Sandra Ordonez from OurBlook, which is named after a portmanteau of “blog” and “book” and whose tagline is “Today’s Voices, Tomorrow’s Solutions,” asked me a few questions about citizen journalism and whether or not it could save newspapers.
Here’s an excerpt:
Some critics cringe at the thought of citizen journalism, citing lack of quality. How would you respond to these critics? Are there any steps that newspapers can take to safeguard against inaccurate, dishonest, slanted or otherwise harmful citizen journalism?
RC: Newspapers are not facing a problem of quality of information. They’re facing a problem of technology. The organizing principle of the newspaper, unlike that of say, a book, translates easily to the “page” paradigm of the web. Thought it’s not perfect and quality of information is an issue, citizen journalism (in the form of blogs, micro-blogs, social media profiles, etc.) thrives online. Newspapers, or rather their owners, will only survive if they learn how to thrive online as well.
Here’s the full interview.