Citizen Journalism Should Be Local, Dang It!

The Internet has brought us so many wonderful things: free
music downloads, overwhelming amounts of information,
education, porn – there's something there for everyone. Even
me.

But there's also something to annoy everyone.

For me, it's the so-called exploitative "citizen journalism."
Read: activism in a different set of clothes. (Not all citizen
journalism, mind – only the self-serving stuff.)

Yeah, I blog. That does not make me media, and it does not make
me informed. It makes me a person with a big mouth, and an
audience that might just possibly be listening.

Don't get me wrong - I don't have a huge amount of respect for
today's media either, particularly after hearing some of the
cowardly things that are going on in Lebanon ("Just stay in
your comfy hotel room, guys, and let the natives handle it.
They're used to getting killed. Sure, they'll give you the
straight story!" Tracers.*)

*if you didn't get that, go back and watch Chasing Amy.

But what really bothers me about the citizen journalist – or as
I like to call them, bloggers with a cause – is the way they
adopt any old issue and use it to promote their own agenda.

Case in point: there's a nice little city I happen to love
called New Orleans. It had a little old flood not too long ago
that did all kinds of nasty things to the city. Oh, not the
party and nightclub section – that part was mostly okay. But
with any city, it's the people that make up the town, not the
buildings.

So a bunch of houses were destroyed. Perhaps as many as two
thousand people were killed just in the city and surrounding
areas, and more bodies are being discovered even now a year
later. Half or more of the city's population is still
evacuated, with many more waiting in FEMA trailers for their
homes to be rebuilt. Horrible. Almost unimaginable, really.

Seems to me that the tragedy in New Orleans didn't really
require any exploitation. The bloggers down there, a very
active and respectable community, need a little help getting
their message out. They've been living with the carnage and
wreckage and sewage and all the other "ages" for just under a
year. They have pictures galore. They have news to report,
positive and negative, on what's being done.

But there's a segment of the blogging world that just can't
leave this alone, or even help out the New Orleans bloggers in
the most simple and rational of manners – by linking to them,
or by crossposting their best blogs on well-trafficked sites.

No, they have to go down and blog for themselves about it. Now,
in all the blogs belonging to these folks, I have yet to find
one that really talks about a Nola (that's shorthand for the
New Orleans area, all y'all who don't know) blogger's blogsite.
(For that matter only two -- Chartreuse and 1938Media -- seem to
be actual real bloggers; the others: recruited for the cause,
I'm guessing?)

Where in their blogs can you read a promo for a Nola blogger
who has demonstrated exemplary – and real – citizen journalism?
Or one asking for help? You'd think that citizen journalists –
would at least read stuff by other citizen journalists. If
they're so damned concerned about it, they should be talking
about it.

You'd think that if they were gung-ho about going down to see
the damage and promote a fix, that they'd also be interested in
promoting more awareness of what's going on for real.

Nope. Nary a word.

How about a link on their sites providing a place to donate to
the New Orleans cleanup? Or maybe letter templates to write to
congressmen or the media, demanding more action.

Hmm. That's not there either. Gasp. Shock. Dismay.

In fact, there's not a damn thing on these sites that will help
the folks in New Orleans in any kind of responsible, material
manner. Nada. Zilch. Zip.

Here's my prediction. First, they will go down and take nothing
but negative pictures. There will be no pics of the incredible
work Nola residents and hordes of fantastic volunteers have
done to clean up the city – sanitizing the fishy carnage of the
Audubon Aquarium, or repairing the damage to the Superdome, or
making the streets of the Ninth Ward drivable again.

Instead, there will be hordes of pictures of all the places
that still need work. Sure, that's important, but if you don't
look at what's been done already, you're not getting the whole
picture, are you?

These images will be used for two different purposes: first, to
Promote A Political Agenda. Okay, we all have political agendas.
And that's okay. But this Political Agenda will be specifically
to attack Bush and the Republican party, not to criticize what
the Democrats running Louisiana have done, or rather not done.
There will be not a single gripe about Nagin's atrocious
decision not to evacuate; instead, the federal government not
doing enough will be the centerpiece of this bitchfest. Hey,
guys, there's plenty of blame to spread around, don't you
think?

Anyway, isn't it cheating to go to someone else's backyard and
bitch about what a rotten job has been done there? Aren't there
problems in OUR OWN BACKYARDS that need bitching about? And if
there aren't, maybe some praise and thanksgiving for our good
fortune is in order as we WRITE A CHECK to an appropriate
rebuilding charity instead of spending that money to travel
down to New Orleans?

That brings me to my other gripe, and the other purpose these
images will be used to promote. It has always been my belief
that one should give in secret. A donation made in secret, in
private, is a better choice for true charity than marching a
parade down the street to hand your hundred-dollar check over
to the Salvation Army or Goodwill or whoever. If you're using a
parade, is your motivation charity, or is it letting everyone
know how generous and nice you are?

Citizen journalism should be done in your own backyard, where
you are a citizen, and where you know the community. Let news
agencies go out and dispatch journalists to other places. Who
knows New Orleans' problems better than someone who lives in
New Orleans? All the best blogs on Iraq come from guys who are
stationed there or Iraqis who live there. And you can't
possibly hope to understand the mindset of the Lebanese or the
Israelis by visiting there for a week or two.

Since I've predicted this, it may change. We may see some
pretty positive blogs coming out of this group. I doubt it. I
think I'll get viciously attacked for writing this blog*, and
some Nola folks will come out and say nice things, and all the
stuff I just predicted will come true.

*bring it on!

Let's watch, shall we? And sneer. At least a little. It's good
exercise for our faces.

*Oh, and one sweetener, hat tip to GulfSails: a Chartreuse
supporter, Know More Media, is even committed to paying these
bloggers for their daily posts. How generous of everyone. Nola
bloggers are Not Happy. A little reminder, one more time, of
New Orleans rebuilding funds.

**A second sweetener: this was scheduled to happen Next Weekend
as of August 2. It's nearly the end of August, and it ain't
happened yet. What's up with that?

***Sigh. This is starting to hurt my teeth. Am I really
supposed to believe that there is no profit being made on this
site when there's such nice, clean promo for Discovery Channel
all over it? I wonder if they know about this picture, archived
for all posterity at Chartreuse's post on Team New Orleans, a
clear response, as the text below shows, to those who think his
mission is a "waste of time."


About The Author: There has been an active and highly charged
debate in the aftermath of the tragedy in New Orleans within
the blogging community. To join the discussion, please visit
the infamous Jack Of All Blogs-: http://www.JackOfAllBlogs.com