Blogger or journalist?

A judge in New Jersey has been asked to decide a prickly question that could alter the course of online news: is a blogger a journalist? New Jersey software company Too Much Media LLC has sued Shellee Hale, a Washington state mother and activist who runs four blogs, and claims Hale slandered the company in a message posted on one of the company’s online community boards. Hale posting stated security weaknesses in software developed my Too Much Media LLC could allow hackers to access an user’s private information, and cited anonymous sources for her inside knowledge. The company balked, saying the software’s security issues were resolved before any customer information became vulnerable, and argues Hale’s posting slandered the company’s reputation. Hale contends the information was gleaned during her investigation into the company's online security issues, and claims she is protected from revealing her sources under the New Jersey Shield Law, which protects working journalists from revealing a sources indentity in certain situations. The company’s crying foul, saying Hale’s merely a dangerous heckler sounding off on Oprano.com, an online forum, and doesn’t deserve the protections provided to journalists. So, just who is a "journalist?" Bloggers? Tweeters, for that matter? Mounmouth County Superior Court Judge Louis Locasio may be amongst the first judges to weigh this complex question, which is drawing mixed opinions from bloggers and 'traditional" journalists alike.

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McCormick Hosts Ethnic Media Leaders

The recent “McCormick Ethnic Media Conference: Strategies for Growing the Sector” brought some 30 leaders from across the nation to Chicago to discuss strategies, obstacles, lessons learned and impact of the work they do. The conference featured a public panel Friday, June 20 on “The State of Ethnic Media: Boom or Bust?” This public discussion was moderated by Community Media Workshop’s Thom Clark and featured Sandy Close of New America Media, Cristina Azocar of the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism at San Francisco State University and Juana Ponce de Leon of New York Community Media Alliance. Here are video excerpts from that lively exchange:

• Thom Clark of CMW introduces the panel and discusses the results of his organization’s research into Chicago’s 200 ethnic news outlets (click here)
• Panelists discuss challenges facing ethnic media
(click here
• Juana Ponce de Leon discusses the vibrancy of the ethnic media in a city where 40% of residents are foreign-born (click here)
• Cristina Azocar discusses the research conducted by SFSU on opportunities and threats to EM nationally (click here)
• Sandy Close on the role and strengths of EM (click here)
• Sandy Close on EM and advertising potential (click here)
• Closing comments on MSM v EM v the death of journalism (click here)

A highlight of this event was a spoken word performance by Esther Ikoro and Adam Gottlieb of Young Chicago Authors (click here)

Photo above by Demetrio Maguigad of Community Media Workshop

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Digital Diversity Wins Honors

Bringing together a diverse set of community news voices online in a visually-appealing, organized way ain't easy. Or cheap.

But the Twin Cities Media Alliance, a McCormick-funded nonprofit in Minnesota, shows you can bring together the work of more than 50 community ethnic media news outlets, dozens of citizen journalists and others, along with some great multimedia and blogs, to serve a local audience. It recently won the 2008 Page One (first place) award for Best Independent Web Site from the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). The judges cited the great design of the Web site, along with "local content that is relevant...sleek and colorful design."

You can check it out yourself at: www.tcdailyplanet.net.

The site was re-designed in 2008 with local designers with the help of McCormick funding. Given the profusion of hyperlocal and citizen journalism Web sites, perhaps the Daily Planet will influence others seeking to make their sites more interactive and useful to their audience.

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Strangers and Bedfellows

Departing from the norm, it looks like a large traditional journalism organization is trying to work WITH citizen journalists.

The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) is set to launch its Citizen Journalism Academies (CJA). These one-day workshops will train lay people to practice journalism "accurately, ethically and fairly." The goal of the program is to help participants "understand how responsible practices could increase their reach and help them have strong journalistic reputations within their communities and around the world," according to SPJ.

The first workshop will be in Chicago on May 17, where registrants will tackle topics on freedom of information, ethics, media law and reporting. Chi Town Daily News (http://www.chitowndailynews.org/), a nonprofit citizen news site covering Chicago, will assist with the training. Registration is $25. Future workshops are slated for Greensboro, N.C. and Los Angeles.

For more information on the CJAs: http://spj.org/cja.asp

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Knight Foundation Announces Top News Challenge Proposals

The Knight Foundation has just released a list of the finalists' proposals for the second year of the Knight News Challenge. These projects aim at – in Knight words - informing, empowering and engaging citizens and helping them in the decision-making process of their neighborhoods, communities and countries. The 17 projects chosen for funding, not named in the list, will be released May 14, 2008 at the E&P Interactive Media Conference in Las Vegas. To see the other top proposals click here: Top Proposals 2008.

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We're Not All 'Citizen Journalists'

With all the trendiness around the term "citizen journalist," Todd Wolfson of the Media Mobilizing Project in Philadelphia makes an important point: Not all the people practicing citizen journalism are citizens. Some are undocumented immigrants, he notes in an article from today's New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/technology/10link.html?ex=1362888000&en=f7410e7dafa0198a&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink).

Wolfson prefers the term "community journalism" as the encompassing title for those reporting out in the community. He's helping train a cadre of community journalists as part of the Media Mobilizing Project (www.mediamobilizing.org), a Knight-funded initiative that is teaching independent media making as part of an organizing effort "to build a broad vibrant network of social movements in Philadelphia."

The Media Mobilizing Project isn't the only initiative trying to train and disseminate news from community members and ethnic media. Check out Twin Cities Daily Planet (www.tcdailyplanet.net), an MTF grantee, which has been training and disseminating content from ethnic and community media in the Twin Cities for several years. The Daily Planet's recently re-designed Web site features some new multimedia options and its network of contributors continues to grow.

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The Big Question

Not all bloggers are journalists, but some bloggers are "without question" journalists, at least according to what's thought to be the first court ruling on the issue, according to the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government. The MTF grantee reports that Federal Judge Henry M. Herlong Jr. "dismissed a trademark violation lawsuit against the blogger, noting that the Lanham Act exempts 'all forms of news reporting and news commentary.' " The judge believed the blogger's article about an auction listings company that sold items on eBay was "clearly journalism, based on both a functional analysis and an examination of blogger's intent."

For more analysis and to see the ruling, visit CJOG at www.cjog.net.

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Making Money from Citizen Journalism

The proliferation of citizen journalism projects, which range from individual bloggers to aggregated hyperlocal Web sites, has resulted in a rich journalistic dialogue and new voices entering the "media" fray. Unfortunately, those voices still need to pay the mortgage, and right now, no one has nailed a replicable profit model to support citizen journalism.

Enter the Center for Citizen Media, led by guru Dan Gillmor, which is starting a project to glean the best practices and different revenue sources for citizen journalism. Emerson College new media graduate student Ryan McGrady will be heading up the project, called Making a Business of Citizen Media.

You can read the intro and check out the outline for what's coming here: http://citmedia.org/blog/2007/09/24/making-a-business-of-citizen-media/. So far, it looks like they'll be exploring affiliate, pay-to-blog, membership, donation and advertising programs, among others. Naturally, the Center encourages citizen participation in the project and hopes to get feedback via posted comments, emails, etc.

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