This article focuses on the growing emergence of citizen journalism and the fact that newspaper companies and journalists need to find a way of interacting with the audience . However, the article looks at the quality of the news on the Internet, with social networking sites such as Twitter , where journalists can speak their mind without having to refrain to any rules or regulating bodies. Most importantly, this article stresses the need for journalists and newspaper companies to be more approachable to their readers and to make them a part of the news, for example researching.
Important quotes from the article
"The web has led to a news community where ideas and news are shared rather than delivered."
This quote infers that web based news allows for greater audience interaction, whereby the news can be shared by citizens and many also be delivered to a wider audience.
The Guardian and Observer, like all other newspapers, used to operate a "tablet of stone" model of journalism in which we controlled the delivery of news and comment to our readers and the only involvement they had was through the carefully controlled letters page.
The traditional newspapers used to control comments by the audience on letters page and we able to control the way in which they delivered the news.
'The development of the Internet, and with it the creation of "citizen journalists", has revolutionised the delivery of information' to the point where Rusbridger now sees our 'journalists and readers as equal partners'.
The popular platform of the Internet has created citizen journalists who have the power to deliver the news and can submit stories to journalists, hence the relationship between the journalist and readers has become stronger.
"The mutualisation of news is a very powerful idea that particularly works for the Guardian, as our relationship with our readers is very strong. We can use the community of our readers in ways we would not have been able to in the past."
The readership of newspapers such as The Guardian is helpful for the newspaper company, as their readers can have input on different stories and can suggest new stories which could be of interest to other readers.
Rusbridger gives the example of Comment is Free, which has completely changed the conventional model that a newspaper has a small core team of columnists filtering world events through only their eyes. Comment is Free now has nearly 1,000 think pieces a month from a broad range of writers, and comments from many thousands of commentators. Page traffic in May 2009 rose to 9.3m, compared with 7.6m the year before.
Comment is Free is infinitely richer and more diverse and more plural.
Rusbridger says the Guardian should build trust by behaving like the old-style mutual building societies, where members feel involved and where there is a shared interest.
"By continuing to go down this route, we will be more diverse, and genuinely more plural than other media organisations and create a huge external resource. We need to continue breaking down the perceptions of a remote journalist who is a preacher, living distantly, and newspapers as being in bed with power and on the side of power, rather than the reader.
"We need to get writers into the mindset where we tell less and listen more, not just in send mode but receive mode, where publishing an article is the beginning of a process and not the end of it."
This shows how news needs to be more plural in the way it is delivered, as audiences are encouraged to voice their opinions and to cooperate with journalists on specific stories or news which might be ground breaking.
Rusbridger believes new applications such as Twitter make it increasingly possible for individual journalists to publish outside the constraints of our newspaper and website and develop direct relationships with communities of readers. He gives the example of Guardian journalist Jemima Kiss, who had more than 12,000 followers on Twitter in June 2009 and uses them to get help in researching stories.
The emergence of social networking sites allows journalists to be more plural, as they have the chance to view their own liberal views about certain topics. Also, they have the opportunity to engage with their readers and can talk to them and gain input on stories which they have produced or are thinking of producing.
"It's a journalist's dream," says Rusbridger, "because there are all these people out there who can bombard her with all the information she needs. It represents a blurring of the lines between journalism and readers. She says: you help me with researching this story and I will let you know when it is ready."
The Guardian technology pod had 682,000 followers on Twitter in June 2009, which is nearly twice as large as the number of people who buy the Guardian every day.
Quality of journalism in the digital age
The constant proliferation of media bring about the debate on whether the quality of journalism is to a high standard, as newspapers tend to be regulated and monitored by editors. However, social networking sites such as Twitter are unregulated by editors and allow for the journalists to voice their opinions and include content which is outside of the Guardian's own publishing platforms. In this way, the journalists have a strong relationship between the audience and are more plural.
Rusbridger says it is important that journalists treat any information coming from the public as a primary source that needs to be checked like everything else.
The need to check information from the public is vital for newspaper companies and journalists, as certain information might be false or inappropriate.
Death of Ian Tomlinson
The investigation into the death of Ian Tomlinson at the G20 demonstrations in London was an excellent example of linking traditional journalism with information from the public.
Alan Rusbridger says: "At the heart of this story was reporter Paul Lewis doing what a traditional reporter should do. The death of Tomlinson raised barely a mention in the other media. The official police version was that he died of a heart attack while they were trying to rescue him under a hail of bottles. Lewis was sceptical of the police version and started interviewing the family, retracing the route and raising questions in the paper and on his Twitter feed.
" As Lewis began to write, people started looking through their cameras and their mobile phones, and a fund manager from New York realised he had captured the assault on Tomlinson and it was an extremely dramatic piece of film.
The availability of audiences on Twitter proves to be useful and beneficial to journalists who can retrieve evidence of violence for example from protests and can use evidence such as video clips and sound clips in order to report on stories such as student protests. Also, the audience can also aid in uncovering the truth about cover ups such as the G20 protests and can aid journalists on ground breaking stories.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainability/report-mutualisation-citizen-journalism
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