What's in a Name?

At the BlogHer conference for female bloggers this past weekend, I led an informal discussion group on citizen journalism.

I was surprised how much of that discussion focused on a general unease with the term "citizen journalism." Yeah, it's a far-from-perfect term, for several reasons...

Here are the main objections that the group voiced about the "citizen journalism" label:

• Few people who are not employed by news organizations or trained as journalists wish to call themselves journalists. They consider it inappropriate or misleading.
• Some people are intimidated by the thought of being considered (or considered themselves) journalists. It's too much responsibility.
• The "citizen" part can imply a national identity -- as in, can non-citizens or undocumented immigrants function as "citizen" journalists?
• It sounds officious and/or fake.
• It implies that nonprofessional journalists are engaged in an effort that is fundamentally different from what news organizations do

On July 30, blogger Adina Levin, who participated in the informal session, summed it up pretty well in "Citizen journalism is more fun to do than to talk about." There she wrote:

"The discussion focused on the tired old wordgames -- what is a journalist, what is a citizen journalist. Are bloggers journalists or not? How can citizen journalists be ethical? Is citizen journalism a good term, or is it intimidating for citizens, and exclusive of people who are non-citizens. The discussion implies a zero-sum game of prestige and reputation between 'old' and 'new' journalism. I say it's boring, and I say the heck with it."

...She's got a point.

But here's the catch: More and more people are getting interested in independently creating their own news coverage -- or in applying journalistic techniques (such as fact-checking) to other publishing efforts, such as blogging. They want to know what to do, how to get started, what others or doing.

In order to have this kind of conversation in a coherent way, it seems we need some recognizeable label (or set of labels) to bind the discussion and make commonalities visible.

However, there's no need to be rigid about this. If some people in your immediate corner of this ongoing discussion find the term "citizen journalism" confusing or offputting, try using another term. The label is really just a connection tool, it ultimately doesn't really matter that much.

We could call it "ortling" for all I care. Just as long as we keep the conversation going -- and just as long as that conversation keeps turning into action.

Comments

[Jozef Imrich]

Indeed, blogging is more fun to do than to talk about
http://deepblog.com/whyiblog.0.html
[ Why, why, why we blog? ]

[cgrotke]

When we started iBrattleboro in February 2003, we didn't know what to call it.

Sometime that summer we heard about OhMyNews and kind of picked up on the "citizen journalism" name for a while. But, like you said above, it isn't quite right.

We can pretty easily dismiss things it isn't: a newspaper, a magazine, etc.

Other terms I've heard: community journalism, community blog, public access journalism, community access journalism, and Amy Goodman used the term "trickle up" journalism which has a certain appeal. (She was talking about her show, but the same principle applies... stories start on the site then get picked up by "real" news outlets).

Truth is, it is still defining itself, so the name will likely evolve.