Comments on: Can Professional Journalism Ever Replace Citizen Journalism?

By: Truly Freeing our Sources of News #jcarn » DigiDave - Journalism is a Process, Not a Product

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 07:02:57 +0000

[...] enough. I think Jarvis makes a great argument. One I’ve made before as well using baseball instead of basketball as the analogy. So while I’m on the same page with Jeff, I also believe there is a concentration of power [...]

By: I Call B.S. – Placing Old Values on Citizen Journalism « DigiDave

I Call B.S. – Placing Old Values on Citizen Journalism « DigiDave — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 18:42:31 +0000

[...] term) should uphold or represent. Allow me to once again use my baseball analogy from a post “Can Professional Journalism Ever Replace Citizen Journalism.” Can citizen journalism ever replace professional journalism? No. But what I want to point [...]

By: My Vision of Tech Blogs « DigiDave

My Vision of Tech Blogs « DigiDave — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:48:54 +0000

[...] journalism as baseball and as a social [...]

By: Don’t Save Journalism – Save Honest Communication « DigiDave – Journalism is a Process, Not a Product

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:52:05 +0000

[...] wonder if citizen journalism can replace professionals. That’s the WRONG QUESTION. The silliness of that question: If Major League Baseball stopped tomorrow would all the little [...]

By: Spot.Us Expands to L.A. with Annenberg and a 10-month State of the Spot « DigiDave – Journalism is a Process, Not a Product

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:12:55 +0000

[...] “content is King, collaboration is Queen.” It isn’t an either/or scenario with citizen journalism and I’ve spent hours upon hours thinking about what these terms all mean. In the attempt to [...]

By: Twitter Experience Assessment « checking facts is for suckers

Twitter Experience Assessment « checking facts is for suckers — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:50:03 +0000

[...] is creating a “community newsroom,” an answer to David Cohn’s question, “How can professional and citizen journalists work together?“ Tagged with: digital journalism no comments yet « Updates on Twitter Updates [...]

By: Notes from David Cohn « The Future of News

Notes from David Cohn « The Future of News — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:45:36 +0000

[...] Community journalists and professional news organizations are interdependent. [...]

By: A Never-Ending Trend? « Jeana Harrington

A Never-Ending Trend? « Jeana Harrington — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:38:50 +0000

[...] that neither can survive on its own anymore. In the recent post from journalism blogger David Cohn here, compares professional and citizen journalism to major league baseball and all of the little [...]

By: Valerie

Valerie — Thu, 14 May 2009 01:23:31 +0000

This hits the nail on the head. I have a great relationship and respect for the local media.

A citizen journalist can be closer to a story then a professional at times. Speaking for myself only I can get into “nooks and crannies” that are closed to the professional. Don’t ask me why people trust me and call me because I have not analyzed it. Maybe someone here can.

I like to get the little nuances that fill in the blanks – the side story that puts it in perspective. Citizen journalists don’t have the resources, databases, or colleagues to collaborate a well-told story. Professionals have more contacts, clout, and bigger rolodexes.

Example of what I’m trying to get at: a professional journalist tells me that he did not mention a comment by an elected official because “it did not go anywhere.” I thought the comment spoke volumes about how they were thinking and quoted it.

There is no reason there can’t be both. If I were “Queen Valerie” I would wave my magic wand and have them work together. I am not a great writer and just learned what a pyramid is – I know my limitations and work hard to do better with every story … oh, and my punctuation really sucks.

By: R. Duke

R. Duke — Thu, 14 May 2009 00:33:07 +0000

Spin it a different way. There are no professional journalists. All journalists are citizens. There are paid journalists, and unpaid journalists. There are print, television and Web journalists. Think of the Founding Fathers. Some were journalists. They weren’t professionals. They were citizens looking to, as a friend of mine put it, comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Most “professional” journalists got into it for that very reason, and remain as such because of that. Every journalist plays a role in the process of a free society. We can’t do without them.