'Craigslist meets CitySearch-like service,
behind a Google-like façade'
Despite her somewhat improbable name, Bambi Francisco has watching and writing about online media for years now and is a leading commentator on the CBS Marketwatch website. In "McClatchy's mini-Google strategy," based on conversations with our own Chris Hendricks, she takes a look at the McClatchy online effort and comes away impressed. Worth a look.
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One interesting takeaway is at the end of the article, when it talks about citizen journalism and "the social-media novelty will wear off."
ReplyDeleteThe grand experiments so far with CitJ have been spectacularly unspectacular, as evidenced by Buffton Today and Bayosphere. The best example of something working is Fark, which is not CitJ but people with hilarious senses of humor and agendas commenting on the day's news (big, weird and otherwise). Fark is more along the lines of /. or digg, not CitJ.
Message boards and blogging tools are good. Involving the community is great. Providing ways for readers to submit photos, videos and news tips is crucial. Relying on them to cover meetings and write news? Flawed.
Couple of points worth considering on the "citizen journalism" front:
ReplyDelete* As Dan Gilmour points out, we shouldn't think of this as citizens who become journalists so much as citizens who "commit occasional acts of journalism" and
* The most successful experinces (as with Ohmynews in Korea) involve a combination: professional journalists (editors) working with volunteer writers.