Scan-N-Land

My name is Max and I'm a citizen journalist for the New York Times

According to this article in Techworld I may one day soon be able to say just that. One aspect of the so-called "Web 2.0" is that much of the content will be user-driven.

I've got mixed feelings about that aspect. As Ken mentioned in a post below about journalists being paid extra for blogs which prove popular, I fear that if journalism starts to gear too much towards what people want to know vs. what they need to know that we're going to have a dumber society and not a more well-informed one.

I'm of the school of thought that often times people need to be told what's important. Some people see that philosophy as condescending but I see it as reality. I think that many, if not most, people are inclined to grab the US Weekly instead of the Washington Post off the rack next to the checkout at the grocery store. I think that they should get a minor electrical shock when they pick up a tabloid and a little fairy should come down and lay a New York Times in their basket and say, "My dear, read this paper, these are things you need to know."

So, if reporters start writing fewer stories about government corruption and more stories about K-Fed and Britney because that's what people want to read, I think we're in trouble. I'm not even a big fan of tabloids like the NY Post and Boston Herald because I feel like they play to the lowest common denominator and place a higher value on sensationalism than on accuracy and thoroughness. I am a big fan of alt-weeklies like the Washington City Paper and the Boston Phoenix however, as even though they're a bit sensational by nature they often offer in-depth reporting on subjects that don't get explored in mainstream media.

Anyhow as far as citizen journalism, I think user-generated content can be useful, especially in spot news reporting, but I think it needs to be tempered with the strong hand of a traditional paper's editors. After all if I wanted to get the news from just any schmuck I could just check the million blogs run by wanna-be journalist schmucks out there.

- Max Ashburn

posted by Mark H. @ 11/08/2006 04:35:00 PM