There is a very interesting article on Fagstein and I invite you to read it. The problem is if quality might take a drop if citizens take over the journalist’s duty and start reporting on their own. I guess so in the very short term and let me explain. This is exactly what happened on Youtube when it started. People uploaded a lot of questionable videos. And I understand them. This is brand new technology and you want to be the first one to upload a karaoke video.

However, people “grew up” and now we’re seeing more high quality content. There are “producers” (who are still amateurs) but deliver very high quality material. Professionals or semi-pros use Youtube to show off their work too. So would “social news” suffer the same fate? I truly believe so. People will start by writing silly things just to show off but in the long run, these people will quit writing and go back to reading. It’s also exactly the same thing with blogging. There are gazillions of blogs out there. Are they all good? Of course not but who cares? People LOVE to talk and I believe that high quality material will come out of those dedicated “citizen journalists”. And while it might not always be up to par with pros, I believe we’ll be surprised by what they will produce. Why? Because people care about what affects them. If there’s an issue that’s not taken care by your mayor, maybe you won’t go out and interview him but you might write a nice story, a story that comes from your heart/guts. And those are the best stories. Stories from devoted annoyed or pissed off citizens.

Will citizens do good journalists? I bet you they will!