Should Citizen Journalists be trained?

Well of course there should be training! But then the question becomes who does the training?

The Umass on-line certificate program is of course a good start because it sets minimum standards that allow motivated individuals to tap into a proven brand name for journalism.

But once that training camel gets its nose under the tent, are you going to have government certification required?

In Massachusetts a hair stylist needs 1,000 hours of training and must past a test for a state license. The state legislature is now talking about licensing personal trainers at health clubs and massage therapists. As a health fitness professional (with a degree in Exercise Science/Sport Mgt) I would actually support both of those because someone with inadequate training could potentially hurt a paying client.

What is a “journalist”? Simply somebody who works for a mainstream media outlet and gets paid, or volunteers for a college newspaper, senior center quarterly or high school yearbook? And can their lack of training cause damage? Of course it can.

We have laws against libel/slander for an aggrieved party to seek retribution against a news outlet that publishes something a cub reporter failed to fact check and does damage to an innocent persons reputation.

But we also have something in a freewheeling, market driven system called “let the buyer beware.” If you act upon information gleamed from a Citizen Journalism site that nobody has ever heard of operated by anonymous contributors and it looks like it was designed by a pimple faced high school kid then you deserve to absorb whatever damage inflicted.

Chances are any site that consistently attracts eyeballs –especially enough for the owners to generate revenue from advertisers—must be doing something right.

Most karate schools have a color belt program so you can tell who is the beginner (white belts) and who are the more highly trained experts (brown and black belts). Schools that have lousy standards (selling the higher belts as long as the check clears) usually don’t last as students eventually figure it out.

Perhaps one way for government to ease into this fray is to make it mandatory that any news outlet that puts out their hand for a government subsidy (either tax exempt, non-profit status or outright stimulus funding) must have minimum training standards and a certification program for all reporters and editors.

Information gathering is easier if the sources know they can trust the reporter and the entity they represent. Although Woodward and Bernstein were not the most experienced reporters at the Washington Post the rock solid reputation of the newspaper itself more than made up for that.

While anyone can start a blog and call themselves a “journalist”, the ones that garner attention and make a difference will be those who take themselves seriously and exude that in everything they do.

Training and certification is just another step (leap) forward on the road to mainstream acceptance.

UMass Library Under Fire

No, not from "cleared" Gitmo detainees relocated to the People's Republic of Amherst, just from the usual suspects--right wing radio shock jocks who moonlight as Boston Herald columnists.

And yes these are the same folks who flamed Umass Amherst last spring when Nitwit left wingers interrupted and shut down conservative speaker Don Feder.

But when the shoe is on the other foot...

Yeah, the old First-Amendment-is-great-as-long-as-it-only-applies-to-me routine. You would think folks who make a living spewing vitriol would be passionate defenders of the right to say whatever the Hell you want. Of course this is the same journalist that told Amherst Selectman Gerry Weiss a few weeks back that "innocent until proven guilty" should only apply to Americans.

The speech/discussion by convicted domestic terrorist Ray Luc Levasseur scheduled for next week is now cancelled. But Herald columnist McPhee is dead wrong that the Governor "pulled the plug." UMass Amherst Libraries’ Department of Special Collections and University Archives director Rob Cox, with the greatest of regrets, pulled the plug. Because he feared a circus like atmosphere possibly endangering public safety.

Of course police officers should be upset with what this man once represented caused the murder of one of their own (not by Levasseur but somebody in his group so that still makes him complicit). But he paid his dues--twenty years of hard labor. And if you believe in our American system of justice he has a right to get on with his life. That includes using the constitutionally guaranteed protection of the First Amendment.

What better way to find out what motivates somebody to violence then to hear a first hand account; so that maybe in the future we can take measures to avoid it. Computer security companies love to hire hackers fresh out of the Federal pen and put them to work protecting systems they once pillaged.

The library was going to cover his travel expenses (so yes, some tax money was involved) but the small honorarium was going to be donated to the Rosenberg Fund for Children. And it's not like they were putting him up in a fancy Sheraton Hotel for a week and giving him champagne and call girls.

The Springfield Republican reports:

The Boston Herald brags

FIRE gets fired up

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me--
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Incoming!

WBUR Boston radio reports (NPR affiliate)
Cartoon in today's Amherst Bulletin (also loaded with Letters and Columns on Gitmo)
Ruth Hooke addresses Amherst Town Meeting

UPDATE: 9:20 AM So conservative Boston talk radio station 96.9 WTKK called and will be interviewing me at 10:10 AM. Google search them as they stream live
Looks like this story hit the AP wire about an hour ago as the Boston Herald just published it and the 'Comments' are already pouring in (not overly complimentary of course).
##########################################
ORIGINAL POST last night 10:30 PM

So batten down the hatches, dig the foxhole a little deeper or fire up the Romulan cloaking device, as Amherst will once again become Ground Zero for conservative scorn. The "advisory" article welcoming "cleared" Gitmo refugees passed Town Meeting muster rather overwhelmingly.

Select Board Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe gave a "minority report," but it was more an advisory to Town Meeting that she has done numerous interviews with all manner of mainstream media and heard from Umass officials concerned about safety and parents threatening to scratch Umass and Amherst College off their list of prospective schools.

Being a former PR flack she knows that the real story is not getting out--and that Amherst is being misportrayed as providing safe haven for terrorists.

Within hours of the horrific attacks on 9/11 democratic and republican lawmakers lined up at the capital building and sang "God bless America." Tonight I felt like trying to get Town Meeting to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, especially the closing: "with liberty and justice for all."

