Introducing citizen journalism to “the” journalism school

Clyde H. Bentley, Ph.D.

OhMyNews International Citizen Journalism Forum

Citizen journalism at the world’s oldest journalism school

The first. We say the finest.

Missouri School of Journalism was started in 1908

Early participant in global journalism education Developed participatory curriculum, “The

Missouri Method.” Real world publications, real journalists as

professors

http://www.journalism.missouri.edu

Citizen journalism at the world’s oldest journalism school

Inspired by others OhMyNews was well known to professors

and popular with our Korean students

Launch of Northwest Voice generated a faculty discussion.

Dean Mills recognized the potential and asked us to move quickly.

Proposed in late May 2004, launched

Oct. 1.

Citizen journalism at the world’s oldest journalism school

A challenge to tradition

Missouri is the home of newspaper journalism education

Some faculty questioned the ability to maintain credibility

Could we teach a journalism where “we” were not in control?

Citizen journalism at the world’s oldest journalism school

New journalism skills

“As more and more news organizations adopt community/citizen/open-source journalism ventures, they'll need to learn how to run them.

“Covering stories and collecting, cultivating, sharing stories are very different things. Helping others to share their lives is still journalism, and it needs to be taught.”

Brian Hammangraduate student

Citizen journalism at the world’s oldest journalism school

Is there a future for journalists?

YES -- both professional and citizen journalists

Blogs pose both a threat and an opportunity

The power relationship in information is being re-negotiated

Journalists provide continuity and quality control

Story tellers become story guides

Citizen journalism at the world’s oldest journalism school

Readers reach readers

“I have seen newspaper companies spend thousand of dollars annually to determine what readers expect. Few of their findings, however, are ever implemented.

“The greatest benefit of what we have done with MyMissourian is we have given newsroom leaders an inexpensive and effective way to give readers what they truly want.”

Hans K. Meyergraduate student

Citizen journalism succeeds where others have failed.

Citizen journalism at the world’s oldest journalism school

The arguments

“Decency” - How do we treat profanity and adult topics?

“Commercialism” - What about the promotion of a business, organization, religion, etc.?

“Literacy” - How much editing and rewriting should we do?

“Banalism” Is anything just too stupid to appear on the site? If so, how dumb is dumb?

Citizen journalism at the world’s oldest journalism school

The policies

“Decency” No profanity, no nudity - use normal newspaper standards of propriety

“Commercialism” Don’t ban businesses that self-promote, but work with them to produce copy of general interest.

“Literacy” Keep editing to a minimum, focusing on readability rather than style. Avoid jargon and cultural slang that can be misinterpreted.

“Banalism” Journalists are poor judges of the banal. Rather than say anything is too low-brow or too silly, we will just find an appropriate category for it and let the public judge it.

Citizen journalism at the world’s oldest journalism school

The Four Rules

No profanity

No nudity

No personal attacks

No attacks on race, religion, national origin, gender or sexual orientation

Citizen journalism at the world’s oldest journalism school

The end of “NO” “I worked in newspapers for seven years,

and as an editor most of my dealings with the public were about telling people “no” due to limited space. NO, we can't cover your event. NO, we can't run your youth baseball photo in the

newspaper. NO, your story idea isn't good enough for publication.

“The open source format takes a medium with limitless file space and allows us to finally say ”YES" to the public.”

Jeremy Littaugraduate student

Citizen journalism at the world’s oldest journalism school

Technology goals

Curt WohleberMissourianOnline editor

High level of usability

Minimal technical support

Little or no software cost

Design flexibility

http://www.mamboserver.com/

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Citizen journalism at the world’s oldest journalism school

Simple design, simple categories

Small menu of categories

Each section has a team of students

Graduate students manage the teams

Citizen journalism at the world’s oldest journalism school

The American version of citizen journalism

Much less emphasis on politics

High interest in “family” topics

Premium value on the “comment”

Allows newspapers to answer their critics

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Citizen journalism at the world’s oldest journalism school

Earth Day:Natural news

Annual festival celebrates environmental awareness

Provided wireless laptops so citizens could comment on the spot

Citizen journalism at the world’s oldest journalism school

Earth Day: Picture it Loaned digital

cameras to citizens to document the festival

Citizen journalism at the world’s oldest journalism school

History:Then & Now

Museum supplies historical photos

We shoot the current view

Public invited to comment

Citizen journalism at the world’s oldest journalism school

A Korean perspective

There is no great need for alternative journalism in U.S. A major difference from OhMyNews No clear issue to draw concern

Unclear direction -- is it journalism? Provide a perspective on societal issues

Take initiative -- do not wait Soliciting news is too passive

Ho-Jin Yoongraduate student

Citizen journalism at the world’s oldest journalism school

Into the future

Print edition scheduled for fall

Daily teasers in the morning newspaper

Increased connection with high school journalism classes

Addition of student-written blogs and index of local blogs

Class that focuses on “journalism of sharing”