Citizen Journalism Best Practices

What are best practices for citizen journalism? If one were to create a guide for citizen journalists, as Kayla has proposed, what would be the best approach? Here are my suggestions.

• Who is the Audience?
  The audience for a guide is different than the general audience that consumes user-generated journalism. Is this a guide for communications and journalism teachers? Is this something that might accompany a citizen journalism platform (perhaps even as part of some training)? See, for example, the various categories in the help section for the AllVoices site.
• Where is citizen journalism happening?
  On private blogs, via news sites? dedicated citizen journalism platforms? Advice may differ based on these factors.
• What media and what technology are used for citizen journalism? Are citizen journalists submitting photos, text messages, videos, blog posts, links, curated content, etc.? Is this submitted via desktop computer or via mobile phone? All of these make a difference in terms of best practices.
• What about existing guides or guidelines?
  Research what's already been done so you can build upon others' work or fill in holes in what they've done. See, for example, the ethical and blogging guidelines from the University of Oregon, or
• When were guidelines published?
  A lot happens quickly in this rapidly developing space, and what was good advice in 2006 may be irrelevant or plain wrong in 2013. Like a good journalist, sleuth out what is most current.
• Who are the experts?
  People like Jay Rosen and Dan Gilmor have written key works about citizen journalism (like Rosen's "The People Formerly Known as the Audience" and Gilmor's We the Media), but you might also check to see their blogs or Twitter accounts for their most recent thinking.
• Where and how is citizen journalism being taught?
  While researching this topic an ad popped up for a New Media Journalism degree from Full Sail University. I suggest doing a search for syllabi at .edu sites that include terms like "new media journalism" and "citizen journalism" (like this search). Check a very good (though early) syllabus from Howard Rheingold at Stanford. Great readings from a real digital authority.
• What is the business angle?
  Journalism is an industry and a profession, not just a hobby for amateurs. The smart newspaper and media companies are tapping into crowdsourcing by creating platforms and business models that capitalize the user-generated news reporting that's going on. I recommend highly reviewing John Paton's "How the Crowd Saved Our Company" 
• Who is in the trenches?
  Get some social proof from people that are doing citizen journalism. Contact bloggers or those who manage platforms for crowdsourcing content. Check out Deseret Connect, a very innovative networking and crowdsourcing platform. Reach out to some of the contributors or editors that are part of it and interview them about the issues. Someone else in the trenches to consult would be Melissa Wall (bio) who is very current (doing Syrian citizen journalism November 2013) and who authored a recent (2012) book on Citizen Journalism 
• Where are guidelines for citizen journalism being discussed or debated?
  Try this Google search for starters: (forum OR debate) guidelines "citizen journalism" 2013
• What format is best for such guidelines?
  Is an FAQ, an eBook, a wiki, a print book, a video -- or some combination of these most fitting? It depends upon your audience, of course, and perhaps on which variety of citizen journalism you are talking about.

Video Book Review of We the Media

There's a lot going on in this book, so I decided the best way to review it would be by giving a one-sentence summary of each chapter. They may not have been the main ideas the author wanted me to get from the book, but here is my interpretation:

Things I wish I could do better technologically:

1. Get a better thumbnail so my face isn't frozen like that in the beginning.
2. Edit video down so I could cut off the extra couple dozen seconds. 

It's amazing how quickly the time goes. I mean, I thought with one sentence per chapter I'd be doing just fine. Too many chapters I guess. Here are my twelve sentences, more or less as I said them:

Review: Dan Gillmor's We the Media

I've just finished Dan Gillmor's We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People as part of my research into citizen journalism. You can read my Goodreads review if you'd like as well.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. The stories made it quite easy to get through, though as I noted in my Goodreads review, the examples also dated the book quite quickly. Something I'd like to add that I didn't get to talk about before was Gillmor's brief discussion of copyright at the end of his book. Part of the reason I was left with a good feeling at the end of the book was the way he presented his views on copyright, which corresponded very nicely with mine.

Gillmor supports copyright. He thinks that creators should have incentive to create. However, current copyright law is abusive, and stems creativity (especially since there is no more incentive for creators to be creative if their copyright extends 70 years beyond their death than if the copyright period was much, much shorter). Gillmor licensed this book under a Creative Commons license, which is like saying, as he claims "Some rights reserved." He still believes he and the publisher will benefit from the production of the book, but he has also left it open to inspire more people creatively.

I'm glad I read this book, but I know I'm not done yet. It's time to expand to new citizen journalism horizons.