Citizen Journalism And Steve Jobbs

It is simply silly to decry "citizen journalism" because one "citizen journalist" got the story wrong, intentionally or otherwise. Actually, the term "citizen journalism" is silly. It is a way for big media to differentiate themselves from the "citizens".

People say things on the street. People say things in their home, at work, on the train, and in email, Twitter and on their blogs. This is all information. The fact that it continues to be necessary to think about what you hear and run it through filters is no different for any information source.

I certainly would never take a CNN, or Fox or MSNBC news story as gospel. Would you?

clipped from bits.blogs.nytimes.com October 3, 2008, 12:46 pm Apple Denies ‘Citizen Journalist Report’ By John Markoff The report raised questions on several blogs about the role of citizen journalism, and there was speculation that the incident would lead to an investigation by securities regulators. Apple’s shares abruptly declined as much as 5.4 percent after the post on iReport, CNN’s citizen journalist Web site, stated that Mr. Jobs had had a “major heart attack.”