There seem to be two main concerns for the near future: what will be the behavior of the audience and what kind of funding or business model is needed to maintain quality journalism?

Behavior of the audience

The main contradiction with regard to the expected behavior of audiences in the near future is that one dynamic seems to be fragmentation into particular niches and networks and another is the need for strong quality news brands that function as anchor in the overload of information.

So, on the one hand social media provides for the opportunity for particular networks to organize themselves around particular topics of interest. No longer are their members forced to watch centrally produced news-programmes hoping for an interesting topic to come by. They can neglect anything they are not interested in and exchange only that particular information they consider relevant. The downside of this development is that people are caught up in their own niches.

On the other hand, the enormous amount of information and sources increases and might lead to uncertainty and distrust with regard to the quality of information. In this ‘news-jungle’ brands as BBC, CNN or NOS might remain important for people.

It is expected that in the near future these contradicting dynamics will probably develop parallel to each other.

The consequence for citizen journalism is that there is space for bottom up innovation and independent initiatives and there are possibilities for cooperation between citizen-networks and existing news-brands.

Funding, business models and innovation

Taken these new developments in consideration it is relevant to pose the question how quality journalism can be financed in the future.

Initiatives such as VJ movement or Marokko Media try to develop their own business models. Marokko Media, for example, is able to benefit from its very specific audience. Parallel to their journalistic function they are able to connect certain institutions to their Dutch-Moroccon users for policy or research-purposes. Of course it is questionable to what extent qualitative independent journalism can be combined with the agendas of institutional partners or even companies. But it is clear that the particular network of audience of an independent media initiative provides for certain opportunities along this line of thought. Other possibilities to earn money might emerge from the development of technology of paying systems. For example, if users can pay a small amount for their views automatically just by clicking on a link.

In the discussion on the feasibility of a strong field of new (citizen) journalism several problematic issues arise. One issue is that competition with publicly funded mainstream media seems to be a problem for innovation. For starting initiatives it is difficult to compete whether they have a good business model or not. Another issue is that to keep a medium alive a critical mass is needed. Especially if not only producers but also consumers-as-producers become relevant. In the context of the Netherlands this might be an obstacle because of the relative small audience. It might even result in new journalism initiatives using English as main language. On top of that the initiative and motivation of citizens to contribute to serious journalism could be overestimated, especially if new initiatives professionalize and are not really cutting edge anymore (as happened before in the radio-scene).

So, how to start bottom-up in a field in which publicly funded media dominate? How to find the right balance or connection between the niches, particular networks and the mainstream media? How to keep crowd-sourced news reliable? How to keep quality journalism in the near future? These are urgent questions that should be explored in the coming years.

At the State of Social Media Summit these issues will be discussed during the round table conversation on the future of journalism in a networked world.

However, although citizen journalism might be a tricky business from the perspective of traditional ethics of journalism, it seems an irreversible fact that social media developments have changed the field. Last Monday, the 13^th of September, we discussed the consequences and possibilities of these developments with several people active in the field of (citizen-) journalism. In this first of two blogs some preliminary findings are presented. The discussion will be continued during the State of Social Media Summit the 28^th and 29^th of October.

Citizen- and new journalism initiatives

Some of the participants of the round table represented initiatives working specifically on the theme such as Marokko Media, a portal with about 45.000 unique visitors a day. Marokko Media is publisher of sites such as Marokko.nl and nieuws.marokko.nl. In the near future they want to focus especially on expanding the latter. Projectleader Gijs van Beek considers it an opportunity for the particular network of Marokko media, which consists predominantly of people of the Dutch-Moroccan community, to provide an alternative perspective in opposition to the mainstream media.

The NOS Net initiative was ample represented by three of its editors. NOS Net is busy creating a new network of sources for the main news institution in the Netherlands. Citizens who have knowledge on a specific subject become part of the network and instead of checking facts with the usual suspects the NOS is now able approach a wide variety of people for fact checking.

Another striking initiative in terms of new journalism is the VJ movement. With a global network of over 150 professional video journalists and editorial cartoonists (so, actually not citizen journalism) VJM brings stories from reporters on the ground. Their slogan is: ‘There is more than one truth’. Although they emphasize that they do not work with citizen journalism, their perspective on journalism in the near future is relevant for the discussion.

Interesting examples of citizen journalism initiatives who where not present at the round table discussion are Indymedia, Gobal voices, Ushahidi, Nowpublic, Africa Interactive/Africanews, Overwoerden.nl, 3voor12 lokaal. All of them have found new ways of newsgathering with the help of social media.

Can all citizens be journalists?

During the round table conversation the question arose to what extent citizens are able to produce quality news. One of the positions taken in this discussion defends that the role of the citizen is, or should be, limited to providing information. To transform that information into valuable and quality news professional journalistic skills are indispensible. From this perspective citizens have a role to play but well educated journalists remain essential. Journalists are in fact the final editors. Thus, as the NOS Net initiative does, social media can be used to extend and improve citizen networks, or in other words, use them as tool for active crowd sourcing. But social media initiatives cannot really replace the quality news brands.

On the other hand it can be questioned whether qualitative journalism produced by a small elite fits the contemporary developments. There are, for example, certainly some blogs that have authority in specific niches. It might even be slightly arrogant to claim that citizens are merely able to provide ‘half-fabricates’ that should be selected and transformed by ‘professional people’. Is it unthinkable that citizens and journalists cooperate as equals?

The discussion is far from settled. Are social media mere tools to boost the ancient journalistic method of informants? Or do they create a whole new reality, a new form of journalism? There seem to be examples and defenders of both perspectives.

In the next blog more on the forms of citizen journalism. How is it organized and how should it be organized in the new future?

As the interviews are still ongoing, we will take a lead on our end report, conclusions and recommendations. Today will address the following questions:

• What is the impact of Internet and citizen journalism on (professional) journalism, especially with regard to methodology and quality of journalism?
• What are the needs in the field?
• Can we, based on the first results of our research, argue that more attention in policy for the subject of citizen journalism is needed in the Netherlands?

We will report back on our blog for our findings today!