Collaborative Citizen Journalism

Definition of Collaborative Citizen Journalism

" It's called collaborative citizen journalism (CCJ), where ordinary citizens band together on the Web to write original stories and critique mainstream media stories, using the Internet to connect with each other and to make sure their thoughts reach the public. This new form of journalism differs from its more popular blogging cousin in that, unlike blogging, which eschews (in many cases) the more rigorous elements of journalism, collaborative media efforts tap into a particular community to make sure a story is as complete as possible." (http://technologyreview.com/articles/05/05/wo/wo_052005hellweg.asp )

The concept of a self-informing public is mentioned in http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2004/12/28/tptn04_opsc.html

Backfence is based on the concept that local news was just a neighbour's fence away, and is now possible again on a global scale, see http://www.backfence.com/what_we_re_doing.html

See also the report: We Media. How audiences are shaping the future of news and information. Written by Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis. Edited by J.D. Lasica. Available via the Hypergene weblog for PDF download, at http://www.hypergene.net/wemedia/weblog.php .This report describes the emergence of participatory journalism, following the new rule of ‘publish, then filter’ rather than ‘filter, then publish’.

Steve Outing is one of the most keen observers of the scene, here’s an overview of ‘varieties of citizen journalism: http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=83126

Open source video documentaries i.e. audiovisual citizen journalism, at http://cyberie.qc.ca/jpc/2005/08/aprs-les-journalistes-citoyens-les.html