As an online reader of my local newspaper (no, I’d never pay for it) and subscribed to tweets from local news reporters, I’m wondering if local news wouldn’t benefit more from the kind of seasoning that the Tucson Citizen is getting ready to enjoy–citizen journalism. The Citizen’s idea for a venture is to model the new site after HuffingtonPost.com, a political blog….

The site is a collection of blogs and bloggers who post news, information, opinion and more on the site everyday. There are dozens, if not hundreds of Tucson bloggers. They add a tremendous amount of knowledge and perspective to the total universe of Tucson.

But each is unique and mostly stand alone. All rely on Google searches, word-of-mouth and a few other modestly effective means to market their work.

Our idea is to offer them the economy and power of scale.

Other plans for the Citizen include holding a bloggers convention, for the purposes of helping connect bloggers with each other, promote online debate and discussion about Tucson for Tucsonans and encourage and teach those who want to jump into blogging but may be intimidated by the depth of the pool (Source: What to Expect from the New Tucson Citizen)

In a quote shared multiple times via Twitter earlier this week, and definitely worth remembering, Morley Safer from 60 Minutes is quoted as having said the following:

I would trust citizen journalism as much as I would trust citizen surgery.

In considering a response to this quote, I found this point to be particularly helpful:

You can’t just ask a question. You have to provide a framework that shapes the issue and helps people to come up up with an answer.
via NewsAche

So, considering what a framework for “citizen surgery” would be like, let’s ask a few questions. How many people get operated on “just in time” by every day people like you and me (you know, people who aren’t doctors)? Consider this argument from Surgery for the Layman:

But no, the medical man must still remain something of a witch-doctor-cum-black magician; a being whose knowledge is on a plane far removed from the understanding of the layman. . .ignorance does, indeed, cause fear.
Source: Surgery for the Layman, 1942

Maybe, folks are missing the point that instant access to “experts” and information makes the impossible, possible.

If that’s not enough, consider EdHeads which allows you to conduct some virtual surgeries. It sounds like Tucson’s “new” approach may be to provide that framework to facilitate their citizens blog, rather than cover a variety of angles on a story without knowing what really engages and share it all online.

var addthis_pub=”mguhlin”;

Subscribe to Around the Corner-MGuhlin.org

Be sure to visit the ShareMore! Wiki.

Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure