go to school and the Purple Line transit system, they've taken care to reach out and get voices represented from the community. This includes students, city politicians and University officials. The site is not just them blowing their individual or collective horns about what they think is best for the city. It really is a collective effort.
I also like that they give an opportunity for readers to contribute if they're interested in doing so, beyond comments. They also offer a good balance of media, including video, illustrations and photos in addition to text. It's cleanly designed and easy-to-read.
I've also spent some time on the Silver Spring sites, Silver Spring Singular, and the Silver Spring Penguin this evening. They are quite different approaches to covering the same city, but they represent what I like about the different styles of community/citizen journalism. Silver Spring Singular is - as the title indicates - a single person's view on life in Silver Spring. There are lots of reviews of local establishments and opinions offered on hot topics in the area, such as the retail explosion (now seeing its first closures since the economic downturn), dining options and the controversy over the long-awaited music venue on Colesville Road. For a fairly informal blog, "Sligo" is pretty dedicated. Agree with him or not, it's his view and he does take the time to make contacts with local figures to flesh out his posts. Not bad for a free Blogspot site.
The Silver Spring Penguin, conversely, functions more as an online community newspaper. It has a dedicated masthead and layout, is regularly updated in consistent sections, and is edited by two people instead of blogged by one. I have a soft spot for alternative news. I believe it's needed now more than ever and has a logical place on the Web. It's great to see it in this "hyperlocal" format. Unlike RethinkCollegePark which is focused on developmental issues, the Penguin touches on all aspects of life in Silver Spring.
I consume all of the media I read, watch and here with my filters on. Writing in Poynter Online, Rick Edmonds complained that Wikinews missed a story or two and that made them less than formidable news sites. Like Wikinews, all of the sources I've named above are run as part-time and in most cases volunteer enterprises. It seems ridiculous to complain about the misses and the omissions when it's a work in progress run as an alternative to mainstream media. I point this out to say that whereas I wouldn't expect any of the above sites to provide me with comprehensive news enough to make them all I'd need, they are not in any way a negative complement to my daily media diet.
4.21.2008
Citizen Journalism: Response
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I know a lot of people criticize Wikipedia, but I have always found it to be a good starting point or a quick reference guide when you want to know something simple, like the date of an historical event.
I had not heard of Wikinews until I read it about it in one of the articles (I think the second one from Poynter). When did it come out? I must have slept on it somehow. Or maybe I had heard about it a long time ago and the memory slipped away. Either way I think it’s a great idea.
People can say it runs the risk of being inaccurate, and they’d be right, but there’s something about news that lists its sources at the bottom (when they’re documents or other news stories) that is quite useful. I never feel like I have a clear picture of an event unless I read about it from several angles, which often takes a lot of time. Wikinews can help a reader like me save time. The great thing about it listing the sources is that even if the article is flawed, which it likely will be in some way, it is easy to consult the sources that went into writing it and see where it went wrong. If there are no sources listed, then you know from the beginning that it isn’t very credible.
What I find especially interesting is that because it is an example of “citizens’ journalism” you can find facts that you may not find in the Post or the NYT. It is true that accuracy is something you can expect from those “professional” sources, but what you cannot often expect is something outside the traditions of the day-to-day news cycle. You might not get a story told from the perspective of a homeless person or a anarchist or any other demographic not likely to appear in the pages of the Post or the NYT. Wikinews has a lot of potential. What if, for example, it ran a story about the building of the Nationals stadium and linked to a blog entry from a displaced resident, a homeless person, a baseball fan and a developer? It could provide a wide range of viewpoints and break the continuity of newsspeak. Just a thought.
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