Chris Willis and Shayne Bowman, of “We Media” report fame, have written a thoughtful essay for Harvard’s Nieman Reports
that’s worth your time. The overall topic is the future of media and
how traditional organizations like newspapers and news broadcasters can
adapt to this rapidly changing media environment (and how they’re in
large part failing now). But the main focus is on “citizen media.”
The duo seems pretty much of the same mind as me when it comes to this
topic. They write: “Citizen media represents not the end of journalism
or news media companies but a shift in where value is being created. In
the traditional broadcast model, value was created solely by the
newspaper or TV station. In the future, more of the value will come
from creating an infrastructure for citizen participation and nurturing
trusted communities.”
This essay also will be part of “We Media 2.0,” an update of their 2003 report that’s due out in January or February.
