Pros and Cons of Citizen Journalism

 

 Lisa Snedecker of Media Life Newspapers reports that citizen journalism, as it seems like a good idea to be able to cover more local news, newspapers are weary about trusting citizen journalists who might get the story, but worry if it will be a good and ethical story.

A most noble idea, citizen journalism

 

Because they’re coming from the local community, these citizen reporters can bring with them alliances with local political factions, and they’ll certainly have embedded views about the mayor and council and the most recent bond issue.

So while the paper may save on reporter salaries, it will have to have that many more editors to vet the stories and rewrite them for publication. That’s going to add substantial costs to their local reporting budgets. And even then they’ll have to work that much harder to keep mistakes out of the paper.

As papers increase local coverage, they’ll simply have that many more people out reporting–and that many more potential mistakes.