ALJ301

BuzzMachine offers an interesting perspective into journalism as it develops on the web.

In an article Jeff Jarvis published on 30 September 2008, he states, ‘I think the new building block of journalism needs to be the topic… I want a page, a site, a thing that is created, curated, edited, and discussed… We have to use the new tools we have at hand to create new structures for covering news and informing each other.’

Blogs seem to be at the center of a new journalistic phenomenon. Jarvis has said in a lot of his articles recently that people need to embrace the future. For example, he mentions using wikis in journalism. With the rising popularity of citizen journalism, this could encourage more people to get involved in and read the news.

A passer-by who sees a car crash could suddenly become a contributing reporter on a wiki page or blog. Forums and blogs already use this kind of discussion tactic in reviews or reports.

For example, a review posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX5eh7eLaVQ on the Nokia N95 produced 304 comments – a lot that were useful in how to use the N95, with some comparisons between the N95 and Iphone.

There are dodgy people out there, but a lot of the best information comes from direct sources or users of a product. Perhaps the best news updates come from bystanders.