Citizens as gatekeepers

Inexpensive technology has put the tools of mass communication in the hands of the masses, diluting the power of traditional news media. We are in the early days of a rapidly expanding movement of do-it-yourself news, often called citizen journalism. I think it has great potential for serving democracy.

The renowned American cynic, H.L. Mencken, said, “Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one.”

Now everyone with a computer and Internet connection is a potential publisher; everyone with a video-enabled cell phone is a potential broadcaster.

 This unprecedented power shift is not without risk.

In two recent columns in The Wichita Eagle, Davis “Buzz” Merritt, my colleague at the Elliott School of Communication at Wichita State, raised alarm about the potential dangers of iReport.com. It’s a site owned by and run by CNN as a sort of YouTube for news. It allows anyone to post news video with none of the accuracy, fairness and taste filters provided by traditional news organizations.

Professor Merritt raises the excellent point that current law protecting Internet activity gives no ready legal recourse to those who may be harmed by false reports. That should be corrected. 

But we should never go back to the days, just now coming to an end, when a small number of professional journalists, known as gatekeepers, got to decide what everyone should read, hear and see.

Merritt paints an ugly picture of iReport.com’s potential content as “stuff posted directly by any idiot or criminal with a camera and a computer.” That’s not what I see when I actually look at the site.

This week’s most viewed story subjects included the 2008 Presidential election and natural disasters in China and Myanmar. There were also silly videos about bridesmaid dresses, but no content fluffier than you’d find in the features portions of most newscasts.

Merritt finds CNN irresponsible for posting amateur video that hasn’t gone through a professional vetting process. I think CNN and other news organizations are smart to encourage citizen journalism.  Pushing back a frontier always involves danger, but the harm is usually offset by the resulting progress.

On a national level, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is encouraging community foundations to develop local experiments in citizen journalism.

I’m working with the Wichita Community Foundation to put together a local group to brainstorm ideas for Sedgwick County. If you want to be involved, send me an email. Or a video!