Recently by Ebba Strömqvist

Werner Eggert, Editor in Chief of Tide in Germany, spoke about the advantages of citizen journalism and how to train the 'untrainables' at the 15th World Editors Forum.


 Eggert said that there are many benefits that come with citizen journalism.

• It is mostly free
• Citizen journalists see trends that professional reporters don't see
• Producers/contributors are amateurs and love their topic
  
• It is a way to reach a new audience

But of course there are also disadvantages of citizen journalism.

• They are not professional and not trained
  
• They go on holiday and don't tell you when they will come back or if they come back, which makes it very difficult to plan a program.
• They are obsessed with their area of interest and have problems with producing balanced stories.
• They overestimate their capacity
• It's not really journalism

Eggert and Tides solution is to train the citizens in how to handle professional equipment, how to manage their products, maintain ethical standards, deadlines etc. One problem is that producers often don't want to be trained and often think the content is more important than the quality. Tide therefore decided to set up their own academy for citizen journalists with extremely short courses (mostly they are only four hours). The courses are very basic and focus on practical examples. At the Tide academy they always use professional equipment, Eggert believs that this way the citizen journalists will perform more professional. His impression is that after the course professional quality matters more for the participants.

The courses costs 45 euro or 100 euro depending on the length. From January to May 2008 Tide produced 33 courses with 194 participants and the citizens are now producing 1,5 hours of new video programs per day. According to Eggert citizen journalism is little investment with huge returns.

Elin Olofsson, News Editor at the Swedish Östersund Posten told the audience at the 15th World Editors Forum about how hyperlocal websites with reader blogs are becoming a reality at the ÖP.

In May 2007, Östersund Posten started eight hyperlocal websites called The HeartProject. Apart from hyperlocal news, the paper launched 101 reader blogs which purpose was to increase the number of online visitors and make more room for hyperlocal stories.

Today, one year from the start of the Heartproject, weekly visitors at Östersund Postens local websites have increased by 60%. Olofsson explained how all bloggers write about everyday life, politics, schools, celebrities, etc. They also help to cover local topics. The paper does not pay their contributors and has established a set of rules about what their contributors can and can't write to avoid any racy content. Every week a "Blog story of the week" is published in the print newspaper.

The project has also been a success financially, helping to increase the interest of advertisers. Overall, "The heartproject has created enormous goodwill for our brand," said Olofsson.

Oscar Westlund, doctoral student at the University of Gothenburg spoke about the dream of mobile news and if it will go beyond news addicts at the 15th World Editors Forum.

Oscar Westlund does research about media usage in Sweden. In his studies, he has found that although many Swedes own mobile phones with internet access and news functions, few actually use their phones for news. 86 percent of the Swedes make mobile phone calls every week but only 6 percent use their mobile for news at least once a week.
   Compared with Japan where the use of mobile media is high, the specific use of news with the mobile is actually similar to that in Sweden. A study in Japan asking the Japanese if they "often" use the mobile for news showed that 12 percent did in 2006 and 13 percent did in 2007.
    Westlund admitted that one of the reasons that Swedes don't use mobile news is that the prices for internet access on mobiles can be high. But more important to his studies is that most of the Swedes don't actually want to access news through their mobiles. People mostly use their mobiles for interpersonal communications. Some feel that using mobiles for news would add an element of stress to their lives. In fact, those that most use their mobiles for news are people aged 30-39 years. Westlund says that the use of mobile news services is linked to four types of characteristics; lifestyle, technology, socio-demographic factors and news habits. Users of mobile news look for mobiles with user friendliness, usability, transfer speed and battery life.
    All in all, Westlund concluded through his studies that mobile news will not be the future of news for the large majority of the population. But as people's needs are changing all the time it is very difficult to draw conclusions about the future.

According to Lisbeth Knudsen, CEO, Det Berlingske Officin, and Editor-in-chief, Berlingske Tidende, Denmark, the question is not if integrated newsrooms are working but how newspapers can make them work. Knudsen was one of the presenters in a session about integrated newsrooms at the 15th World Editors Forum.

Knudsen gave a general introduction to all of the monumental changes occuring in the media. Because of the Internet, newspaper are not automatically given the special status of sole news providers that they enjoyed before. "A lot of things have changed. We are no longer the gatekeepers of information," said Knudsen. While print is nonparticipatory, online needs dynamic and participation. "The reader has broken the old circle of power." Two recipes for successful online media are expertise in certain editorial areasa and content driven production according to Knudsen. Although newspapers are used to competing heavily with each other, they are not used to all the new competetors online and becoming speialists in an area will help them compete.

Another thing that the internet has changed are deadlines. Journalists in a print environment are used to working with one deadline, but online there are dealines all the time.

Knudsen closed by asking if integrated newsroom are really working. She concluded that they are, but not without a total turnaround of their businesses.

Aralynn McMane is the Director of WAN Young Readership Development. At the 15th World Editors Forum she gave 25 tips for the audience to bring back home.

McMane says that newspapers are not going anywhere and that we should not reinvent the wheel. WAN is urging newspapers to celebrate International Literacy Day (8 September) with a story or a cartoon to inspire youths. Newspaper reading is, in fact, cool.

One way to reach youths is through their parents and teachers, and by using newspapers in education, a practice that should start before the children are 13 years old. Press freedom is of course a basic aspect of using newspapers for educational purposes.

Below are some other of the 25 tips to bring back home:

• Teach about press freedom. WAN has done it through Bono and the Dalai Lama

• Give young people a chance to be reporters.

• Start thinking more about the environment, giving new life to old newspaper by recycling them.
  
• Combine youth, newspapers, and tech. "You have got to involve young people."

• Meet the team at the conference face to face or through social networks.

• The deadline for the World Young Reader price is 31 July, 2008.

The number of young readers was decreasing at the Swedish newspaper Göteborgs Posten, they had to do something. Anders Goliger and Cecilia Lönnehed tell us about their solutions at The young readers roundtable, the 14 World editor Forum.

Göteborgs Posten, GP, reaches two of three people in Gothenburg but young people are choosing other media. Internet is the number one media choice.
    "We are under pressure and we must go to them and be part of the media that they are already consuming," says Anders Goliger.

GP has three sections for youths: Draken, Grafitti and Attityd, the young reporters that work at the different sections has brought new perspectives to GP. One step to reach the young readers was to ask the young reporters how they wanted their section to look and then redesign Grafitti. The next step to reach young readers was to by the clubcommunity Djungeltrumman. GP also headhunted five young persons to update a daily blog.

Since then GP has reached its goal with 10 000 visitors per week at Grafitti and 60% of the visitor at Djungeltrumman are 18-25 years old.
    "To reach the young readers traditional strategies need to be combined with new ideas," says Anders Goliger.

Speaking at the 14 World Editor Forum, Gregory Piechota from the polish newspaper Gazetta Wyborcza  told the annual Young Reader Roundtable audience about how his paper, together with young readers, saved the river Respuda.

The polish government had decided to build a highway that would go through the river, something that Gazetta wanted to stop. At the same time they had to attract young readers. Gazetta asked readers to show the beauty of the river and publiched the pictures in the newspaper. They were also intewieving young people about their opinion. The next step was to do a free edition of Gazetta only with articles about the river and the environment around. The special edition was given out to young people at a rock music festival. The issue engaged many people and marches around the country started in 20 cities "We organised but people did it for themselves". Young people set a camp in the valley and Gazetta published stories about the river. With help from Gazetta and young readers the river was saved. Gregory Piechotas advice to engage young readers is to look for an issue that is interesting for all generations and give them ideas and tools. Catch them wherever you can!