David Weaver on Future of Journalism

Interview with David H. Weaver, a journalism professor at Indiana who just delivered the university's 2009 Distinguished Faculty Research Lecture on the future of journalism.

Some experts argue that citizen journalism could help local newspapers survive. Do you agree or disagree?

DW: I agree, but I think citizen journalists are best at reporting breaking events, and not likely to be very helpful for in-depth, analytical or investigative reporting.

Is there any advice you would give newspapers on how to best incorporate a citizen journalism model into their site? Are you familiar with any media sites that have successfully done so?

DW: Hire good editors to monitor the contributions of citizen journalists.

No one would pay money at a dentist's office to have a root canal done by a citizen dentist. No one would pay money at a hospital to undergo a gall bladder operation by a citizen surgeon. What makes citizen journalism different in its viability?

DW: The skills and knowledge required to do good dental work or surgery are much different than the skills required to communicate the occurrence of specific events.

Do you believe that citizen journalism helps democratize information? If so, how? What do you think the information roadmap will look like in 20 years?

DW: Probably some events get reported by citizen journalists that would not be reported without them. Reporters can’t be everywhere and cannot know about all events taking place in their communities. In that sense, citizen journalism may help to broaden the kind of events that are reported. I’m not sure if that results in more democratic information, but it should result in a wider range of events being reported.

Is there anything else you'd like to say about citizen journalism?

DW: Yes ... I think there is a difference between communication and journalism, so it might be more accurate to refer to citizen communicators than citizen journalists. Without the training and education that most journalists have, most citizens cannot qualify as journalists. (A professor and scholar of journalism for 35 years, Prof. Weaver has published nearly a dozen volumes of research examining media agenda setting and politics, public opinion, newspaper readership, social science methods in reporting, and the changing characteristics of American journalists. He is the Roy W. Howard Research Professor in the journalism school at Indiana.)

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)