Citizen Journalism and the Cross Pollination of Ideas

BuzzNetworker, another b5media blog, has a post today called: Citizen Journalism. It highlights the Center for Citizen Media, which is new to me, then goes on to talk about the fact that the San Jose Mercury News has called for neighborhood bloggers.

In one sense citizen journalism isn’t new at all. When you stop and think about it, Thomas Payne was a citizen first, so was Ben Franklin and countless others who broke news and changed worlds. In fact, professional journalism is really the new kid on the block, developing, according to some, in the early 20th century.

What’s different, of course, is the internet which has literally connected us world around. No longer do I have to wait for my daily newspaper or, in smaller towns, my weekly newspaper. I don’t have to wait for the evening news on either radio or TV, and I don’t have to wait until a “professional” news reporter gets it together to tell me what’s going on. It comes constantly, in my email and, if I choose, through blog feeds.

It’s the if I choose that concerns me a bit. There’s no denying that I tend to subscribe to blogs (and listen to radio shows - no TV here) that reinforce my own view of the world. And that means I have less exposure to opposing view points. Now, I do go out and seek those, but how many do?

Are we in danger of simply preaching to our own choirs at the expense of the exchange of ideas?

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