Well, it's been a pleasure everyone.
I thought I could send off on a brief resume of the State of the News Media 2008 Report , an elaborate study of the performance of American journalism, it attempts to identify ongoing and upcoming trends in journalism, for television, radio, print and online.
They offer a survey of the A Year In The News based on a comprehensive analysis of the last 365 days.
The report had more than a few interesting findings. For our portion on citizen media: "The array of citizen-produced news and blog sites is reaching a meaningful level. But a study of citizen media contained in this report finds most of these sites do not let outsiders do more than comment on the site’s own material, the same as most traditional news sites. Few allow the posting of news, information, community events or even letters to the editors. And blog sites are even more restricted. In short, rather than rejecting the “gatekeeper” role of traditional journalism, for now citizen journalists and bloggers appear to be recreating it in other places."
Indeed, the report suggests that citizen media has some serious limitations.
Blogs attract small niche audiences, that expect the same standards of reporting as mainstream media - but in a new format. One that comes without an editing team or the big-bucks funding. And our bloggers, well, they're people with an even more elitist background than journalists...upper-crust are we? No. But individuals with enough time on their hands to produce unremunerated content...maybe.
© xkcd The real crisis, a consequence of Anderson's Long tail concept, is getting people to pay for their information without taking a cut from the quality of the reporting.“It’s like changing the oil in your car while you’re driving down the freeway” A tricky situation, as more efforts keep shifting toward processing info and away from original reporting. But there's hope, I hear.
It entails moving from a product to a service business model. With user fees not to have to rely entirely on advertising. Because, no one wants big business dictating what's relevant to your freedom of information! Jason Lanier forgot about that one.
If your looking into these avenues, a good place to start is The Real News, a television news and documentary network focused on providing independent and uncompromising journalism. The staff collaborates with journalists internationally to provide original content. Member funded, they don't care for advertising, government or corporate funding.It becomes a community payroll.
If your interested, your independent news will tally about 50$ a year.
Or...there's always the option of adhering to Mainstream Media...
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