Layers of Citizen Journalism

Steve Outings posted an intriguing article,11 Layers of Citizen Journalism, onto PoynterOnline. The article divulges into the concept of Citizen Journalism and the many facets of what exactly it entails.

Outings explores the concepts of public comment, add-on reporter, open-source reporting, citizen bloghouse, stand-alone-citizen-journalism site edited & unedited, and a print version. As readers become more familiar with using the Internet, the anility to partake on citizen journalism is endless. There are no more restrictions, as in the case of writing to the editor and the letter is not printed....now we are able to visit hybrid newspapers, such as Ann Arbor News, and comment on whatever our heart desires, negative or poditive: WE HAVE THE RIGHT!

There is an issue that arises:How do you strike a balance between editoral control and citizen expression?

Editors of a hybrid newspaper are faced with the challenge of making the final decision as to leave commentary notes as is or edit for misspellings, grammatical errors and so forth. The argument lies within not editing to retain the author's point as is; to express the meaning within their individual personality. Yet the opposing side states to edit the material to retain credibility of the site and not create a "mish-mosh" of information as stated by Outings in his article.

I feel that a hybrid newspaper should have the ability to edit in a minute fashion; not the point intended, but minor issues such as spelling/grammatical errors. On the other hand, blogs, chat forums and so forth....leave as is....it is the freedom of expression and you are left to be judged, so you better know how to spell!