Committing acts of journalism— What’s that?
The Web and digital technology have made it possible for anyone to commit an act of journalism.
Today, more people than ever are participating in journalism. People are breaking news on Twitter, covering their communities on Facebook, livestreaming, distributing news via email and writing in-depth blogs on issues of civic and community significance. Some of these people are what we’d consider “traditional” journalists working on new platforms, but many are not. — Josh Stearns, when working at The Free Press. Read the Free Press Report on defining press freedom in the digital age.
That’s why as an independent journalist it’s important that you hard-wire certain attributes into your brand from the beginning.
Among others, these include:
transparency
trustworthiness
credibility
These attributes will become increasingly important if news outlets evolve into a platform for our talent as some of us are predicting.