SPJ partners with Helium to champion citizen journalism

Helium, the online writers' community, has partnered with America's Society of Professional Journalists to share writing resources and platforms.

From a media release:

“SPJ has always been committed to inspiring and educating current and future journalists through professional development,” said Dave Aeikens, President of the Society of Professional Journalists. “Partnering with Helium allows us to continue this commitment by providing a vital stepping stone for our members to establish and build their digital credibility, while also opening our doors and embracing those who wish to become better citizen journalists.” . . .

“This partnership signifies a considerable elevation in the stature, awareness and quality of citizen journalism as it is perceived within the traditional journalism world,” said Mark Ranalli, CEO of Helium, Inc. “We are excited to work with such a prestigious journalistic organization and we look forward to continued growth and success as the world’s largest writing community.”

More here.

"A high Google page rank doesn’t mean it’s accurate, only popular"

Writes Frank Catalano,

“Citizen journalism” means citizens can be journalists and reach a potential audience without the intermediary of owning their own printing press or television tower.

But what’s missing is credibility and, in many cases, trust. The old infrastructure limitations to being a well-read or well-viewed journalist also had an implicit screening effect: If you were hired and worked your way up to a larger paper or TV station, you were effectively trained in (or at least had a fighting chance of) being good at journalism by bosses and colleagues who acted as mentors. Effectively, you were “certified” by the process.

Today, blogs and tweets aren’t consistently trustworthy. And there is no comparable screening process to fall back upon.

A high Google page rank doesn’t mean it’s accurate, only popular.

Also that

[P]erhaps it’s time for the Radio-Television News Directors Association, Society of Professional Journalists/Sigma Delta Chi, and other professional journalism associations to suck it up and join together to agree on a core set of standards for a professional journalist certification, duration before re-certification, and grounds for revocation. All have their guidelines and codes of ethics. If they won’t work together, turn the project over to an international standards body to do the heavy lifting.

Understand the benefits won’t accrue to those lucky reporters still drawing a paycheck from an established news organization or those who are household names (though some, who mix facts and opinion without identifying which is which, surely could benefit).

SPJ offers citizen journalism workshop in Denver on May 9

The Society of Professional Journalists, Colorado chapter, will organize a citizen journalism workshop at the Denver Newspaper Agency building (from where the Denver Post is published) on Saturday May 9.

The half-day workshop, christened a "Citizen Journalism Academy," will teach "journalism values to private citizens who have started covering their own communities online," according to a release.

Such workshops have already been held in Chicago, Greensboro and Los Angeles, the release added.

The Gazette of Colorado Springs reported, "The topics covered at the workshop [will] include journalism ethics, media law, access to public records and meetings, and the use of technology."

One of the organizers [of the workshop], Christine Tatum, said citizen journalists are reaching out for higher standards - to report news and opinion with integrity and in a way that engages the audience.

"Journalism is everyone's right," said Tatum, a former president of the Society of Professional Journalists. "It's a beautiful thing to me that absolutely everyone in the United States is free to practice journalism."