CellJournalist is the latest of several sites hoping to cash in by making the link between "citizen journalists", or in this case citizen snappers, and mainstream media organisations. That doesn’t, of course, make it bad. Nor does the fact that Cyberjournalist has been set up by two guys with extensive experience running "parking management company in Vermont" which, afterall, was a state that spawned another internet pioneer of sorts. The site’s founder told the Annenburg Online Journalism Review that the site hopes to focus on local news and events that news organisations don’t reach but still want to cover.
The more of these middleman companies I see appearing, the more I think there’s an opportunity for filtering agencies with experienced editors and journalists on staff to provide user generated content filtering services for mainstream media and news organisations. Here’s how it could work:
- A journalist or editor logs into the agency extranet and requests the type of content they’re looking for.
- The agency staff then go out and look at sites like flickr, youtube and on blogs to find suitable content
- Suitable content is then sent back to the organisation that wants it, with all copyright, payments, etc being taken care of by the agency
- The photo, video or whatever is used
– or –
- The mainstream media organistion puts out their call to action (eg. "send your photos to") and these are redirected to the agency for sifting
It’s similar in some ways to what online community moderation companies are already doing with content from message boards and chat rooms but is qualitatively different in that it requires the experience and skills of journalists and editors. But, using the first model above, there would of course be times where economies of scale could be had by fullfilling similar content requests at the same time. Also, using the second model, it might be possible for an organisation with the ability to make a widely noticed call to action, for example CNN or Sky News, to actually sell on (with the necessary terms and conditions met) content to other organisations. The middleman agency could then deduct fees for usage from fees for provision.
Either way, it has always seems rather unlikely to me that the necessary critical mass of people will find and remember, in the moment they witness news happening, the middleman agencies or their email addresses. And that is where I think the current model doesn’t work – ordinary people see everyday and remember yourpics@bbc.co.uk but outside the industry hardly anyone will have heard of one of the middleman agencies.
[Update: Over on Smartmobs, Howard Rheingold points us towards similar service]