Citizen Journalism Continues

Senior week and graduation prep is in full swing right now! It’s exciting and sad at the same time to look back at all that’s happened these four years. But enough of that, on to why I’m blogging.

The use of citizen journalism continues to build on the internet! NowPublic, a great website that uses all citizen content, is connecting with YouTube to make it easier for CJ’s to use video in their stories. They’re encouraging people to use the YouTube library to find file footage to make their reports more credible. Interesting!

I got to talk to Westminster’s President, R. Thomas Williamson this morning at a brunch for seniors and we got into the discussion of citizen journalism a bit. I like hearing other people’s opinions on the topic. He seems to be media savvy and definitely saw that there is an increase in how much the “average Joe/Jane” is participating with the media. But his main issue with it is that, like so many others, he worries that the quality of the content won’t be as good.

It seems as though community-driven websites are becoming more and more consumer-friendly. They’re brainstorming ways to make it easier for non-professionals to be involved. Another good example to check out is Breitbart.tv. I met the creators of the site and have been waiting for their site to go online. And not long ago, it did. It’s definitely another site to watch out for.