Get your citizen journalism on

I’ve wanted to be a journalist since middle school. I loved reading my hometown newspaper, and when a reporter from the paper came to speak to my English class, I thought she was a celebrity. How cool would it be to get paid to be noisy, I used to think. So I did the whole college thing and the whole grad school thing, focusing on government reporting. I wrote obituaries. I had internships covering cops and state government. I was obsessed with the idea of becoming the city hall reporter for the Chicago Tribune.

But times change. And this thing called “the Internet” started to seriously impact the newspaper business. Not only were people getting more of their news *gasp* on-line, but blogs and other Web sites made it easier for everyday folks to become reporters. I saw the value in climbing aboard, so I took this gig as a community content manager for MyNC.com, where I oversee all the user-generated content and also try to drum up stories from citizens living in the communities that MyNC focuses on.

I used to scoff at the phrase citizen journalism. But that was before I was familiar with awesome local blogs like Bull City Rising and the Raleigh Connoisseur. Those bloggers don’t wait for the local media to cover things happening in their cities, they do it themselves. And one of the things that I love about MyNC is that it allows every day people to submit their own stories, photos (and soon, videos). We’re still in beta, working some issues out, but I’m so excited about the platform we’re providing for the greater Triangle community.

Anyway, I bring all this up because I’m sitting on a panel that will discuss the evolution of citizen journalism and its role in the larger media landscape. The panel is part of the Citizen Journalism Academy that the Society of Professional Journalists is sponsoring Saturday, June 7 at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C.

The academy is open to the public and covers all aspects of how to be a good citizen journalist — from ethics to responsible reporting. It only costs $25 to attend. So if you’re a budding or practicing citizen journalist, I strongly encourage you to sign up to learn more.