The Journalist of the Future Is Here

Web site operators dwelt on the cultural difficulties encountered by their venture experience in their home countries. Rostislav Vylegzhanin, co-founder and editor of Realno.info, for example, recounted veiled threats to the freedom of expression his site encounters from government harassment and self-censorship in his native Russia. Michael Tippett, co-founder of the Canadian NowPublic Web site combining camera phone photographs and breaking news events, spoke of the superior advantage citizen journalists have over mainstream journalists by simply being at the scene of distant events when they happen in real time.

"Mainstream journalism and citizen journalism can and should collaborate and complement each other," said Tippett, who pointed out that with a citizen journalist you can have presence where mainstream media can't arrive. Citizen journalism sites can spread a broad network and with their new technologies "re-engineer the supply of news." NowPublic has 100,000 reporters in 300 cities around the world.

Competition and suspicion should not be the model of interaction -- a widespread complaint echoed by start-up sites like the year-old Israeli site Scoop.co.il, whose chief editor Yossi Saidov said that Israeli mainstream media Yediot Aharonot, Haaretz and Maariv frequently steal their items without giving due credit.

Conference participants homed in on three key issues: how can the new media gain reputable and sustainable success? Can they remain non-profitable over time? Must they equip their "stringer" or "wrangler" reporters with the appropriate equipment and pay them a reasonable remuneration for their work?