1.
Grass Roots Journalism by Mid-Missourians
The citizen journalism route to
readership
Clyde H. Bentley, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Missouri School of Journalism

2.
Short circuiting the “priesthood”
Technologists empowered Heretics
Johannes
Gutenberg
Martin Luther
Tim
Berners-Lee
Oh Yeon-ho
13th-14th
centuries 20th-21st
centuries

3.
The “other” side of journalism
Information from non-professional communicators
 Bulletin boards
 Civic club presentations
 “News” releases
 Coffee klatches
 Chat rooms
 Gossip
 Blogs

4.
16 months with “citizens”
 A participatory
project under “The
Missouri Method.”
 Real-world
challenges, real-world
solutions
 Empowered students
who developed
management skills
http://mymissourian.com launched Oct. 1, 2004

5.
Inspired by others
 OhMyNews was well known to professors
and popular with our Korean students
 Launch of Northwest Voice generated a
faculty discussion.
 Dean Mills recognized the potential and
asked us to move quickly.
 Proposed in late May 2004, launched
Oct. 1.
. “Can we proceed with all deliberate speed? I'm in no hurry. Next week would be soon
enough”
“”Can we proceed with all
deliberate speed? I'm in no
hurry. Next week would be
soon enough” - Dean Mills
“”Every citizen is a
journalist” - Dean
Mills - Oh Yeon-Ho

6.
A challenge to tradition
 Missouri is the home of traditional newspaper
journalism education
 Some faculty questioned the ability to maintain
credibility
 Could we teach a journalism where “we” were
not in control?

7.
So why do it?
 To give voice to those traditionally excluded
from the media
 To allow non-journalists to help set the
community agenda
 To test our knowledge of audience values
 To train students in a new form of journalism
Oh, I forgot . . .

8.
First three quarters, 2005
And to make money …
Newspaper Print and Online Revenues
0
5000000
10000000
15000000
20000000
25000000
30000000
35000000
40000000
1 2
First three quarters, 2005
$33,934,000
$1,373,000
Print Online
4.38%
Source: NAA Quarterly Newspaper
Advertising Expenditures

9.
Online alone is not enough

10.
A hybrid strategy
 Gather content via an online citizen
journalism product
Use that content to fill a printed TMC
product
Use revenue gains in TMC to underwrite
the online product
Which led to one more BIG goal…

11.
End Driveway Rot!

12.
TMC = The Money Cow
 Total Market Coverage products often
produce a substantial portion of a
newspaper’s budget.
 At the Missourian, our TMC is budgeted
at about 25% of our revenue but actually
brings in 33%.
Depending how you count it…

13.
It more than adds up
“Also, we will do about $230,000 with the Real
Estate This Week magazine this year. That
would not be possible if we did not have the
Saturday TMC for distribution purposes.”
Dan Potter
Missourian GM
“What’s deceptive is that much of the daily
revenue comes from the TMC agreements
in a forced buy, so even more of our
revenue is the result of our TMCs.

14.
Back to print
 Print edition launched Oct.
1, 2006
 Allows use of the efficient
advertising pattern of print
 Increases readership by
23,000 households
 Reverses the print-to-Web
paradigm

15.
Compelling content is the key
to readership
 TMC’s are often filled with old, trivial or
syndicated material
 Lack of reader interest can cause “pickup
failure”
 Citizen-generated material is unduplicated,
compelling and does not compete with our own
daily product

16.
Readers reach readers
 “I have seen newspaper companies
spend thousand of dollars annually to
determine what readers expect.
Few of their findings, however, are
ever implemented.
 “The greatest benefit of what we
have done with MyMissourian is we
have given newsroom leaders an
inexpensive and effective way to
give readers what they truly want.”
Hans K. Meyer
graduate student
Citizen journalism succeeds where others have failed.

17.
Is there a future for
journalists?
 YES -- both professional and citizen journalists
 Blogs pose both a threat and an opportunity
 The power relationship in information is being
re-negotiated
 Journalists provide continuity and quality
control
 Story tellers become story guides

18.
New journalism skills
 “As more and more news
organizations adopt
community/citizen/open-source
journalism ventures, they'll need to
learn how to run them.
 “Covering stories and collecting,
cultivating, sharing stories are very
different things. Helping others to
share their lives is still journalism,
and it needs to be taught.”
Brian Hamman
graduate student

19.
Inviting the public to our table
 Many editors are concerned about errors,
credibility and libel
 Some fear that citizen writing quality is low
 How do we know if those untrained people are
lying?
 WILL WE LOSE CONTROL?

20.
Mix logic with understanding
 Most participants in citizen journalism have
little reason to cheat or lie.
 The “WBC” category is primarily the realm of
blogs.
 By and large, most Americans will conform to
rules that are both simple and logical.
 Focus on broad concerns; keep rules simple.

21.
The arguments
“Decency” - How do we treat profanity and adult
topics?
“Commercialism” - What about the promotion of a
business, organization, religion, etc.?
“Literacy” - How much editing and rewriting should we
do?
“Banalism” Is anything just too stupid to appear on the
site? If so, how dumb is dumb?

22.
Logical solutions
“Decency” No profanity, no nudity - use normal
newspaper standards of propriety
“Commercialism” Don’t ban businesses that self-
promote, but work with them to produce copy of
general interest.
“Literacy” Keep editing to a minimum, focusing on
readability rather than style. Avoid jargon and cultural
slang that can be misinterpreted.
“Banalism” Journalists are poor judges of the banal.
Rather than say anything is too low-brow, just find an
appropriate category and let the public judge it.

23.
And… Just Four Simple Rules
No profanity
No nudity
No personal attacks
No attacks on race, religion, national
origin, gender or sexual orientation

24.
The end of “NO”
 “I worked in newspapers for seven years,
and as an editor most of my dealings with the
public were about telling people “no” due to
limited space.
 NO, we can't cover your event.
 NO, we can't run your youth baseball photo in the
newspaper.
 NO, your story idea isn't good enough for publication.
 “The open source format takes a medium
with limitless file space and allows us to
finally say ”YES" to the public.”
Jeremy Littau
graduate student

25.
Let
them
write
Any
subject.
Everything
is
interesting
to someone

26.
Enlist
“senior”
photogs
Hobbyists are
often looking for a
forum for their
photos

27.
Give them
disposable
cameras
Example:
Camera passed
around at a teen
dance

28.
Go for
the
“gut”
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

29.
Earth Day:
Natural news
 Annual festival
celebrates
environmental
awareness
 Provided wireless
laptops so citizens
could comment on
the spot

30.
Earth Day: Picture it
 Loaned digital
cameras to citizens to
document the festival

31.
Unexpected reader issues
Political issues are much less popular
than we predicted.
Religion is far, far more popular than we
predicted.
Pictures of dogs, cats and even rats
trump most other copy.

32.
Unexpected teaching issues
Traditional journalism students want to
write, not “guide.”
Many were at a loss at how to cover “non
news” topics like Little League.
Few students are well prepared to work
with the public.

33.
Into the future
 More teasers in the morning newspaper
 Increased connection with high school
journalism classes
Addition of student and citizen blogs
Establish a “Websighted” photo program.
Class in “entrepreneurial journalism”