"Citizen journalism in all its forms, as it has emerged and developed during the first decade of the twenty-first century, is driven by similar motivations: it, too, acts as a corrective and a supplement to the output of commercial, industrial journalism. Like open source, too, it has recently begun to challenge the role of its corporate counterpart as opinion (and innovation) leader" (Bruns, 2008).
This close relationship between Open Source software and Citizen Journalism as a form of produsage is widespread in today's communities. And the question remains, how do these communities evaluate quality and authenticity? What is real journalism and how can we classify it properly when such imitational devices as citizen journalism are introduced. Readers have to understand that information provided by citizen journalism is just opinions, and can not always be relied on as factual information.
This other form of produsage being Open Source software. How is this challenging the proprietary dominated world, and what will become of it in the future? In my earlier blog, Open Source Software, I challenged this question of what would become of this form of produsage. I believe there is a good future ahead for Open Source, as this is what people are looking for in software. Not to say that Citizen Journalism is not healthy for society, it is necessary to be wary of what can really constitute as journalism and what can not.
So the answer to my question. I believe communities evaluate quality by trial. Obviously there is currently much commotion about Open Source and Citizen Journalism because they are challenging the norms that were put in place before these. They are obviously working to some degree for the people, as they are definately getting used and intorducted to more and more people.
That is all my thoughts for now:-)
References
Bruns, A. (2008). Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage. Peter Lang. New York https://cmd.qut.edu.au/cmd//KCB201/KCB201_BK_163501.pdf (accessed 8 May, 2008).
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Megan, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your blogs during this semester. I agree with you that contemporary communities, both physical and virtual, have now more access than ever before to a wealth of information and knowledge. Shared networks are created by contemporary virtual cultures using new media technologies to engage participation and collaboration. New open source platforms such as citizen journalism encourage produsage and allow local communities a louder voice in popular culture.
In the physical world, academic books, journals and other resources have undergone strict evaluations by scholars, publishers and librarians. Information and knowledge is voluntarily owned by the authors or companies that generate it. However, in an online environment there are no filters. Anyone can access and create information. Online communities revolve around relationships of trust and yet a proportion of active contributors remain anonymous.
“Excellent resources reside alongside the most dubious” (Kirk 1996). Individuals within virtual communities choose their level of participation as well as their level of accountability. Will the anonymous contributor be held responsible for the information they have generated? It’s these anonymous contributors that are dubious and cloud the credibility of a participatory culture. Society still needs to develop appropriate policies to overcome these issues to accurately determine quality of content. I think you said it best by acknowledging “readers have to understand that information provided by citizen journalism is just opinions, and cannot always be relied on as factual information.”
References
Kirk, E. 2002. Evaluating Information found on the Internet. http://www. creativeclusters.com/modules/wfsection/ article. php?articleid=18&page=0. (accessed April 8 2008).
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