Busybee
Norgdom
Perth MusicWe are the media
R/WW has a post up called “Online Citizen Journalism Now Undeniably Mainstream” which says that:
It’s interesting to see how the techniques and technologies of amateur, citizen journalists are adopted, co-opted, and integrated by the mainstream media.
The post is a reponse to Nokia announcing a partnership with Reuters to provide a “mobile journalism kit” for their reporters. They have taken a standard N95 and added a bluetooth keyboard, basic tripod to help in video interviews and a Sony microphone for directional audio recording and reducing background noise in interviews - this required a special adaptor plug that was made by Nokia for the project.
As some of you may be aware we have had a similar arrangement with Nokia for some time, when it gave us some Nokia N93s to give to a few of our Cit Js to enable mobile reporting. The phones have been fantastic for this, but in Australia the limitations are often technical and nothing to do with a phone’s ability to record quality video, because of our slow and costly mobile data transfer. At the end of the day, I still think raw and unpolished images have a place - they seem more real and exciting to me.
Myles and I have talked a lot about making the Norg easier to use from mobile so that Cit Js can send stories in to us in the easiest way possible.
But the technology is just one part of the equation. The more important part is ‘us’ .
The thought of giving all of us the immediate ability to report and share on the world around us is really fascinating. In the year since I launched PerthNorg, a lot has happened to open people’s eyes to these possibilities. The latest and probably most widely reported example has been the fires in California. As R/WW points out:
In order to report on the fires ravaging that part of the United States, many news outlets have solicited, and subsequently used, submissions from people capturing news with cell phone cameras and on blogs (and Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, etc.).
Twitter, has also brought another immediate and responsive element to news. I remember a few months ago when I noticed reports of an earthquake in San Francisco coming through as it happened from my Twitter friends. You can’t get any more real than that.
The challenge for all of us the is to take part and join the conversation and not to underestimate what we have to contribute.
The Nokia and Reuters deal sounds great and I’m glad they recognise the possibilities that mobiles have brought to news, but at the end of the day I think we can do it better. There’s no guarantee that when news happens that those reporters will be there. A community of Cit Js will always be stronger. We don’t have a new role in the media - we are the media. Let’s step up to that 
October 30th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Interesting thoughts and in many ways exactly the same discussions we’re having in the education field. The power of peer produced knowledge has often been scoffed at, but is originally the source of all news/education.
In education, our role should be to point out that diverse opinions have always existed. It’s not new - we just have greater ability to get that information out there. The power of peer produced knowledge is the choice available. Sure, some information will be dubious, but if we have the skills to evaluate and compare - this is not a problem - also, what’s new - some information has always been suspect….
It seems to me that we have come full circle, and the citizen journalist/student-producer are again having the power to influence the stories we hear after decades of centralised control over storytelling. As someone involved in the educational field, my role is to help people learn to evaluate and choose the writers/producers they find interesting and valid.
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:17 am
Bron,
I am just as guilty as everyone else, however I feel that until this site and other Cit J sites are majority written (rather than link driven) people will still rely primarily on mainstream media for the news. Personally I do look here before trolling the other sources, but I end up linking from here to them rather than writing my own stories, something I endeavour to alter in the near future.
jj
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:08 am
Thanks JJ,
You’re right that we remain link-driven, but that’s something that will change with time and awareness I think. Every week I see something on the site that makes me think the message is getting through.
Look forward to reading your thoughts as always.
Thanks
Bron
November 22nd, 2007 at 8:04 am
[…] few other thoughts I had that was also mentioned in the podcast is mobile interaction, posting would be easy enough, even sending text, photo, video by email, but viewing a mobile […]