This document discusses the role of "preditors" in citizen journalism. Preditors combine the ground work of citizen journalists with the expertise of professional journalists by performing editorial supervision, generating initial content, networking within communities, and handling technical responsibilities. Specifically, as facilitators they provide training, share site information, mediate discussions, and recognize super contributors who take on much of the workload. While some duties overlap with traditional journalism, preditors play a key role in guiding amateur content and ensuring user-generated news production is sustainable. Their labor is important but often overlooked in debates about participatory media.

1. PreditorsMaking Citizen Journalism WorkAndre Teh 3214474

2. INTRODUCTION“Independent online initiatives and established news organizations have successfully experimented with user-generated content, but layers of professional supervision and coordination are often hidden from view in key debates.”- Wilson, Saunders and Bruns

3. CROWDSOURCING“The idea that a crowd of people, geographically dispersed but sharing common purpose, can achieve things better or differently to small groups of professionals and gatekeepers.”- Margaret Simons “Technological advances in everything from product design software to digital video cameras are breaking down the cost barriers that once separated amateurs from professionals. Hobbyists, part-timers, and dabblers suddenly have a market for their efforts, as smart companies in industries as disparate as pharmaceuticals and television discover ways to tap the latent talent of the crowd. The labor isn’t always free, but it costs a lot less than paying traditional employees. It’s not outsourcing; it’s crowdsourcing.”- Jeff Howe

5. “SEMI-PRO” JOURNALISM“[combines] the ground work of average citizens or inexperienced journalists with editorial and production expertise of professional journalists.”- Mark Glaser

6. SUPER-CONTRIBUTORS“Crowdsourcing projects are generally characterized as being the product of a few super-contributors and a mass of people who contribute some minor bits. I've heard this called the "dirty little secret of open source," the fact that most of the heavy lifting is done, not by the crowd per se, but by a few select individuals from within the crowd. I'd like to posit another rule: Any crowdsourcing project must install one go-to guy (or girl) who will thanklessly toil day and night to keep the project on the rails.”- Jeff Howe

7. PREDITORS“…new media employees who perform both production and editorial roles. [This is] an emblem of the shift toward media industries as content producing and organizing rather than the production of new and original cultural works.”-Nicholas Carah

8. PREDITOR’S DUTIESWriting and editing copyBe aware of publishing law and regulationBe committed to news value and etichal standardsPossess technological literacyEstablish collaborative interpersonal and professional relationships and webs of content syndication across the online news environmentServe, guide and manage the content-making community

9. YOUDECIDE2007.ORG

10. 4 DIMENSIONS TO ROLEContent workNetworkingCommunity workTechnical work

11. CONTENT WORK“…preditors are focused on boosting a service that exists to draw in and sustain a pro-am newsmaking community.”Wilson, Saunders and Bruns1) Editorial supervision of citizen journalists’ contributionsLegal concerns

12. Accuracy and clarity of expressionCONTENT WORK (CONT.)Generating “seed content”“pro” content can draw a readership in search of “industry-standard” news stories.

13. That audience might then be drawn further into the site to read citizen stories, or even to sign up as contributors.

14. Interview with Peter Lindsay, MP for Herbert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWBIwMhHmKs

15. NETWORKINGExisting contacts can be tapped for content, participation, or simply to spread the word about a service. If the mainstream media can help citizen journalism services survive and prosper, rather than viewing them with suspicion, it is incumbent on the preditor to make and cultivate contacts among professional journalists and political operatives.Content, too, may be repurposed and re-used across platforms to raise the visibility of citizen journalism services (Cross-media opportunities).

16. COMMUNITY WORKUsers do not bring equal levels of skill, experience or (unfortunately) goodwill to citizen journalism services. As a result communities or individual users need educators and honest brokers. Preditors need to provide their community with (i) training, (ii) site-specific information and (iii) mediation.Preditors also need to make special efforts with the community’s “super-contributors”

17. TECHNICAL WORKGeneralising from this experience, we can divide technical work into:on-site technical workoff-site technical work“meta-tech” work.

18. DISCUSSIONS & CONCLUSIONSSome of the preditors’ responsibilities overlap with the more traditional professional role of journalists and those with some training or experience in journalism may be best placed to carry them out.Collaborative, rather than competitive relationshipsA realisation that journalistic work is now inextricably tied in with digital content production and requires evolving wide-ranging technological literacies, might also be a focus of ongoing development.While Web 2.0 debates often efface the role of facilitating amateur content, “go-to” people are essential and enterprises need to plan adequately for this work to be carried out. In an era when users are gaining a more active voice in news production, it is equally important that the labour that underpins user-generated content is recognised, as we try to understand the changing landscape of cultural production.