Q&A with the National Association of Citizen Journalists: 'We can help news companies'

A report published today by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism suggests that 'citizen journalism' - or the act of readers becoming involved in the newsgathering and reporting process - is here to stay.

However the business and newsgathering models of existing news organisations change, user-generated content will continue to be a part of their operations, says the study by Washington Post columnist John Kelly.

Further establishing the trend, so-called citizen journalists now have their own body - the US-based National Association of Citizen Journalists (NACJ).

Is it possible to represent a group with such a flexible and loose definition? Journalism.co.uk asked NACJ co-founder and the association's catalyst-in-chief, Dr Ron Ross (right), for his views on how citizen journalism can help local newspapers and the need for more training.

Representation is not the NACJ's aim, says Ross: "The biggest weakness and the biggest strength in the citizen journalism movement is its lack of cohesion (...) We don't think citizen journalists need 'representation'; we think they need training and connection."

Instead the association will focus on training with online sessions and a range of membership packages, costing from $0 to $10 a month.

"The better the quality of information provided to the public by citizen journalists, the more likely they are to have a long-term presence. Without training and ongoing motivation, many will have only a passing influence," says Ross.

"A citizen journalist who enters an event or goes to cover a story wearing the credentials of the National Association of Citizen Journalists will have a much better chance of getting a serious response from the people they talk to."

What's your background?
[RR] For the last 12 years I owned a county-wide weekly entertainment paper published in suburban Denver. A few years ago, I attempted to get a web-based newspaper started for the same area. The idea was that citizens would upload news to the website and I would sell advertising around the news.

I was faced immediately with two conflicting issues: people loved the idea but no one would upload any news. Without news and hits on the website, I couldn't sell advertising, so the project was abandoned.

But out of that failure came the idea to provide training for citizen journalists. I started researching the entire concept of citizen journalism and noticed that there was no training or credentialing association for citizen journalists.

Since I was a publisher and not a journalist, I sought the help of a professional journalist, Susan Carson-Cormier, whom I had met through business contacts in the area. I shared the idea with her and she caught the vision.

What's the thinking behind the NACJ?
Citizen journalism is sweeping the globe. People with video cameras, laptop computers and internet connections are now reporting news as it happens.

We believe the amateurs who are doing this would do an even better job with some training in the art and science of journalism. We believe it will improve their work product and increase their credibility.

We also believe that the training must be delivered via the internet so that it is available 24/7 for the convenience of our members. Good training, we believe, results in quality journalism from everyday citizens.

Why now?
Because citizen journalism is hot: we saw it with the London subway bombings a few years ago and more recently with the thousands of posts made by brave citizens in Iran during the election protests.

Another reason for acting now is that we believe citizen journalists can help save local newspapers. For instance, why can't a local newspaper make a contract with the parent of an athlete to take photos of school athletic events for publishing in the paper? Why must the newspaper dispatch a photographer and reporter to an event when they can send a trained citizen journalist to do it for free or a nominal sum?

Does citizen journalism need more official representation?
The biggest weakness and the biggest strength in the citizen journalism movement is its lack of cohesion. There is no headquarters, no training centre and no one person in charge. There's not even a citizen journalist guru somewhere exuding wisdom and inspiration. Ultimately that is not the weakness, but the strength of the movement.

Citizen journalism is happening whether governments, agencies, businesses, educational institutions or individuals want it to or not. You can't stop it; it's growing like wildfire.

We don't think citizen journalists need 'representation'; we think they need training and connection. Strength and vitality comes to a movement when those involved begin to connect with like-minded people to share ideas and strategies and techniques.

We don't want to 'represent' citizen journalists. We want to recruit, train and motivate them. We want the movement to flourish - and we know that its strength is not because of some top-down organisational structure. Its strength is out there on the streets where the citizen journalists are breaking news.

That's also where the knowledge base is. Susan and I are pretty up-to-date on what's happening with the movement, but I don't believe there is anyone who can keep up with all that's happening and all the new ways people are learning to get news out. We depend on our members to provide us and their fellow members with the latest ways to make things happen.

How do you see citizen journalism developing?
The whole world of journalism is in transition and one can only guess at what the future holds.

What we know is that newspapers around the world are suffering from a serious loss of readers and thus a loss of advertising revenue sending many of them into the publishing graveyard.

We don't think that is a good thing. We think citizen journalists can contribute to the saving of local newspapers by becoming quality amateur journalists who can choose an area of interest and cover stories on behalf of the paper - saving the paper thousands of dollars.

Most major print and broadcast news companies actively recruit citizen journalists to send them photos, videos and complete news stories. The BBC, ABC, CBS, NBC and all the cable news channels have used citizen journalist stories and will be doing more in the future.

We can help both the news companies and the citizen journalists by providing training and motivation to do the job right. That's why we're here.

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