Pitfalls, praise, and pratfalls for citizen journalists

A few words with Justin Ellis, Portland Press Herald, on citizen journalism.

Staff reporter Justin Ellis of the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram emailed and called the other day, seeking my thoughts on "citizen journalists". Read some of Ellis' recent articles.

We spent the better part of an hour discussing (mostly me ranting) on just how citizen and profession journalism differs. What each can and can't do, should but doesn't do, and what ought to be done to come up with ways to augment the weaknesses of each with the strengths of the other. Read on......

Ellis wrote that he was (is) working on:

"..a story about citizen journalism and people who are trying
to take an active part in their community by reporting and writing
on what's going on around them."

He noted that I've

"... been very active in writing on the clean up of Seal Island and land use planning for Sears Island. I also notice you've taken an interest in monitoring Maine's media outlets."

These being subjects I have decided positions on and opinions about, I held forth, to wit:

* Term limits for letters editors. The letters to the editor and op-ed pages are important citizen journalism tools. The editorship of those pages should be term limited, with editors put back in the field reporting on local day to day issues, to reconnect them with the real world, where they can apply their big picture experience to local newsgathering. .

Veteran field reporters should conversely be sent to staff the op-ed and letters department, as well as writing editorials themselves. They can apply their real-world experience to making decisions on which to select of the rivers of letters and other written opinion pieces pouring in to their newspapers and production studios from the public.

Investigative Journalism: Someone's gotta do it. Mainstream Maine journalism is distinguished by a near absence of investigative journalism. The dirty work of uncovering the corruption, incompetence and malfeasances interwoven into Maine's economy and politics is left to citizen journalists and independents like Lance Tapley.

But when citizen journalists uncover scandals they must then publicize them beyond their narrow bonds. The second part of their task: pitching these stories to mainstream journalists, can be as difficult as the investigative work itself.

And Woe to that citizen journalist who arouses sleeping lions of corruption, while lacking the legal and political shields of professional media! The Department of Corrections "corrected" one recently....

Last fall, a Knox County citizen reporter for a weekly news outlet was given a certain internal government document by a retiring official, outlining a pattern of corruption and mismanagement by an important state agency the reporterwas covering.

After the document's public release by the reporter, along with his own reportorial analysis, the reporter was taken from his home into custody by the state police -- with the governor's personal acquiescence-- and driven through the night to a high security prison in Baltimore, Maryland. Neither his publisher nor his attorney are notified.

To this day, he is kept confined "for security reasons" in a secluded cell twenty three out of every 24 hours, with no access to telephone or internet, or other prisoners, and only occasional postal service. There are no plans by officials of either state to release him back to Maine from this secluded exile.

Outrageous? Surely. But while the agencies congratulate themselves on putting a media gadfly away, the Maine media establishment yawns. What's another 'citizen journalist', more or less? Thank goodness a civic minded private attorney has taken up his case in defense of citizen journalism pro bono, too >.

The freedom of journalists to expose corruption without fear of sudden forced exile and/or loss of livelihood, is under attack, friends. If citizen-reporter gadflies are getting swatted. Who will be next? "First they came for the..."

What are you mainstream media types going to do about it? I asked Justin. To his silence I answered myself in bitter precognition: "Nothing!"


More about my discussion with Justin Ellis later...including:

When Media Borgs Collide