A few publications are getting it…

Citizen Media Editor…sounds like an interesting job and it will be interesting to see how it goes and what happens. It is a very multi-faceted job, that is for sure. It will definitely be a learning process. The various sites listed in the article will have to learn from each other.

This seems like a terribly difficult job and one that you could really make as much out of it as you wanted. With no real protocol to follow and so much monitoring to be responsible for (monitoring of untrained citizens, nontheless), this doesn’t sound like the kind of job I would be interested in any time in the near future… =)

Everyone seems pretty laid back about the legality issues. If I were in that position, I might look a little bit closer before I just jumped in. Overall it’s a pretty sound idea that has definitely peaked my interest.

I believe the idea to be great, but they are correct when asserting there are still problems in the system. It reminds me of discussions earlier in the semester about blogs having a code of ethics. I think this is a perfect example of the need for a code of ethics.
They could use the journalists code of ethics, but with citizen journalism it would difficult. Regular citizens are not exposed to this code and not made aware of the seriousness in which it is taken in the journalism world. Therefore, I think this is a perfectly good argument for adopting a code of ethics in blogging, if not for just organizational blogs.
There would still need to be some way that the code is made available to the commentor. They could always use the “click if you agree to the statment option,” but who actually reads that. That would definitely be another hurdle, but I think everyone is on the right track.

This is the first time I have heard anything about a citizen media editor. Thanks for bringing this to our attention! I think that it is a good idea for traditional news to embrace the art of blogging. Instead of trying to compete with citizens’ opinions and blogs they are teaming up with them.
I also think that the duties of a citizen media editor would be quite demanding. That person would have to make sure anything anyone wrote is not libelous and be responsible for other traditonal editing jobs. What I think might be so hard is that this person is responsible for information written by everyday people and not journalists so it might be hard to edit and overlook what is written without altering the meaning behind it. It will be interesting to see how it turns out.

Thanks Dee.

I love it. With the advent of NowPublic and OurMedia I can see more and more local papers and TV stations adopting this as an ‘add-on’ to their online offerings.

It might well be one of the most frustrating jobs, but also the most rewarding. Think of the special issues the ombudsman faces at say, The New York Times. (Registration Required)

And, with the availability of so many affordable platforms (paid and opensource) I bet we’ll see this in even small local papers, too.

This is an interesting time to be alive, isn’t it.

Are these things that everyone feels like are going to be widespread in the future? Most people I know don’t even know what a blog is - even though a lot of their friends are actually blogging for classes like Robert’s. Is the whole world really going to pick up on all this new technology? Maybe people thought this about television sets, too. It just seems a lot of these things are so far-fetched that only a very slim minority are going to find benefit from it.

Thanks for the post. I never heard of Citizen Media Editor, but it makes sense. With blogging becoming so widespread now, I feel it’s important for people to take advantage of it while it’s still new and fresh. However, I think the legal issues facing CME are serious. Having potential contributors agree to a disclaimer would be a must. I would feel it would be worth it to hire a lawyer to make sure CME would be protected legally.