Some of my clients are traditional media, i.e. newspapers and other publications. Within those industries there is a growing interest in citizen's journalism. What is it, how will it impact their business, how do they work with it, who are these people, why are they doing it, etc. Other major markets (California, New York, etc) have been discussing these issues for quite some time, often hearing from the true masters like Dan Gillmor and J.D. Lasica. Florida, however, is a bit behind the curve sometimes :-)

I often deal with traditional media that is just learning about the world of social media/CGM/citzen's journalism. When I discuss citizen's journalism I break it down into two segments: Active and Passive.

Active:
This segment is made up of individuals that are running hyperlocal blogs, contribute to local blogs or are participating in community publishing experiments such as BackFence or YourHub. The bloggers are actively seeking information and writing about a topic. They are also actively seeking readers that are interested in their topic.

Local Florida blogs such as Sticks of Fire and Urban Jackonville are constantly reporting/posting about news and issues within small markets. Are they actually reporting? That's up for debate, but the active participants have a true passion for local content. Many of the local blogs are updated on a daily basis providing stories and commentary on items that might never make the traditional media. As with most blogs, the comments of the visitors helps drive the conversation and spurs interest in stories.

Why do they do it? Mostly it's an interest in their local community. While some local blogs generate a small amount of revenue via advertising or Google AdSense, it's usually just enough to cover the bills. Some bloggers don't/won't even accept advertising.

What does traditional media do? Sometimes they try to court these bloggers to help provide content for community publishing systems they have implemented. However many of the local bloggers a fiercely independent and are not interested in working with the MSM. In some cases the local reporters will watch the local blogs for story ideas. Perhaps they'll credit the local blog with the tip, perhaps not :-)

Passive:
This segment is made up of the overwhelming population of regular bloggers. By regular I mean they just blog about their lives or a particular topic they are interested in. They might be on MySpace, Blogger or LiveJournal. They don't attempt to report or research and they aren't seeking local readers, they just blog.

So how do they become citizen's journalists? Well they don't don a 50's-era fedora and grab a notebook, they stumble into their role as a citizen's journalist. Or to be more accurate somebody else stumbles upon them.

Every once and a while your average blogger might write about an experience or event they witnessed. Perhaps a post about their recent vacation to Disney, seeing somebody famous, or a car shopping experience. These types of posts are then found by media or general readers via Technorati or Google. Something they wrote a few months or years ago suddenly becomes relevant.

Reporters are slowly becoming more savvy when it comes to using blog searches to find topics and leads. Searching blogs can open up an entire network of viewpoints and witnesses to a particular situation. So don't be surprised if one day you get a call or an e-mail from a reporter and they say, "I was reading your blog and....."

More Reporters:
Whether you want to call them reporters or not there is the reality that there are more eyes & ears on the ground. Yes there is some loss of privacy, but there is also a renewed interest in acting more responsibly because you never know who is watching (and blogging).

Take this recent example: The Future of Satellite Radio - According to Greg Wyatt.

I was at an event where Greg Wyatt proclaimed to an audience of PR folks that satellite radio was doomed and went on to discuss the future of radio. I thought Greg was a bit full of it so I blogged his quote. Somebody in the audience then told me I shouldn't quote Greg, my response, "maybe Greg shouldn't make statements like that in public." The blog post has pulled in a few interesting comments and is now on the front page of a Google search for Greg Wyatt.