Interactive examples

Why we should embrace citizen journalists

During my API talk in Montgomery, Alabama, I mentioned how citizen journalists were reporting breaking news more quickly and efficiently than traditional journalists by using Flickr, Twitter and Facebook to spread the news. Without realizing it, I had caused an emotional uproar and the audience quickly, and defensively, reacted.

“So, are you saying that citizens are doing our job better than we are?” one lady inquired.

“But many times the public plays something up and makes a big fuss when really it isn’t news in the first place. And then media outlets cover it just because we feel we have to, and it’s not news-worthy,” another person objected.

And on and on the conversation went, from one emotional journalist to the next. Journalists were offended that others felt their job wasn’t important, professors were scared that they didn’t have anything to teach their students anymore, and students were worried that they won’t have a job upon graduation.

I understand the concern, but I never said nor think that journalists are being replaced by citizen journalists. We are trained to do our job professionally, with legit sources, ethical values and journalistic integrity. There will always be a place for journalists. However, I believe that instead of feeling threatened by citizen journalists, we should be embracing their eagerness to help tell the story, and facilitate this energy to produce more well-rounded packages.

CNN.com does this with iReport, which brilliantly encourages users to help report on local, national and international events. This participation actually makes users more loyal, as they eagerly believe that they are playing an integral role in educating their world. Instead of creating this invisible wall between CNN and it’s users, CNN reached out for their help, and now are more easily able to cover their stories by tapping into their rich sources.

New York Times, The Washington Post and others have also started building interfaces to facilitate citizen journalists, and the results have been impressive to say the least. Here are three of my favorite multimedia packages where journalists worked with citizen journalists to create compelling mashups.

The Washington Post | Inauguration Photo Mosaic
This innovative photo colleague was created from thousands of users photos, as well as AP and Post photographers. This is teamwork at it’s greatest. The result is an amazingly powerful tool for users to zoom in and see how the world captured this historic day.

The New York Times | How Do You Feel About the Economy?
This emotional tag cloud is the second of it’s kind (the first one running during election day). Users upload their emotional state, and the interface presents the story determined entirely from user-submitted content. Traditional reporting could have asked hundreds of users to state their stance and incorporated it into a 20-inch print story, but this interactive platform is dynamically changing – something no other medium could have accomplished.

CNN.com | 01.20.09: Your view of history
This multimedia mashup blends CNN content with user-submitted content, and allows CNN producers the ability to highlight particular iReports. Citizen journalists can upload photos, videos, quotes and location-based information to report on a hyper-local story along the parade route. Allowing users to incorporate their stories into a larger package enables multiple storylines to unfold simultaneously, giving a rich, multi-dimensional feel to an otherwise static report.

What do you think about citizen journalists and how they are being integrated into current storytelling techniques? Are they a threat to journalism, or an invaluable asset to storytelling?

Other posts that might interest you:

• Top 50 multimedia sites of 2009
• New York Times uses 3D animation to recreate Taliban kidnapping
• “CNN Challenge” tests users’ knowledge in immersive environment

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