{"id":90823,"date":"2007-02-08T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2007-02-08T05:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2007\/02\/08\/the-news-and-schmooze-explosion\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:16:32","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:16:32","slug":"the-news-and-schmooze-explosion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/02\/08\/the-news-and-schmooze-explosion\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cNews and Schmooze\u201d Explosion"},"content":{"rendered":"

On February 6, the front page of New West\u2014\u201ca network of online communities\u201d in the Rocky Mountain region\u2014included a link to a photo essay on the Montana legislature, a chapter from a guest writer\u2019s book on pantheism, and a \u201csnowblog\u201d item announcing the death of a famed \u201cavalanche guru\u201d.<\/p>\n\n

Bankrolled for less than $1 million, New West is part of the rapidly growing category of hyper-local \u201ccitizen media\u201d outlets, places with names like Backfence, H20town, and Village Soup, that utilize user-generated content. These local web sites are, according to a new study by the University of Maryland\u2019s J-Lab, a \u201cfusion of news and schmooze\u201d that promotes the kind of civic engagement that the mainstream press in theory aspires to, but in practice has been slower to encourage.<\/p>\n\n

On February 5, the J-Lab <\/a>(the Institute for Interactive Journalism) released a relatively bullish report entitled, \u201cCitizen Media: Fad or the Future of News.\u201d It concluded that, while they are often \u201cshoestring labors of love,\u201d these sites are \u201csecuring a valuable place in the media landscape.\u201d The prognosis, according to the study, is that the genre will stick around, even as there is considerable churn and turnover due to factors such as burnout and lack of resources.<\/p>\n\n

One thing is certain\u2014these sites are proliferating. The J-Lab has identified about 700-800 of them, and according to study author Jan Schaffer, approximately 60% have been launched since 2005. As the report points out, they use dramatically different editorial and business models (some are operated by traditional media companies) and few, if any of them, \u201care setting themselves up to be comprehensive substitutes for a full-blown local paper.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Still, Schaffer ventures that in the future, there will likely be an increasing number of marriages between the passion and voice of the community sites and the resources and expertise of the traditional news outlets.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cIt wouldn\u2019t surprise me if we\u2019re going to see\u2026.some mainstream media in the community setting up partnerships,\u201d with the citizen media, she says.<\/p>\n\n

The J-Lab study surveyed almost 200 people who were either \u201ccitizen media\u201d readers, founders, or contributors. And while the results conveyed a strong sense of optimism and mission, they also revealed how much of a volunteer-driven, mom-and-pop operation many of these sites are.<\/p>\n\n

Among the respondents, 73% said they considered their sites a \u201csuccess\u201d and 82% planned to stick with their ventures indefinitely. Four out of five believe their sites provided local information not found anywhere else, and three-quarters indicated that they helped build connections to the community. Slightly more than a quarter of those surveyed thought these operations increased voter turnout.<\/p>\n\n

When asked if these outlets tend to tilt ideologically, Shaffer responds that \u201cthey may be ideological in a broader sense of caring about their community. They want problems to be solved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

When it came to financial issues, 43% of the respondents said it cost less than $1,000 to launch their sites, and 51% said they didn\u2019t need to earn revenue to continue operating. (It was an even split among those who said they were running non-profit and for-profit enterprises.) Asked if their revenues exceeded operating costs, 42% said no and another 38% did not know.<\/p>\n\n

While fundamentally optimistic about \u201ccitizen media,\u201d the study discussed the significant hurdles and issues including: problems \u201csustaining their labor or finding sufficient fresh replacement troops\u201d; difficulties in building traffic; and contributions from citizens that are \u201cmore impressionistic than systematic, or what journalists would consider \u2018finished.\u2019\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n\n

Given all the different kinds of experiments in the universe of citizen media, Schaffer was asked for a particularly interesting or effective example.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI think New West has the most interesting model,\u201d she says, \u201cvery low overhead and real good journalism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

New West\u2014which has spun off related businesses that include publishing and advertising ventures\u2014may be a brand that\u2019s around for a while. Many of its citizen media contemporaries may not be so fortunate.<\/p>\n\n

But if the J-Lab analysis is true, their kind of journalism is here to stay.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new study finds a proliferation of “citizen media” web sites that fit somewhere on the media spectrum between the street-corner soapbox and the local daily newspaper. While concluding that these grassroots outlets are successful at creating community conversations, the report on this emerging landscape also reveals that many are tenuous, shoestring operations. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[],"multiSectionReport":[],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[335,307],"tags":[],"bylines":[2199],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"level_of_effort":[],"primary_audience":[],"information_type":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[458],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[],"research-teams":[527],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-90823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-social-media","bylines-pew-research-center-journalism-media-staff","formats-report","research-teams-journalism"],"label":false,"post_parent":0,"word_count":660,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/02\/08\/the-news-and-schmooze-explosion\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"report_materials":"","report_pagination":{"current_post":null,"next_post":null,"previous_post":null,"pagination_items":[]},"parent_info":{"parent_title":"The \u201cNews and Schmooze\u201d Explosion","parent_id":90823},"materialsOrdered":[],"chaptersOrdered":[],"partsOrdered":[],"partsEnabled":false,"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"The \u201cNews and Schmooze\u201d Explosion","description":"

A new study finds a proliferation of “citizen media” web sites that fit somewhere on the media spectrum between the street-corner soapbox and the local daily newspaper. While concluding that these grassroots outlets are successful at creating community conversations, the report on this emerging landscape also reveals that many are tenuous, shoestring operations. <\/span><\/p>","og_title":"The \u201cNews and Schmooze\u201d Explosion","og_description":"

A new study finds a proliferation of “citizen media” web sites that fit somewhere on the media spectrum between the street-corner soapbox and the local daily newspaper. While concluding that these grassroots outlets are successful at creating community conversations, the report on this emerging landscape also reveals that many are tenuous, shoestring operations. <\/span><\/p>","schema_type":"Article","noindex":false,"canonical_url":"","primary_terms":[],"custom_schema":[],"og_image":0,"indexnow_submitted_at":null,"gsc_index_status":null},"prepublish_checks":{"prc-image-alt-text":{"status":"complete","message":"No image blocks in content.","data":null},"prc-about-this-research":{"status":"incomplete","message":"Add an \"About this research\" details block.","data":null},"prc-paragraph-count":{"status":"complete","message":"Found 15 paragraphs.","data":{"count":15}},"prc-internal-link":{"status":"incomplete","message":"Add at least one internal link.","data":{"count":0}}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"relatedPostsOrdered":[],"bylinesOrdered":[{"key":"8cfe990b-2cf6-4d48-a40f-8d870e40166c","termId":2199}],"acknowledgementsOrdered":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135704,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90823\/revisions\/135704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90823"},{"taxonomy":"bylines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bylines?post=90823"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=90823"},{"taxonomy":"datasets","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/datasets?post=90823"},{"taxonomy":"level_of_effort","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/level_of_effort?post=90823"},{"taxonomy":"primary_audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/primary_audience?post=90823"},{"taxonomy":"information_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/information_type?post=90823"},{"taxonomy":"_post_visibility","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post_visibility?post=90823"},{"taxonomy":"formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/formats?post=90823"},{"taxonomy":"_fund_pool","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_fund_pool?post=90823"},{"taxonomy":"languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/languages?post=90823"},{"taxonomy":"regions-countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions-countries?post=90823"},{"taxonomy":"research-teams","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-teams?post=90823"},{"taxonomy":"workflow-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/workflow-status?post=90823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}