Susan Cormier

I love the idea of citizens being involved in the news process – to a point. I like to see citizens’ photographs and/or reports of weather, sporting events or whatever on local TV newscasts. I enjoy reading citizens’ contributions to websites like YourHub.com, YourNews.com and Examiner.com. You see, citizen journalists can be on location when news is occurring. Professional journalists can’t always be on the scene immediately. Citizen journalists also care about reporting some of the less earthshaking events happening in their communities, while professionals tend to cover the big stories. So I like reading and seeing what citizens have to offer – again, to a point. That point is when social media is brought into the mix. I have a hard time tolerating broadcast reports of what individuals are saying on Twitter, Facebook, etc. When I listen to news broadcasts, I want... (more)

Newspapers are More Than a Beached Whale

Newspapers are like “a big beached whale that everyone is feasting off,” according to Bettina Boxall, a Pulitzer Prize winner and Los Angeles Times’ reporter. Boxall made the comment during a lecture – “Please Don’t Tweet Me: Journalism Today” – that she gave Wednesday, April 14, at the University of Maine, which was covered in the online edition of The Maine Campus, the student newspaper. http://mainecampus.com/2010/04/15/pulitzer-prize-winner-journalism-isn%E2%80%99t-dead-yet/?ref=hp What she was talking about is the way in which local TV and radio rely on newspapers for much... (more)

Not all Contributors Are Citizen Journalists

Due to recent news reports and discussions among citizen journalists, it appears time to take a look at the different types of so-called citizen journalists. At the National Association of Citizen Journalists, co-founder Ron Ross and I find there are different categories of writers with different goals and intentions. In our "Handbook for Citizen Journalists," Ross takes it a step further and describes accidental journalists, advocacy citizen journalists and citizen journalists. "Just because someone uses a cell phone camera to photograph an incident and then uploads it to Fli... (more)

Do All Citizen Journalists Deserve a Paycheck?

The debate rages on over whether citizen journalists and bloggers should get paid for their work. The most recent salvos come amidst AOL's $315 million purchase of The Huffington Post and a class-action suit filed by a former HuffPost contributor and activist. Jonathan Tasini believes bloggers who have contributed to the HuffPost for years should receive back pay - to the tune of $105 million, according to the suit he filed April 12 against AOL, TheHuffingtonPost.com, and Arianna Huffington and Kenneth Lerer, the news website's founders. "In my view, the Huffington Post's blogge... (more)

Common Writing Mistakes Corrected

While doing an incredible amount of editing lately, I've noticed that writers and citizen journalists are making some of the same mistakes. In an effort to cut down on my editing marks, I thought I'd outline how citizen journalist can avoid three errors I keep seeing over and over again. 1) Start your story with the newest information available. Your lead - or first paragraph - should include the news that just happened. That news can - and should - be followed by background information about previous events or developments related to the most recent news. Let's take a fictitious ... (more)