Strangely enough, isn't that what Joe User sort of does already? Gawker Media?
SOURCE: MIT Technology Review
While mainstream media outlets grapple with the role they will play in the 21st century, a new kind of media is on the rise, one that promises greater transparency in the creation of news.
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.
In some cases, such as the Korean site OhMyNews, CCJ stories are reported by a team of volunteer journalists; in others, such as Wiki News, a group does serial fact-checking and vetting on an existing piece, calling attention to errors or omissions.
"Collaborative citizen journalism is a very, very nuanced thing, and it's different than just one citizen blogging," says Jason Calacanis, founder of Weblogs, Inc., a large blog publisher, in an email. "But CCJ is the best method for getting to the truth since you have many people and their perspectives involved in the process. Of course, CCJ it is harder to produce (at least right now since it is so new)."
One of the newest members of the CCJ scene is also one of the most intriguing.
This week saw the very-soft launch of Bayosphere, created by veteran technology journalist Dan Gillmor, who left the San Jose Mercury News last year and wrote a book We The Media, in which he espoused many of the tenets of this new form. Bayosphere joins a small community of sites, such as Wiki News, Backyard, and Newstrust, dedicated to getting people to work together to chase their own stories, comment on stories from the mainstream media, and track which news they think warrants their attention.
Collaborative journalism is so far falling into three distinct approaches.
There's the local news approach, offered by such sites as...
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