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Professionals Tip Citizen Journalists

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By CARYN ROUSSEAU

The Associated Press

Published: June 14, 2008

Miami real estate agent Lucas Lechuga began blogging to share his knowledge of the local market. He didn't bargain for a $25 million defamation lawsuit when he wrote that a Miami developer had gone bankrupt decades ago.

In Lake Geneva, Wis., commodities trader Gary Millitte registered the Internet domain name LakeGenevaNews.com eight years ago, but is so worried about the legal boundaries of writing online that he hasn't started the ultralocal news site.

Nonjournalists entering the world of blogs, online feedback forums, online videos and news Web sites provide information that newspapers and other media can't or don't. However, many are now turning to professional journalists for help with dilemmas they're facing: When is something libelous? What's the difference between opinion and news? How do you find public documents?

About a dozen would-be reporters navigated the basics of journalism at a recent training offered by the Society of Professional Journalists in Chicago. The group plans similar seminars this month in Greensboro, N.C., and Los Angeles.

Roy Peter Clark, a senior scholar at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, which supports working journalists, praised the effort to offer training to so-called citizen journalists.

"I think that what we're moving toward is some kind of positioning between amateur and professional," Clark said.

Many amateurs are distributing content on their own, and some have gotten into trouble, said Clint Brewer, the national president of the journalists' society.

Geoff Dougherty, editor of the Web site ChiTownDailyNews.org and a presenter at the society's program, is trying to prevent that by offering his reporters online training.

With a $340,000 Knight News Challenge grant, he's creating a team of 77 to report on the smallest of meetings in every city neighborhood - gatherings that mainstream news organizations don't cover.

"I see us in five years as the go-to source for Chicago news," Dougherty said. "It's a big goal."

Robert Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association, said more than 100 judgments valued at $17 million have been handed down against bloggers in the past three years - about 60 percent for defamation, 25 percent for copyright infringement and 10 percent involving privacy.

"It's the tip of the iceberg," Cox said. "Bloggers are being asked to write checks. The threats against bloggers are very real. The costs are very real."

M.J. Tam, who has blogged about motherhood for eight years and attended the Chicago workshop, said she worried about how far she could go in rating baby products.

"I just want to make sure I'm doing the right thing," Tam said. "How far can I take criticism? What's considered libel? I need those basics."

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