April 10, 2006
Mobile group in talks to create TV link for citizen journalists
Citizen journalism is poised to take a great leap into the mainstream media as the mobile phone network 3 pursues talks with ITN and Sky News about feeding clips produced by its customers on to television news bulletins, announces The Guardian.
"Clips from the public definitely add to the story," said a spokeswoman for Sky News. "The best you can get is TV footage that tells the story. The next best thing is citizen journalism where the cameras have not yet arrived or have not been. Some images are very, very powerful. Some of the images from inside the tunnels in the July 7 bombings, for instance, were very powerful."
The increasing use of the public as news gatherers will raise concerns about accuracy. It will be hard to verify clips from events that were not witnessed by others. Amateur photographers and camera operators have for years been claiming to have recorded the Loch Ness Monster and UFOs, and it will not be long before someone with a camera phone records such a sighting.
The rise of citizen journalism has called into question the future of traditional journalists and editors. Last month, however, the executive editor of Sky News wrote: "I happen to think there will still be a role for editors - not just to assess information, but also to prioritise and present it in a way which, as well as making the news understandable, also reinforces its importance and point. [This is] something an anything-goes citizen journalism blog can't do. Professional journalists will always need to decide if it's news or propaganda."
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