Should news organizations train citizen journalists?

Interesting item by Steve Outing at E-Media Tidbits today:

Should news organizations offer training to "citizen journalists," people who they'd like to contribute content to their citJ initiatives? That sounds like a good idea, but some citJ experts have suggested that perhaps that's not the wisest approach. Backfence.com co-founder Mark Potts recently told me: "I'd argue that the notion that people have to be somehow 'trained' to create citizens' media is journalist-think, and even a little arrogant." He says none of his sites' users have asked for training.

Jack Driscoll, visiting scholar at the MIT Media Lab and former editor of the Boston Globe, offers what I think is a nice alternative. "The best training takes place in the citizen journalists' midst," he wrote in an e-mail. So, if you are a news organization experimenting with citJ, think about organizing or facilitating citizen writers' groups, where interested amateur writers get together to share ideas and learn from each other -- sort of a book group-like meeting. ...

Well, two points here. A better setting would be a community/social networking space rather than a physical space, given the likelihood that most of those participating will not be from the same immediate area.

And, more importantly, like it or not, the vast majority of citizen journalists are not going to look to the mainstream media to take their cues from. They will, however, look to successful writers, bloggers and researchers among their peers.

We'll be creating a digital media learning center on Ourmedia, and we hope to include a section on citizen journalism.