In Denver, a local news station is now soliciting submissions for video and photographs from it’s viewers. The program called YouReport put this news station to the growing list of traditional media venues looking for a way to embrace citizen reporting.

The big question is whether viewer submitted content is just a gimmick, or is it a real sign of a growing trend towards tearing down the walls that have traditionally separated journalists from their viewership.

Breaking Down Walls

Traditionally, media outlets have been extremely protective of their channel of distribution and have avoided mixing “amateur” reporting with their well vetted journalism. Why now would they decide to change?

Two major changes are responsible for tipping the scales.

The first is the proliferation of recording devices. Cheap, high-quality digital cameras, cell phone video recorders and an arsenal of other portable electronic devices have helped to turn your average person into a walking, talking recording studio. Where much of traditional journalism was once about being in the right place at the right time with the right equipment, now some of that load can be outsourced to the masses who can be everywhere at once.

Just as important as that is the cultural shift.

More than ever the public is embracing New Media and is fascinated by the romantic ideals of citizen journalism.

In order to stay competitive, news outlets have to show that they understand that information flows in two directions. Their time as the sole gate-keepers to public information is over. The web has thrown the doors wide open and given people access to hundreds of different perspectives from thousands of different voices all competing for an ever shrinking currency of attention.

They can no longer get away with just lecturing a crowd of sheep, more and more media is about conversation as much as information.

Web 2.0 Roundup

Does this mean that New Media is tearing down the walls of traditional media? Not hardly. What it does show, however, is that small changes are finding their way into the mainstream. Changes that might one day see New Media and Old producing something greater than either one of them.

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