Last Friday, I sent a selection of some of the links that have talked about Gannett's 'citizen journalism' effort in Muncie, Indiana, to Poynter's Online-News list (where, I'm sure they're tired of my harping on the media giants being too haughty to work with the lowly "bloggers...")

In any case, I didn't get any responses at first. Clyde Bentley Ph.D. spoke up, though, and I've gotten permission to reprint his thoughts here. It points out some things that are perhaps hard to swallow, but which nevertheless are true. I guess it's fair considering I'm always quick to point out differences in the various methods or approaches to Journalism in this country.

Bentley wrote:

People have made stupid decisions in the name of competition since there has been competition. But the winners are those who take the lemon of a competitive market and make it into lemonade.

The basic flaw in the “ban mentions of the competition” logic in newspapers is that it assumes the readers don’t really know what is going on. Wrong. Our readers are smarter and better informed than at any time in history. They can and do browse more information than is shelved in any library. Clicking through TV channels is glacial compared to how people jump from link to link.

Linking to other sources — especially citizen journalism sources — could be an incredible boon to the credibility of newspapers. We pride ourselves in doing the best job possible of covering the news. But how is the reader to know that is more than hype? If editors really believe in their own quality, they should be proud to say, “Don’t believe me? See what these other folks did.”

Beyond that, the a link to a citizen journalism site can give the readers of the newspaper site an additional depth of coverage without having to start at the placeblog and THEN perhaps go to the paper. Citizen journalists share experiences rather than cover stories. That’s something we professional journalists just can’t do. So let them — we will handle the straight story.

If editors really believe in their own quality, they should be proud to say, “Don’t believe me? See what these other folks did.”

Heh. There you go. ;)

Citizen journalists share experiences rather than cover stories.

I don't necessarily 100% agree with this statement. Granted, I've done no really great original reporting *lately* (wearing all hats in the org, you have to juggle responsibilities - and pay the bills until the website has enough traffic to pay the bills on its own...), but I have in the past.

Citizen Journalists, IMHO, *start conversations* - sometimes by sharing experiences, sometimes by allowing other people to tell their side of the story, and *sometimes* by doing in-depth reporting on events that aren't being covered otherwise (Gaston politics coverage at MFP is one example of this...)
And by having a conversation with our visitors, the people who support Muncie Free Press (and other Independent Media sites out there) know what "the straight story" needs to be.

There are a few examples with the recent Armed and Famous ruckus in Muncie, but I'm not going into those at this time. (Haven't had a chance to run down the leads yet myself and the citizen working on it for the site is still putting all the pieces together for a complete look at a lot of coverage The Star Press didn't do about the show. (The best piece to date was by Seth Slabaugh over there - comparing real reserve officer training to the show's "training.")

There are other stories out in the community not being told, though. There are gaps in the coverage. The Star Press (Gannett) can hire more people to produce more content, but (Even with a MoJo), they're going to have gaps. I'm filling those gaps as resources allow while working with and training citizens to take more 'ownership' of the site.

Anyway, enough rambling. Long, long day. So much still to do.

Thanks to Bentley again, though, for sharing his thoughts with all the J-Hope news-junkies out there.

More Bentley:

For the record, I am not only a professor (at the Missouri School of Journalism) but spent more than two decades in the newspaper business as a reporter, editor, managing editor, ad manager and general manager. I’ve even tossed papers on porches. I started MyMissourian, the Missouri School of Journalism’s hybrid Web/print citizen journalism project that ties adds user-generated information to a traditional newspaper system. We post most of our research at http://citizenjournalism.missouri.edu/ .

Also, I need someone to fill Monday's Media Diet slot. Any takers? The questions are on the website or email me and I'll get them to you. Thanks!

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