Taking on the big boys

Does the future of “citizen journalism” start here?

Internet entrepreneur Craig Newmark wants to revolutionise the media business. The Independent explores a development we should be watching very closely:

“‘I do think professional and citizen journalism will blur together,’ Newmark predicts, ‘because we will find that some amateurs are as talented as a professional journalist.’

“The White House press corps seems to enrage him especially. ‘No one is taking their job seriously there,’ he recently remarked. ‘Now it could be that they could be under a directive to not do so. We don’t know. I’ve spoken to a lot of journalists who are very frustrated.’

“Part of the problem lies with the newspapers themselves. The race for dollars, he insists, has obscured the race for truth. ‘They’re being run as profit centres, and they’re trying to get pretty high profit margins. As a result, investigative reporting has been seen as a problem.'”

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