Too many citizen journo's

So we are finding ourselves in a world where we are not only the prosumers but the consumers as well. Due to the fact that there is so many creators of content, it is inevitable that with all the free flow of information in such large quantities, there always will be rubbish amongst the good stuff. This is where it kinda sucks that any joe blo, (kinda like this blog, but at least im doing it for my uni) can get online and ramble the day away. I don’t do much blogging or blog reading but from the little bit I have done nothing sucks more than when you spend a few minutes of your time reading some hunk of crap that has been uploaded on the net. Since when was it necessary to claim to the world that your cup of tea this morning was the best thing since sliced bread. It comes back to the old notion that “time is money”, and from what I have learnt in this weeks lecture, peoples attention is valuable. This is where having some sort of organisational systems in place can be profitable and act as some sort of filter.

This ties into the citizen journalism side of things. So in the old days to become a journalist you would have to spend time at a institution and do some sort of training to become proficient in reporting on various issues that where deemed news worthy by one of your bosses. Now it seems that any punter with a smart phone can quickly throw it up on the net and report it to all. This is good as the “feedback loop” is massively shortened but it also leaves room for massive amounts of rubbish to be published. This is where the peer review system works for me, if its good it will be read by some one who recommends its and then someone else likes it, on and on it goes. I kind of like how now every one has a voice now, and in a small way even the rubbish stories are news as well.