Citizen Journalism

Citizen Journalism

Winter 2005: Introduction

By Melissa Ludtke• Features• December 15, 2005

“Let me begin with a confession. After watching television coverage of Katrina for nearly every wakeful moment over the first few dramatic days, I quit. Cold turkey,” writes Curtis Wilkie, who holds the Cook Chair in Journalism at the … Read more

The Future Is Here, But Do News Media Companies See It?

By Chris Willis and Shayne Bowman• Features• December 15, 2005

The news industry is a resilient bunch. Newspapers, in particular, represent some of the United States’s oldest and most respected companies. So far they have weathered storms of significant social, economic and technological change by figuring out how to transform … Read more

Where Citizens and Journalists Intersect

By Dan Gillmor• Features• December 15, 2005

‘The crucial leap will be helping our audience become involved in the process much more directly.’ Read more

Citizen Journalism and the BBC

By Richard Sambrook• Features• December 15, 2005

‘… when major events occur, the public can offer us as much new information as we are able to broadcast to them. From now on, news coverage is a partnership.’ Read more

With Citizens’ Visual News Coverage Standards Don’t Change

By Lou Ferrara and Santiago Lyon• Features• December 15, 2005

‘In an era in which digital alteration of images is increasingly easy, credibility is everything.’ Read more

Journalism as a Conversation

By Katie King• Technology• December 23, 2008

‘Today digital publishing is practiced by the masses, and it’s inseparable from the practice of journalism.’ Read more

Fear, Loathing and the Promise of Public Insight Journalism

By Michael Skoler• Features• December 15, 2005

A journalist wonders whether the mainstream news media will adapt fast enough to their changing relationship with the public to survive. Read more

How Participatory Journalism Works

By Steve Safran• Features• December 15, 2005

A journalist describes why and how ‘a news organization works with its audience to have that “conversation” that is news.’ Read more

Citizens Media: Has It Reached a Tipping Point?

By Jan Schaffer• Features• December 15, 2005

New media initiatives emerge when citizens feel ‘shortchanged, bereft or angered by their available media choices.’ Read more

Reconnecting With the Audience

By Clyde H. Bentley• Features• December 15, 2005

‘What they say—not what we think—is what counts.’ Read more

Creating a New Town Square

By Leslie Dreyfous McCarthy• Features• December 15, 2005

‘It’s a locus for the kind of civic trust and independence on which the idea of journalism, indeed democracy, is based.’ Read more

Things I Wish I’d Known Before I Became a Citizen Journalist

By Barry Parr• Features• December 15, 2005

Homepage of Coastsider. In May 2004, Barry Parr, a former Web site architect for the San Jose Mercury News and CNET’s News.com, introduced his own new Web site to an online audience. His … Read more

Defining a Journalist’s Function

By William F. Woo• Features• December 15, 2005

In one approach to finding a definition, it turns out that being a journalist is about doing journalism. Read more

When the Internet Reveals a Story

By Seth Hettena• Features• December 15, 2005

‘The challenge for me was to get the story off the Internet and into print.’ Read more

Hurricane Katrina Coverage

Words Triumph Over Images

By Curtis Wilkie• Features• December 15, 2005

‘The human element was accentuated, and the best of the writing was impressionistic.’ Read more

New Orleans’ Lower Nine Fades, Fades, Fades Away

By William W. Sutton Jr.• Features• December 15, 2005

‘Our neighborhood should’ve gotten more media attention well before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.’ Read more

Witness to the Tragedy

By Carolyn Cole• Features• December 15, 2005

A veteran photojournalist observes that ‘… even during war the deceased are treated with some respect ….’ Read more

Rumors, Race and Class Collide

By Kevin Cullen• Features• December 15, 2005

‘Class and race are inextricably bound up in New Orleans, and trying to make sense of it was as hard as trying to get accurate information.’ Read more

Seeing Is Believing

By Nuri Vallbona• Features• December 15, 2005

‘There was so much destruction that I couldn’t put down my camera.’ Read more

‘It Looks Like the Third World’

By Philip J. Cunningham• Features• December 15, 2005

Writing in Southeast Asia, an American journalist comments on reporters’ use of this descriptive phrase in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Read more

Drawing the Mood of New Orleans

By Steve Kelley• Features• December 15, 2005

‘Cartoon ideas presented themselves, but none embraced the gravity of the situation.’ Read more

The Messengers of Mississippi in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina

By Elizabeth Mehren• Features• December 15, 2005

In small, forgotten towns of the Gulf Coast, a reporter tells the stories she heard amid the hurricane’s devastation. Read more

Questions for Journalists to Ponder in the Aftermath of Katrina

By Mary C. Curtis• Features• December 15, 2005

‘The first step is admitting that you don’t know what you don’t know.’ Read more