Last week, there was much ado about something: Elizabeth Toledo wrote in
PR Week about how citizen journalism can negatively affect nonprofit groups. She cited the example of CNN's ireport.com, writing, "The danger is that ideological opponents can flood ireport.com with spurious content about your organization." She claims there are no gatekeepers in citizen journalism, unlike the good ol' days when editors could vet what nonprofit press release was credible or not.
She added:
It's not simply that more Op-Eds will make it onto the editorial pages - these citizen journalists will drive which stories grab the attention of the news reporters as well.
Quite an ethical problem. Toledo urged nonprofit managers to fight fire with fire and flood news editors and new media sites with their own subjective letters and press releases. She said traditional executives must get with the times.
In a recent Poynter column, Trish Grier wrote about the controversy and asked a very pertinent question: "Where, then, is the line between advocacy and "citizen journalism"? Or is that line becoming further blurred?"
What do you think?
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