Princess Stephanie reads an apologetic piece.

To Be Continued...

Town Meeting that is. Tonight @ 7:30 (well more like 7:40)

Article #9 expanding the potential for medical establishments to locate in a research park will take at least an hour as the NIMBY's bring all guns to bear (fortunately they do not use IEDs.)

Articles #11-13 are also Zoning articles but the neighbors support the changes so those should not take long. So yeah, I think we will get to the Gitmo advisory article (#14) tonight.

And if I had to guess, I would say it will pass. And No, if Bill O'Reilly calls I'll not come out from under my desk to appear on his show (after all, he controls the microphone).

Amherst Town Meeting Fiddles...

Select Board Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe explains the Interstellar Alien Landing Port

But seriously folks, tonight the campaign for a multi-million dollar tax Override began.

The Finance Committee gave a verbal report that parroted the Assistant Town Manager's presentation a few weeks back to the illustrious Select Board projecting a $4 million budget gap next year.

Of course over the next couple hours during routine housekeeping warrant articles we learned the town has stashed in surplus $2.6 million in Free Cash, $2.8 million in a Health Care Trust Fund, $1.3 million in Stabilization, $1.4 million in the Water Fund and the Town Manager announced a $1 million state Community Development Block Grant in each of the next two years.

Yet...the sky is falling. Or maybe it's a UFO.


So notice Princess Stephanie trots out that old fallacy that Prop 2.5% does not allow municipalities to keep up with inflation (roughly 3%). She ignores the other part of the law that allows "new growth" to be combined; and the two have always exceeded the simple rate of inflation.

Even our toothless "watchdog" Finance Committee issued an Override Report last year that clearly shows Amherst homeowners have absorbed a 6% average increase in their taxes--or twice the rate of inflation. Welcome to the People's Republic!

An American institution

So, ugh, Amherst Town Meeting starts tonight--the 250th.5

Only 14 articles compared to around 40 in the Spring so it should not take all that long. And the only article that will generate interest is #14, last on the list, thus no chance it comes up tonight.

Select Board Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe is doing an interview this morning with NPR affiliate Boston radio station WBUR (while holding "office hours" at The Black Sheep) and the reporter is coming to interview me at the Health Club this afternoon at 1:00 PM.

Princess Stephanie voted not to recommend the Gitmo relocation advisory article because she does not think little old Amherst Town Meeting (established thirty years before the US Constitution took effect) should have a foreign policy.

I, on the other hand, honestly believe our nation is a shining city on a hill, a beacon to all, fueled by the blood of patriots.

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..."

Hear ye, hear ye: Town crier needs material

What things would you do as editor of a Citizens Journalism effort to increase public input?

I would establish ‘beats’, ‘channels’, or compartmentalized sections on the site (just as a newspaper has national, local, sports, entertainment, living sections etc).

All of these sections would have their own Forum Comment fields for reader response/submissions BUT would be moderated. Anonymous comments would be acceptable (you can get great tips when a person knows they are protected) and with moderation you can quickly weed out off-topic comments or possible libel/slander.

Police beat: One of the best read sections of the Amherst Bulletin is the Police Log (they are public documents) so I would make sure to publish that every week. But I would also try to find a cop, spouse, or somebody "into" public safety to write a weekly analysis/report/editorial about crime--even if it is the small town kind.

School/education beat: As you pointed out some towns--like Amherst--spend 75% of their tax money on the schools. A blog in the area that consistently (when schools are in session anyway) beats mine is Catherine Sanderson's "My School Committee Blog" and it gets tons of comments. Since I know she does it for the exposure and not for money (School Committee is an elected but none paid position) it would not be hard to form a strategic alliance with her already successful blog.

Arts beat: These days everybody has a digital camera so I would establish a photo section where budding photographers could upload their work (no Porn of course).

Sports section: Every parent loves to see his or her kids names in print--even if only on the web. A knowledgeable coach would be happy to write a weekly column and I would try to get a lot of them covering everything from standard seasonal sports like basketball, baseball, football as well as mixed martial arts, cycling, running, triathlons, and yes, even bowling.

Health beat: With the graying of America combined with older folks embracing the web and the spread of broadband this is a perfect place to attract that older demographic that the national beer, auto, and entertainment companies seem to ignore in their advertising (going after the 18-35 kids.)

Heath clubs, yoga centers, chiropractors, sports medicine rehab centers would be happy to submit material and I would form a strategic alliance with Umass Exercise Science department as well, for articles of a more general interest (not just trying to drum of business) on safe practical exercise targeted at senior citizens or just casual couch potatoes.

Politics—or I should say local politics: As Tip O’Neil so famously stated: “All politics is local.” This one would of course be my favorite. I would enlist citizen journalists to cover all the major meetings of town boards and committees. My theory is if the town can find 5 or 6 people to staff these committees I should be able to find one person with a computer to cover them or even enlist one of the committee members.

Entertainment Beat: This would include all the staples--local bar and music scene, movies, music downloads, links to local radio and TV stations with a section devoted to music or video uploads from readers.

And all that mundane boring stuff that folks need/like to know: bus schedules, school schedules, weather, lottery results, crossword puzzle, horoscopes, free classifieds, etc

Hmmm…now after review it looks like all I’ve done is combine the best qualities of a local daily newspaper with a weekly free publication and put it all on the web where your audience can instantly interact and even move forward a story/issue.

But since all this happens on the web, the “burn rate” for overhead (unlike bricks and mortar media) is pretty close to nothing. And as Facebook has just demonstrated, if you attract enough “eye balls” advertisers will want a targeted piece of that action.