Where do you work and what do you do as a citizen journalist?
I’m one of the founders and editors of the Cournalist, a citizen journalism publication based in Santa Cruz, California. My responsibilities include everything from design to sales, but my heart is in the writing. Graham, the co-founder, and I go out into the town every day and investigate all sorts of leads. That means sometimes I’m test driving the latest electric car and sometimes I’m attending a local city council meeting. Just as a journalist would interview multiple sources and provide both sides to a story, we make a concerted effort to talk to as many people related to a story as possible.
How and why did you get started as a citizen journalist?
Graham and I read heavily about media trends over the last few years. We’d also created a paper in college and we were keen on continuing if the chance presented itself. Graham made it out to Santa Cruz and was working on another project while I sat back on the East Coast and kind of twiddled my thumbs trying to figure out what to do with my life. I was a recent graduate, jobless and bored. He called me up, suggested we create a paper in Santa Cruz, and voila! I was here a month later and the Cournalist was born.
What’s your background? I graduated last year from the University of Connecticut with a degree in journalism. I’ve worked on a number of papers, created a few of my own and written for publications across the country. And now I’m a citizen journalist, or cournalist, as we like to call it.
What’s the most important thing you’ve learned as a citizen journalist?
People want a quality product. If you provide solid reporting, people will read it regardless of whether it was written by a journalist, cournalist or Martian.
What skills do citizen journalists need?
Although anyone can submit to our site, to date we’ve met everyone involved at least once and talked to him or her about the basics of good reporting. The reality is citizen journalists aren’t always going to offer the depth and quality that professionals do. But we can strive for it, and often times we’ve been pleasantly surprised. So they need a pen, notebook and hunger for the truth.
Do you have any advice to people who want to get involved in citizen journalism?
Start today. Grab a notebook and pen and start writing. Engage yourself in things that you’re interested in. That way it won’t be boring in the beginning. Eventually you’ll catch the cournalist bug and realize that being a reporter gives you an excuse to seek the answer to every question you’ve ever had about your local town, but for the time being write about things you love. If you surf, get out and talk to surfers. If you love to hike, get on some trails and interview some of the hikers. We’re at the end of a giant wave of traditionalism that’s about to crash and crash hard. Nothing will be the same afterwards. So get your feet wet now.
