Poynter Online has a one-two punch package on citizen journalism. Rick Edmonds doesn’t see it living up to its hype:
The jury is way out on what business models, if any, work for blogs and
citizen journalism. The noise-to-signal ratio in the new media forms
remains alarmingly high. And it’s time to stop this silly stuff about
replacing big media.
And Steve Outing thinks it’s almost time to start paying citizen journos:
While up till this point
most "citJ" proprietors have benefited from a willingness of the public
to submit content for no compensation other than exposure, a handful of
new ventures are arising that attempt to change that.
While most citJ content will remain uncompensated — because its
quality isn’t high enough to get anyone to pay for it — the best of it
will have a price tag. And publishers may have to adapt to paying for
it.
Agreed. But not until we start paying our staff, OK?
