The Rise of Citizen Journalism

With news coming out that the Boston Globe may be pushed to chapter 11, and the fact that several big name newspapers across the country are shutting down or switching format (the Christian Science Monitor went online only) I've been thinking about the decline of journalism of the past. Television journalism, with some obvious exceptions, focuses a lot of its time on sensational stories and gotcha journalism. My favorite thing lately is WHDH and the Fox boston affiliate going after public employees that are making decent money... by working over 100 hours a week - vilifying them for busting there asses to provide for their families and providing vital public services at the same time.

To me, the best journalism has always been one of the strong suits of the major newspapers. Writers that are able to get to the heart of the issue and know the inside actors and can actually get some access to their subject matter. It's not "gotcha" journalism in the sense that it is meant to be in-depth with analysis of subject matter, not a quick hit on some unsuspecting bus driver who happens to be 50 with 4 kids under the age of 18. Instead of trying to evoke rage among subscribers, it tries to find answers, reasons, draw connections, and provide explanations for the question at hand. These stories fall in many categories: human interest, business, politics, science & health, you name it. The point of this post is that I'm worried that we may be losing high quality journalism in the mass media.

One of the investigative journalism programs on tv is Front Line. Their programming is done by WGBH in Boston and is top notch, I've seen and heard of many of their programs used in academic settings. A loss of funding for that program would be a big blow to investigative journalism on tv. 

What would fill the void if major publishers like the Globe went under? Would blogs have the same effect? I don't think so. 

While we've seen a large jump in citizen journalists and bloggers, I don't think that most have connections and access to produce content of the same caliber as traditional journalists with big name outfits do. I also don't see most bloggers willing to invest the time and effort into this kind of thing. Blogs are typically narrow in scope and have no funding for these kind of things.

Enter: Arianna Huffington and the Huffington Post.

This past Sunday the Huffington Post announced their new investigative journalism fund. Their mission statement is essentially to combat the consolidation of newspapers and the cutting of investigative journalism by hiring laid off reporters and providing resources for staff members to conduct quality investigative journalism. They also want the citizen journalist to submit their own pitches and story ideas, and they'll be picking up many of them I'm sure. 

One issue that I see with this is the ideological bent of the HuffPo (as its known). Being a far left blog it's easy to dismiss all of their content as ideological in nature, and in general being opinion oriented. Perhaps this is an opportunity for some rebranding for them, and to tap into another audience that they may not be reaching with their current format. Maybe its just a great idea to help preserve some of the best journalism out there and provide a way for these laid off writers with a way of maintaining cash flow. Either way, I think we come out ahead as the reader. 

So what do you think about the fall of print journalism, the rise of the citizen journalist, and the merits of blog based investigative reporting?

Hiring Yourself: Moving forward

I'm moving forward with my plans for my new cyber-empire. I've purchased 2 domain names now and I've got my book mind mapped for all but 2 chapters and an appendix. My next step is going to be mapping out the site so I know what content I need to generate ahead of time for launch, and so I can get an idea for what I want the layout to resemble. I'm very lucky to have knowledgable friends that I can consult on graphic design (shout out to Kate), and all things technical (shout out to AJ). 

My plan is to use the site as a lead in for the book. The site will generate income via advertising and be aimed at small campaigns that don't have money for big consultants or very experienced staff members, non-profits looking to expand their ground game/volunteer numbers, and local committees looking to become/stay relevant and useful, which is rarely the case, but if they were useful and every town had them, that would be a major benefit to campaigns big and small. The city of Chesapeake, VA has a Democratic Committee that was so well prepared we were able to let them run their own operation to an extent. Ultimately we were aiming bigger, but it gave us a huge advantage. Props to Dr. Ward for running that. 

Expenses so far are at a total of $20 for the two domains that I purchased. Currently, I'm looking at hosting options. More updates as things move forward!

Hiring Yourself

My fall semester of Senior year at Clark was supposed to be spent entirely on courses for a minor in Entreprenuership and business courses. I've always wanted to be my own boss to some extent and I figured if it were to ever happen I should probably know how to write a business plan and navigate a startup. Unfortunately, that summer I took an internship on the campaign in NH and got sucked in for the entire semester and took the Fall off from school. I learned a lot but not about starting a business. 

Lately, this job hunting business has me looking at all my options, including going into business for myself. One thing that I've been reading about is passive income. Basically, work you do once that grows as an investment. One of these is writing a book. Costs nothing to write, and I have a lot of free time, so why not? They say that you should write what you know so I've begun doing some mind mapping for a book about volunteer recruiting, refining techniques, and building a self sustaining organization of volunteers for non-profits, small campaigns, and local committees. 

My opposition research has shown that there is a bit of a gap in this area of literature. There hasn't been a book written on volunteer recruiting since 2004. What this means is that there's a big opening for someone like myself to write about the techniques used on the various campaigns in 2007-2008. 

The various incarnations of this idea that I've been toying with for the past couple days has brought me to the conclusion that a website on this topic is both viable, but with back up tools such as a book/ebook, and seminars/workshops I could turn this into a real business or consulting firm. I'll probably be using this as a sounding board as I flesh out my ideas and move forward on this project. At the very least it is giving me a chance to expand my portfolio and develop some skills that I can bring to a job once I get hired if this doesn't fully pan out.