You can celebrate the advent of citizen journalism in social media all you want but at the end of the day – someone still needs to decide where the story lives and more importantly – what a story is. Otherwise it’s just fragments of a story, remnants, slices.
In discussing Michael Strangelove’s “Watching You Tube: Extraordinary Videos by Ordinary People”, I’m struck with the fact that the line is blurred between producers of video and consumers of video. And to prove the point I have to look no further than my own career.
Once upon a time (when I worked in news) a tour was a big deal. Visitors would love to see the high-priced professional cameras we used. It used to be standard for video gear to run $60,000. Last week, I just bought a Canon XF100 for $3,000.
The bar for entering the video club is a lot lower than it used to be. My hope is that the quality of content isn’t cheapened. My hope is that I’ll always set my own bar and that it’ll always be higher.
Stay tuned.
the repurposed journalist 