Hope for citizen journalism

A lot of media companies have tried to experiment with citizen journalism. Very few have succeeded for a great variety of reasons that to me most look like basic misunderstandings and not setting mutual expectations right.

In Denmark, regional newspaper JydskeVestkysten set up a quite ambitious project. They got 2000 citizen journalists on board, and a new survey of those show promising results.

318 out of the 2000 participated in a survey done by UPDATE, a center for journalistic competence. And the really intriguing part of it was that these people mentioned a genuine wish for securing a better coverage of their local beat as the number one reason for being enrolled in the project. Only after that came special interests, looking at particular issues etc.

To me this spells hope for citizen journalism, because it basically says that there is a need for better local coverage out there, and that people would be more than willing to participate. All it takes is for the cooperation model to get right and expectations set accordingly (well, I know there is more to it than that, but these are the real fundamentals).

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