Via Dan Glilmor:
Itâ??s hard to know where to begin in responding to…â??Unfettered â??citizen journalismâ?? too risky,â? an op-ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where [the writer] calls for regulation of citizen journalism.
Well, my first reaction is; This guy is confusing citizen journalism and the greater Web.
I see this time and again: People say "blog" when they mean citizen journalism. They ask "aren’t most blogs out there pointless, how can you expect blogs to replace journalism?"
I don’t! Nobody Does!
Blogs ARE mostly pointless – I can create a blog about chewing gum in ten minutes. Or Useless Mutant Powers. There — I did it.
I don’t deny that "Having just anyone produce
widely distributed stories without control can have the reverse effect
from what advocates intend. It’s just a matter of time before something
like a faked Rodney King beating video appears on the air somewhere." – That’s very true. We’ve had a Fake Steve Jobes and Lonely Girl too — but those aren’t "citizen journalists."
Citizen journalism is an intentional act – of a specific breed. If you confuse it with the world wide web – you are doing a disservice to the countless citizen journalists who donate their time to try and imrpove on this democracy by volunteering.

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