Student journalists skeptical of AllVoices' "citizen journalism" model

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:18:41 -0400

Online Journalism Blog had firsthand experience with citizen journalism site AllVoices' recruitment tour of U.K. universities. Speaking to college students majoring in journalism, the company seemed to be selling itself as a leg up into the world of journalism, much like the proliferation of writing gigs on job sites promising "exposure" for writers.

However, even the journalism students aren't buying into the hype. Even when shown the automated method of content filtering employed by AllVoices, including a voting system, aggregation, and contributor reputation, the students remained skeptical of the lack of human editors, asking:

"[W]hat if someone posted something false? What if a PR person planted some fluff complimentary to their client? Do you perform any identity checks? And my particular favourite: What if the person writing was a terrorist?"

After watching the repercussions of the Steve Jobs heart attack rumor that began on CNN's citizen journalism site iReport, the students have a point. User-generated content has been a boon to online content, but at the same time, the lack of editorial oversight has tarnished the reputation of citizen journalism. Automation enables efficiency, but does nothing to ensure quality or accuracy. Citizen journalism needs an overhaul to achieve respectability.

Image by Mark Visosky. Used under Creative Commons Attribution License.

Student journalists skeptical of AllVoices' "citizen journalism" model

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:18:41 -0400

"[W]hat if someone posted something false? What if a PR person planted some fluff complimentary to their client? Do you perform any identity checks? And my particular favourite: What if the person writing was a terrorist?"

Image by Mark Visosky. Used under Creative Commons Attribution License.