Jeff Jarvis on why news organizations need active readers
Neal G Moore, editor, nextnews.org, interviews Jeff Jarvis from Buzzmachine via email April 7, 2007
Like it or not, we need labels. they bring form to what’s being considered or discussed. To that end, I think there is a distinction between the terms “crowdsourcing” and “citizen journalism." Crowdsourcing suggests a kind of perpetual and pervasive FTP Fest, where anyone can contribute to our collective understanding by posting ideas, suggestions, references, links on just about anything. Wikipedia is our best and longest running example of this.
But it hardly is journalism. For me, citizen journalism suggest a spontaneous response by “regular Joes and Janes” to find and report about previously unknown information or circumstances, or in the case of breaking news, on developments as they are happening (see Katrina, 9/11, et al).
Jarvis correctly notes that traditional media are well-served by paying attention to citizen journalism initiatives, and by opening their tent just a bit wider. Television news was an early adopter of the so-called citizen journalist. By cozying up to video shot by “amateurs,” TV newscasts have long featured dramatic pictures of spot news events and natural disasters. Those media organizations that find ways to embrace citizen journalism will benefit most when their readers and viewers can also be reporters.
Neal G. Moore: Jeff, how do you define crowdsourcing? How, if at all, it is different from citizen journalism?
Jeff Jarvis: I’m not very interested in terms and definitions; they’re meaningless unless you give them meaning. You’re doing the story on crowdsourcing. What do you think it means?
I also don’t like the term “citizen journalism” anymore—though I once did—because I think it is wrong and potentially dangerous to define journalism by who does it. This means that some will be official, professional journalists and others won’t; some will get access and protection and privilege and others won’t; someone will certify official journalists and that puts power in their hands to take that certification away. Anyone can commit an act of journalism: of gathering and sharing news. And we’re all citizens.
So I call this networked journalism, because I think the opportunity is in doing more together than we could do apart; that is the premise behind NewAssignment.net, of course. The Internet is not a medium of content; it is a means of communication and making connections. And so it enables us to work together, cooperatively, pro-am—no longer serial but parallel, additively, without regard to medium, time, or location—in ways we never could before.
The key is how that is enabled. There are many ways and many needs. Tags let us find each other’s information and connect; when we tag what we write, it is an act of creating both content and connections; it is a social act. Advertising networks help support these efforts financially. Instruction helps us do these tasks better, with more credibility and trust. Links allow us to edit and surface the best, however we define best. And so on.
So I don’t think that crowdsourcing is some limited phenomenon. It is a label given to a new capability brought on by the Internet: the ability to work together to a shared goal.
