Citizen Journalism & aggregation

The concept of citizen journalism continues to confound journalists, academics, and students alike. All too often, the lines between the professional journalist and the ordinary citizen become blurred. Many would say this is a wonderful idea. Others disagree.

The more active the population is in publicizing information, the more the people are informed, and in a democracy, you can't have much better. While certainly idealistic, there is a purpose to professional journalism. Mainly: objectivity.

The more that the ordinary citizen becomes involved in producing news, the less trustworthy it become and the likelihood of bias heightens.

Last but not least, the professional and skilled journalists become packed in with the unskilled and uneducated citizens, effectively neutralizing their hard work. What about the credit they deserve?

One specific way that citizens become journalists, and the less skilled become noteworthy news producers is called aggregation.

What is aggregation?

Most buzzfeed and Huffington Post articles you read are aggregative journalism. They've taken content from different sources and published it as a single story. They make heavy use of links and attributions throughout the story as not to violate copyright laws. They get the benefit of producing content without having to find, organize and report the story.

Here is an example. The original topic span over a long time period. This piece is a large summary based on the reports as they were released by The Guardian. To give another example, I found this link by researching aggregation.

How can aggregation be ethical?

Aggregation is journalism, too. It must have an added value in order to differentiate from the original piece. If it didn't come in a new, transformed way, then it's theft.

Blogger Steven Buttry put it best: "link, attribute, add value"

In a further condensed version, blogger Mindy McAddams gave this guideline in her post based on Buttry's post:

"Always link to the original source.

Always include clear attribution (in addition to the link). For an example, see the first paragraph of this post.

“Attribution helps consumers evaluate the reliability of information.” (Buttry)

Always use quotation marks (as in the previous item) when you copy and paste someone else’s text.

Add value to the material — add original reporting, updates, analysis (see examples below).

Another way to add value is to summarize and/or compare reports from several other sources.

Do not simply copy information, especially from unknown or unreliable sources.

Part of the value that you add is that you are using only sources that you trust."

Aggregation may be under heavy scrutiny because it's new(er). But it has cemented its place in Journalism. Like all other forms of reporting: it must be done right.

Thus, the tide of citizen journalism continues to swell. Although unfathomable, Buzzfeed and Huffington Post will eventually fall and some other form of infotainment will take its place. Sites like these may fail to integrate the average person for the next big site, that takes citizen journalism to levels we cannot even imagine now.