Bloghercon on suffragette journalists
We're live blogging at Bloghercon. Lisa Stone is moderating a panel titled "Suffragette Journalists: Op-ed Pages of Our Own." The panel is discussing citizen journalism by/for women, including Anastasia Goodstein, Evelyn Rodriguez, and Chris Nolan.
Lisa Stone led off by mentioning that she is a journalist who went into blogging. She doesn’t want a bloggers versus journalists debate.
She asked how many bloggers were already journalists, and she asked how many people would be interested in writing for a mainstream media outlet, and found the audience mixed with both. Lisa mentioned how journalists are turning to blogging, which is emancipating them from the printed page.
Chris Stone is a journalist who started to write online, starting with the San Francisco’s mayor’s race. Her site went national when Gavin Newsome addressed the same sex marriage issue.
Anastasia Goodstein started Ypulse on teen issues because of her interest in youth issues, and has a journalist background also. She worked with Oxygen on their teen-produced programming.
Evelyn Rodriguez said she is not a journalist, but she is up on the panel because anyone can become a citizen journalist at anytime. She is in the technology field and started blogging since everyone else was blogging and she loves writing.
She happened to be on vacation in Thailand on December 26 when the tsunami hit. She saw the wall of water, yelled run and everyone around her started running. It took her a day or so to get online from the hospital and she posted about her situation, and continued to post from a personal perspective.
She found that a lot of people responded and saw the importance of the personal aspect of the story as part of citizen’s journalism. She is going back for the one-year anniversary to blog more about it.
The question was raised whether one person’s personal story is journalism. Chris mentioned that often a person story is not unique and therefore not newsworthy. However when someone is at a newsworthy event, a citizen journalist can provide a unique perspective.
Chris said the news gathering process has left the building – people feel they can make the same news judgments as salaried journalist. But it’s not always true, and a lot of people are trying to figure out whether or not it’s journalism. People in the business say “it depends.”
An audience member mentioned that you have essentially unsalaried journalists, who populate their blogs with news and information as they see fit. Then you have a second group of people who don’t have their own sites but funnel it through someone else’s. Then you have people like in the London bombings who don’t want their own site but they want to be part of mainstream media.
Lisa mentioned that Dan Gillmor has put forth the idea of using a tag on sites that are doing journalism. Chris indicated that you can’t necessarily label what we do, and readers are smart enough to tell what you are doing. When she wrote a gossip column, she broke hard news about Frank Quattrone through that, so you can’t categorize it. Chris said she’s not going to tag.
Anastasia mentioned the point that the credibility problem comes up where fact checking may not occur, or where it is possible that something was staged. This could be a problem for media trying to publish these types of posts. Chris said this is what the editorial functional is all about. Chris said it’s a tricky line to learn.
Another comment was made from the audience, from a representative of a newspaper association. You can’t necessarily categorize the story, and you can’t control who calls themselves a journalist. If you can demonstrate an audience, you can get a press pass. She said she’s here because if newspapers don’t diversify they’re going to die. If newspapers can’t represent the community they’re in, then they’re going to be irrelevant.
Chris says that’s what’s happened. Her site is popular because nobody’s doing what she’s doing in her community. The popularity of blogs is an indictment of big newspapers.
Lisa said she wanted to confirm this. She works with media companies evangelizing the role of community. There are two places the newspaper audience is growing – in online and in alternative news.
Chris said a lot of what newspaper editors do is try not to offend anyone, so they are now boring people. They are trying to embrace citizen’s journalism, but they want it vetted and they want free labor. Ask them what they pay their stringers!
An audience member who is a trained journalist says why is it more effective for me to call up experts and write an article, then ask that person who is the expert to write a column about it, i.e., eliminate the middleman, the gatekeeper. People are happy to do this, even for free, to get their message out. However what can happen is that people often don’t do it if they don’t write for a living. The term “citizen journalism” may not be the right phrase, because citizens don’t think they’re journalists, and the professionals don’t want to write from the perspectiv of citizens.
Lisa says that she speaks with people in the community who want to be published in the paper. People are sincere, but they are also learning about blogging. So she wants to talk about people who want to find out how to submit to media to get the word out.
A good pitch is by email rather than by phone since editors are busy. Keep it short and concise and write as you would in your blog, and be persistent. Anastasia said that writing on your blog is a way to get experience to start writing professionally.
There was a question as to how many times you can persist without becoming an annoyance? If you don’t hear back, you should email again and then call.
A comment was made by a newspaper editor that most newspapers don’t pay much, and if you want someone to contribute who is not an experienced writer, they should try to find editors who will work with you to develop as a writer, as a lot of editors do want new voices and to nurture new writers. Also in this new world you don’t have to reach a large audience – many of the elements of blogging have been in the underground and alternative press for years. Look at these publications to learn from them.
Chris said the newsroom has left the building, and it’s a competitive news business again!
Lisa recommends that when someone makes a submission, put in the subject line what you are doing. Put it all above the fold, 200 words maximum, put your personal photograph in as well. Provide your contact information. Do it repetitively, as they might like a different submission later on.
A comment was made by Jay Rosen at PressThink that newspapers are asking themselves how to get into blogging. They don’t know why, but they know they have to. He said you should approach your local paper, and pitch being the blogger for the local community, to write things of interest to the community. If you don’t do this, they’re going to take mediocre staffers and turn that into blogging, and the editors will think that’s what blogging is. So citizens need to infuse this with actual blogging.
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