Log In | Register
-- Citizen journalism is not really journalism, said panelists Tuesday at a conference about social applications of technology.
Rather than "self-imposed impartiality," as self-titled "recovering journalist" and citizen media guru Dan Gillmor put it, web publishing tools offer the opportunity for people to speak in their own voices.
What about personal bias? "If you come to the issue with an agenda, say so," said Ethan Zuckerman, co-founder of an 18-month-old site called Global Voices that aggregates blogs from around the world.
Mr. Zuckerman, whose site now has 600,000 visitors per month, gave examples of people from around the world—for instance, the sister of a jailed Global Voices blogger Hao Wu—who are ideal candidates for describing and analyzing their own lives. And with blogging tools, they can do exactly that, for a worldwide audience.
Mr. Zuckerman said he'd learned to contribute context and translation rather than his own content. The Global Voices staff of 100 (two of which are currently jailed, evidently for their dissident actions) has the task of finding and linking to writers from specific regions. Mr. Zuckerman's message: "Don't speak. Point." --
