There was a bit of a stir when the Associated Press decided to warm up to citizen journalism, saying they
would consider content from NowPublic.
Around the same time, the BBC was ready to offer money for user-generated content (photos) too.
Photos are at the core of the prosumer revolution. Cameras are cheaper, it’s not hard to point and click, cameras don’t lie (in theory). Although the AP and BBC are limiting the content intake from citizen journalists to photos right now, these tubes will eventually get wider — perhaps one day including feature stories written by citizen journalists who have been producing great photo content for years.
Although not brand spanking new — the tubes flow the opposite direction too.
Check out The Newsroom. Anyone can take content from real news organizations, mash it up on their blog — and share in the advertising revenue.
Although it isn’t exactly networked journalism, it is a networked business model.
I’ll be honest, I’m checking out what content they have right now to see if there is anything that might be of interest to any readers I have.
But fear not: I would only post things that I think are editorially relevant to what I cover here — this way my readers (mom and dad….hi!!!!) won’t have to sit and watch anything that I don’t think fits the bill. For the most part — the content looks like "News at 10pm" type stuff — which I HATE. But the potential is there for something really cool.