Democratizing the Media (a subject close to our hearts at Link TV) by  Dan Gillmor, Center for Citizen Media.  Dan puts a PowerPoint up on the screen and takes us through citizen journalism.  He tells us that CJ is the result of ubiquitous networks, lots of tools, and the fact that today, anybody can be a publisher.The hallmark of Democratized media is that it is a conversation, something most journalists are not good at.  There are new rules for this kind of media.

1.  Secrets emerge…get over it.

2.  What is “true” is about trust as well as accuracy.

3.  Ask the readers/viewers for content.   They will do it whether or not we ask them.  And they have done it before…there have always been citizen witnesses , like Zapruder who filmed JFK’s murder.  The difference is that today there would be 1000’s of cameras where Zapruder was only one, and they would be connected to networks.

4. Citizen news self-assembles.  The community creates threads, topics, stories, classifications, as Wikipedia has done. 

5.  Mashups happen.  Web 2.0 enables people to mix media in new ways.

6. Communities of interest emerge. The Community writes and its members have to account for the views of those who disagree with them. The Community rates itself. And the Community votes on itself.

7. There is too much information….but there are tools emerging to help.

8. All of this means that Community Media generates Citizen Activism. (see BBC’s action network).