For the final assignment:
7) Can “citizen journalism” fill the gap created by the decline of legacy media?

1) What is citizen journalism? What is a citizen journalist? Provide definitions and background.

“A blogal citizen: I like to call this new medium of ours citizens' media. "Citizen" connotes belonging and that is why I like the word as a substitute for the old-fashioned, one-way notions of readers, viewers, listeners, consumers. Citizens belong. Citizens join. Citizens own. Citizens act. So I ask myself: Citizen of where? Citizen of what?” (Jeff Jarvis, Buzzflash, 2004)

"The terms citizen journalism and citizen journalist are not popular among traditional journalists or even the people who are doing citizen journalism at the ground level because they are imprecise definitions. Aren't professional journalists citizens as well? What if you're an illegal alien and not really a citizen -- does that invalidate your work? (Mark Glazer, "Your Guide to Citizen Journalism," PBS)

2) Is citizen journalism a “legitimate” replacement for news from the professionals who make up the legacy media? What does it offer that legacy journalism does not? Can citizen journalism be incorporated into legacy media sites?

“Therefore freedom of the press belongs equally to the amateur and the pro. As does journalism, including its essential practices. The pros may be in a better position to excel at those practices but they do not “own” them.” (Jay Rosen, Pressthink)

"... the digital economy has transformed that marketplace for news and information from one of scarcity to one of abundance. In today’s landscape many people don’t want to pay a few pennies every day for a product they may not use every day and they have to dispose of every day." (“Journalism 2.0: How to Survive and Thrive,” Mark Briggs, 2007)

There are an increasing number of hybrid organizations using both citizen journalism and legacy media, OhMyNews in Korea, Public Insight Journalism (Minnesota Public Radio), MinnPost, and TPMmuckraker, to name a few.

3) Predictions
Funding organizations like the Knight Foundation have taken an active interest in citizen journalism and how to move forward, and have been awarding grants for proposals like this from Tim Berners-Lee:

“With the copious amounts of information – and misinformation – on the Internet, the public needs more help finding fair, accurate and contextual news.” (Proposal summary)

Citizen journalism is not just a print phenomenon. It applies to video as well, and how the two go together.

“We think we’ve lived in an information freedom. We’ve actually lived in the Soviet Union of video for the last seventy years; three channels, here’s the truth, we’ll tell you, you sit and you shut up and you take it. Now for the first time, millions and millions of people are going to get video cameras and begin to make content that’s going to be an explosion of content. It’s going to be very, very messy and very uncertain, but geez, that’s what a free press is all about. It’s about being messy.” (Michael Rosenblum, C-SPAN Q and A, Nov. 16, 2008)

"Blame doesn’t matter. Journalists unwilling to think and work differently to save the profession should take the next buyout." "The Latest Death-of-Journalism Spat, Condensed for Easy Reading!" November 16, 2008 by Craig Stoltz, Web2.Oh...Really?

The question also relates to discussions I am having (mostly with myself so far) on my blog especially in the category, “Challenges to the Legacy Media." The research and paper for the final assignment should provide plenty of material for that as well.