Human Desire to Tell Stories

But money is not the major push behind citizen journalism. It is the entirely human desire to tell each other our stories, to help each other navigate through this complex and often insane world. - from Dan Gillmor's  keynote speech at the World Editors Forum in Seoul

Comments

[brian moffatt]

If there is a shift I'd like to see in the citizen-journo-blogosphere thing - and Dan hints at it - it is this: I'd like to see a shift away from the 'holding the media to account' theme toward a 'holding public servants to account' theme. This is where the whole thing can get quite exciting, where citizens can really become engaged, an area where democracy has a chance to be revived. Citizens need tools, techniques, skills, mentoring. It seems what is not lacking among citizens is a desire to speak. What is perhaps lacking, or missing, is that flashlight that can be shone into dark corners.

Good stuff.

[Evelyn Rodriguez]

Hi Brian,
Good point. I remember speaking to Mary Lou Fulton at Northwest Voice, http://www.northwestvoice.com/page.asp?item=31751, recently. She was saying the similar thing providing training to their "citizen" journalists (a term she dislikes as it's almost as if one is saying that it's journalism lite or anything less than Big-J journalism) in holding public servants accountable - ex. how to get a hold of public documents, etc.