Citizen journalism was prominent among the topics under discussion at last night's Cleveland Weblogger's Meet-Up (several members of the group are conducting a series of interviews of Cleveland mayoral candidates).
How timely, then, that the latest Poynter E-Media Tidbits newsletter should include this brief post on the very same topic. The post references a report from Clyde Bently of the Missouri School of Journalism, in which Bentley asserts that, "Readers and potential contributors are not interested in a rehash of events and issues that are already covered by the city's other news media. Rather, they are interested in issues that go largely ignored on the nightly news."
Is this editorial gap a function of faulty assumptions on the part of mainstream media about what the audience wants, or is it a result of decisions made by those who control the media about what they want the audience to see?
Either way, citizen journalism is drawing the same sort of attention from MSM news outlets that P2P file sharing continues to draw from the music industry.
(Also available on Blogcrtiics.org.)
Bob Rhubart: Humor. Opinion. Comment. Rants. Neurosis. Sometimes all at once.
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