Citizen Journalism - a question of quality?

How do communities evaluate quality?

OK, so this question could mean a lot of things. Quality where exactly? In culture, online, but where? Seeing this weeks lecture in my university subject KCB201 (which is why I am writing this blog by the way, for those of you who didn't know...) was about Citizen Journalism, so one can only assume to base this question on the quality of citizen journalism, in particular what is being published online.

Citizen Journalism is the act of citizens (people in the community) playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing, and disseminating news and information. In other words, they are publishing content, traditionally exclusively done by journalists, such as news and other information, themselves. Axel Bruns (2008, 69) has also identified that in all its forms, citizen journalism is driven by similar motivations as open source software, both acting as a "corrective and a supplement to the output of commercial, industrial journalism".

If you still don't get it, watch the video below. It gives viewers a rough idea, outlining what citizen journalism is. Videos just somehow always seem to explain it so much better than text...

A question of credibility and quality comes into consideration here, because citizen journalism, like the name suggests, is produced and published by the public. A short educative paper I found online sums this problem up quite nicely. "The quality of any citizen journalism project reflects the contributions of those who choose to participate, and such projects can be havens for triviality or unreliable content. At the same time, many users are inclined to trust material they find online, particularly if it is called “news.” In this way, citizen journalism projects have the potential to implicitly validate content that might be inaccurate, offensive, or otherwise lack credibility."

However, take for example Wikipedia. Its content is entirely produced by volunteers. That means, anyone with an account can add information on a topic of their choosing. But how do we know that this information is then correct, how do we know the content is false? A study of the quality of Wikipedia article's has in fact identified that Wikipedia articles are about as accurate as those found in the Encyclopedia Britannica (BBC News).

Citizen Journalism has both its positives and negatives. I feel it's really up to the consumer to decide if what they are seeing has quality and credibility. It really also depends on the point of view you are wanting to take if you think something is right or wrong. In my opinion, I like Wikipedia for a way to get started on finding more credible information. After all, the producers of the content would have also needed to get it somewhere. I suppose in this way it does have some credibility. Now all I need is for my lecturers to see that too and essays would be a breeze (I wish)...

Reference:

Bruns, A. (2008) News Blogs and Citizen Journalism: Perpetual Collaboration in Evaluating the News, in Bruns, A. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage, New York: Peter Lang, pp. 69-100. https://cmd.qut.edu.au/cmd//KCB201/KCB201_BK_163501.pdf (accessed May 8, 2008).

Produsage

What are the differences between commercial production and community produsage?

First of all you'd probably be thinking why I can't spell or (if not that) what produsage is in the first place? According to produsage.org, it is an idea who's time has come.
Explaining it simply, it is a word for user-led content creation, or users as producers. Hence, becoming produser. Axel Bruns defines produsage as "the collaborative and continuous building and extending of existing content in pursuit of further improvement" (produsage.org). Increased shared content and collaboration in a participatory networked environment is blurring the boundaries between producer and consumer, the user gaining increasingly more power and influence over what content is created.

The advent of new media technologies such as the Internet have seen a decline of the traditional model of production. The producer is not the only force behind content and decisions anymore, but the producer is now advised by consumers or even gains ideas from users. Axel Bruns identifies four key principles present in all produsage projects (produsage.org). They are:

• Open Participation, Communal Evaluation
• the community as a whole, if sufficiently large and varied, can contribute more than a closed team producers
  
• Fluid Heterarchy, Ad Hoc Meritocracy
• producers participate as is appropriate to their personal skills, interests, and knowledges; this changes as the produsage project proceeds
  
• Unfinished Artefacts, Continuing Process
• content artefacts are continually under development, and therefore always unfinished
• Common Property, Individual Rewards
• contributors permit community use and adaptation of their intellectual property, and are rewarded by the status capital gained through this process.
  

Take for example Wikipedia. I use the website to find useful information on topics of concern or interest to me. If I am not happy with an article or one doesn't exist, I can contribute to the site by writing about it or editing an existing article on it, and then re post it for anyone to access. In this way I am a user and a producer of content, thus a produser. And absolutely anyone with a computer and internet access can do it. Of course there are many more other sites such as del.icio.us, YouTube, and blogger. All its members are produsers. Me, writing this blog right now, is me being a produser. I not only use blogger.com to read about things of interest to me, but I also post blogs and comments about things that concern me (OK, I'm being made to by my university subject but it's still the same thing).

Advantages of this conventional production may include:

• faster, more frequent updates due to fewer delays caused by editing and approval processes
• greater involvement of the community
• outcomes available to all
  

However, produsage can also have its disadvantages which include:

• mistaken updates may be made available, whether potential or accidental
• community knowledge may be limited
  
• communities may have internal disagreements

Still, produsages'/user-led content creations' time really has come. Millions of people worldwide are creating and contributing content every day. If you have a MySpace page, have you noticed the counter on your home page? It keeps going up. Every day people join this online revolution. We have more of a say of what media is being created, we have more power over what we consumer. We are produsers.

Online Communities

How do online communities organise themselves?

With the advent of Web 2.0, more of us as users are increasingly becoming part of online communities. May it be talking to your friends on MSN, playing Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games with people in America while you're in Australia, or posting blogs and comments about your favourite topic. These activities (and there are many more) connect users with one another, forming online communities.

Roughly defined, online communities are groups of people interacting with one another via communication media, such as email rather than face to face, for social, educational and professional purposes (Lefever 2003). These groups can also be described as a network of people, all connected with one another, which have emerged 'from the net when enough people carry on public discussions long enough to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace' (Rheingold quoted in Bruns 2008). Examples of online communities include MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Wikipedia, and even Blogger.

I, like so many, have followed the flock of sheep (the hype, so to speak) and have made a MySpace Page.....and a Facebook....and a blogger page....and let's best leave it at that. But why not? 'Social psychology has found that people join groups in general for both feelings of affiliation and belonging as well as for information and aid in goal achievement' (Ridings and Gefen quoted in Bruns 2008).

Now I'm not so sure about it aiding me to achieve my goals (although many people have become successful online) but the other points speak quite true. I joined, not only because my friend absolutely insisted upon it, but because it did make me feel like I belonged. Plus, these days if you're in High School and you don't have either a MySpace or Facebook page you might as well not exist. Funnily enough, every time a lecturer asked who of us had such an account, many were to embarrassed to put their hand up. Why is that?
Joining online communities, like Ridings and Gefen suggest, is also helpful in gaining information. For example, if you're after celebrity news and gossip, Perez Hilton's page is where you need to go. He is also a prime example for someone getting famous just by writing blogs online. Now don't think anyone can do it. God, wouldn't that be great! He just was what's called an early adopter of this new media technology, plus, he probably just got really really lucky. Damn...

I haven't even answered the question yet!! Why and how do online communities organise themselves? Bruns (2008) has identified numerous reasons, the major ones being:

• ability to build cooperative networks with other communities
• ability to operate in fields of interest neglected by mainstream media, business, politics, research
• active user participation as content creators
• new forms of collaboration and social organisation
• new forms of personal and community identity

There is also the knowledge that strength lies in numbers, and even though individuals have limited to ability to change frameworks within a networked environment, they can still contribute and they do have power. Online communities have the ability to largely influence society, impact as cultural institutions, media practitioners, knowledge managers, economic factors, and political movements. Because when it comes down to it, we, as users within new media technologies, are gaining more and more power in the media. Online communities are 'not just collections of individuals operating within the existing technoculture, but independent institutions within society, changing the technoculture environment'! (Bruns 2008).

So let's get to it! :)