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Grass Roots Journalism by Mid-Missourians
The citizen journalism route to readership Clyde H. Bentley, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Missouri School of Journalism
Short circuiting the “priesthood”Technologists empowered Heretics
Johannes Gutenberg
Martin Luther
Tim Berners-Lee
Oh Yeon-ho
13th-14th centuries 20th-21st
centuries
The “other” side of journalismInformation from non-professional communicators
Bulletin boards
Civic club presentations
“News” releases
Coffee klatches
Chat rooms
Gossip
Blogs
16 months with “citizens”
A participatory project under “The Missouri Method.”
Real-world challenges, real-world solutions
Empowered students who developed management skills
http://mymissourian.com launched Oct. 1, 2004
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.
. “Can we proceed with all deliberate speed? I'm in no hurry. Next week would be soon enough”
“”Can we proceed with all deliberate speed? I'm in no hurry. Next week would be soon enough” - Dean Mills
“”Every citizen is a journalist” - Dean Mills - Oh Yeon-Ho
A challenge to tradition
Missouri is the home of traditional newspaper journalism education
Some faculty questioned the ability to maintain credibility
Could we teach a journalism where “we” were not in control?
So why do it?
To give voice to those traditionally excluded from the media
To allow non-journalists to help set the community agenda
To test our knowledge of audience values
To train students in a new form of journalism
Oh, I forgot . . .
First three quarters, 2005
And to make money …Newspaper Print and Online Revenues
0
5000000
10000000
15000000
20000000
25000000
30000000
35000000
40000000
1 2
First three quarters, 2005
$33,934,000
$1,373,000
Print Online
4.38%
Source: NAA Quarterly Newspaper Advertising Expenditures
Online alone is not enough
A hybrid strategy
Gather content via an online citizen journalism product
Use that content to fill a printed TMC product
Use revenue gains in TMC to underwrite the online product
Which led to one more BIG goal…
End Driveway Rot!
TMC = The Money Cow
Total Market Coverage products often produce a substantial portion of a newspaper’s budget.
At the Missourian, our TMC is budgeted at about 25% of our revenue but actually brings in 33%.
Depending how you count it…
It more than adds up
“Also, we will do about $230,000 with the Real Estate This Week magazine this year. That would not be possible if we did not have the Saturday TMC for distribution purposes.”
Dan PotterMissourian GM
“What’s deceptive is that much of the daily revenue comes from the TMC agreements in a forced buy, so even more of our revenue is the result of our TMCs.
Back to print
Print edition launched Oct. 1, 2006
Allows use of the efficient advertising pattern of print
Increases readership by 23,000 households
Reverses the print-to-Web paradigm
Compelling content is the key to readership
TMC’s are often filled with old, trivial or syndicated material
Lack of reader interest can cause “pickup failure”
Citizen-generated material is unduplicated, compelling and does not compete with our own daily product
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.
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
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
Inviting the public to our table
Many editors are concerned about errors, credibility and libel
Some fear that citizen writing quality is low
How do we know if those untrained people are lying?
WILL WE LOSE CONTROL?
Mix logic with understanding
Most participants in citizen journalism have little reason to cheat or lie.
The “WBC” category is primarily the realm of blogs.
By and large, most Americans will conform to rules that are both simple and logical.
Focus on broad concerns; keep rules simple.
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?
Logical solutions
“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, just find an appropriate category and let the public judge it.
And… Just Four Simple Rules
No profanity
No nudity
No personal attacks
No attacks on race, religion, national origin, gender or sexual orientation
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
Let them write
Any subject. Everything is interesting to someone
Enlist “senior” photogs
Hobbyists are often looking for a forum for their photos
Give them disposable cameras
Example:Camera passed around at a teen dance
Go for the “gut”
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Earth Day:Natural news
Annual festival celebrates environmental awareness
Provided wireless laptops so citizens could comment on the spot
Earth Day: Picture it Loaned digital
cameras to citizens to document the festival
Unexpected reader issues
Political issues are much less popular than we predicted.
Religion is far, far more popular than we predicted.
Pictures of dogs, cats and even rats trump most other copy.
Unexpected teaching issues
Traditional journalism students want to write, not “guide.”
Many were at a loss at how to cover “non news” topics like Little League.
Few students are well prepared to work with the public.
Into the future
More teasers in the morning newspaper
Increased connection with high school journalism classes
Addition of student and citizen blogs
Establish a “Websighted” photo program.
Class in “entrepreneurial journalism”
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