iTalkNews practices Citizen Journalism and the output ranges from small-town news to intriguing photographs to commentary on world events. As expected in CJ, professional journalists mix with unschooled journalists in this site. It is easy to spot the untrained writer just by the way he frames his titles. The titles then are a give away for evaluating writer levels.
The contributions are mainly unedited as the members can edit each other's work, but which editing have to be accepted by the writer. The question of quality then in output as seen by traditional media is expected.
If most writings in this site are of the journal type, it is because apparently the writers have never been weaned from the habit of writing in the first person, making it one's trend: news in the first person, editorial in the first person.
The more intelligent members lament the fact that there is no intelligent discussion going on. In other words, there is no member-to-member forum except for the comments' section of the news or link. Therefore, should there be a hot item for discussion, they are usually drawn to that part as though thirsting for interaction. Some members detest a pure forum type, however.
A fortunate fact for media work in this site is that some of the members have deep social consciousness, foremost of whom are writers from India who try to project social implications in their output. Some, however, merely post links and make recommendations or decommendations of others' links and stories, seemingly not understanding what writing is all about. In fact, 64% of the members are writers but a good 36% are merely linkers and recommenders, and their numbers are growing. Still, they are there for what democracy in CJ can offer them.
With this set-up, no one has control over proportions. If linking exceeded writing, then there's much to say about intellectual laziness that some of the members lamented about. Therefore, although there is quantity in the postings, quality is not automatically assured.
Speaking of democracy in CJ in this site, for those members who find constraints in writing news in their own home country, iTalkNews easily provides the venue. Admittedly, there are countries where structures do not permit the voice of some sectors. Moreover, as readily recognized by the members, formal journalism has its straitjacket becoming too tight for modern journalism. This is the reason Citizen Journalism comes in handy - and where iTalkNews is thriving. In the meantime however, there are criticisms.
OhMyNews, for example, negatively featured iTalkNews - as one can make out of the English translation from Korean using Altavista Babel Fish - of the scoring done in the later. The South Koreans had pioneered in CJ and were able to influence the presidential elections in 2002 just with CJ. Therefore, there may be that impulse to want to edit one's concept and use of CJ as though they owned the concept.
In a way, the South Koreans are correct, however. They were looking for citizen input, not contests or scores, if iTalkNews is to use CJ. The way the members press "recommend" and "decommend" is getting to be incredible. It is not reality. The focus seems to be on the person being rated, or on what an added or subtracted score might mean.
Still, some of the members of iTalkNews think they can overlook scoring and get to work as true writers. This can be the redeeming feature of iTalkNews.
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