Posts Tagged “pro-am journalism”

In 1970, Phil Meyer wrote that “they are raising the ante on what it takes to be a journalist.” This statement has never been more true than it is today. This chapter talks about how a journalist can break through the barriers between themselves and their readers.

The chapter focuses on three different reporting methods that are becoming more popular in modern journalism. The first is croReaders can have a say in journalism using open-source reporting. Image courtesy of heralddemocrat.comwdsourcing, which basically uses groups of people to assist with the work of one

 person.

The book gives an example of encyclopedias. The online version of Encyclopaedia Britannica can’t update pages as quickly as Wikipediabecause Wikipedia is updated by many volunteers instead of a select few employees.

The second method in the chapter is open-source reporting. The objective here is to become more collaborative with the reader. Instead of keeping stories secret until publishing, some outlets now release story ideas to the public and have people assist with the reporting. Instead of asking for specific help like in crowdsourcing, this method lets readers help in whatever way they can. This allows reporters to seem less biased because their readers are having an input on the story.

The last example in the chapter is pro-am journalism. This method allows the public to publish to the same platform as a professional journalist. A reader might publish a video or photo to a sight and have a professional explain it. As the book says, the readers provide the “what” and the professional provides the “why” to go along with it.  
 
With sites like Facebook, YouTube and Wikipedia, collaborative journalism seems to be here for the long run. Instead of feeling threatened, journalists should take advantage of these tools to make their stories better. There is no shame in using help on a story, and it might actually help grow a good number of followers that are more than happy to help out.

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