Friday, July 11, 2008

Senior Citizen Journalist

A post written in response to Gary Sauer-Thompson's missing the point of blogs, this morning. He recommends watching the panel discussion at the Microsoft Politics and Technology Day, Canberra 25th June 2008:

If it's worth watching at all, it's to get some idea of how badly misunderstood the independent blogosphere can be, and perhaps how poorly the blogosphere has articulated what it actually does, or can do given the opportunity.

The political blogosphere is much misunderstood. Especially we amateurs. The euphemism is citizen, meaning unpaid and unrecognised. I think I'll put 'Senior Citizen Journalist' on the next census and passport application. There seems to be a lot of forums and discussion about CitJ's (love the jargon) which is fascinating given how few there seem to be in Australia.

Lots of people are blogging, as commentators or conduits for news and commentary. Lots are making satirical video and animation. Except at election time, it's hard to find many who have the time or inclination to undertake traditional news gathering and investigation. Perhaps it is a job for seniors who have the time.

When the WA government held a Community Cabinet in Broome earlier this year I contacted the relevant government office to get some kind of accreditation to find out what was planned and get the press releases. The initial response was that it would set a dangerous precedent. What if every university student with a camrecorder wanted to come to the Perth media briefings. There wouldn't be enough room. I was eventually successful and the fruits such as they were can be found in my video collections on YouTube and TeacherTube.

Recently the ABC Radio's Australia Talks planned a program on Citizen Journalism but replaced it with a more general one on the "Authority of the media". There are useful links on the website and some discussion of citizen journalism.

Used to enjoy Annabel Crabbe's SMH blog but she rarely has more than one post per month these days. A pity. Won't comment on her remarks until I've seen the footage.

Watch this cliché!

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