Blottr Media Debate: The panel

The people powered news service, Blottr, were at LCC last night [25 October] to talk to PR and Journalism students about new media and the rise of citizen journalism.

Blottr founder, Adam Baker, formed part of a five-strong panel that included LCC’s Russell Merryman, Bright One’s Ben Matthews, the BBC College of Journalism’s Ramaa Sharma and Sky News reporter Mark Stone.

Chaired by columnist Milo Yiannopoulus, panelists were given five minutes each to give their insight on how new media and citizen journalism has affected or contributed to the news industry. After giving their own slant on the subject, nearly all were in agreement that social media, text messages and emails from the general public have brought a valuable additional aspect to journalism.

While some argue the citizen journalism is fuelled by the rise of technology, LCC’s Russell Merryman, who has worked for both the BBC and Al Jazeera, said citizen journalism has always existed. “In the old days we used to need hunter gatherers in journalism, perhaps now we just need farmers,” said Merryman. His statement was followed by the tweet:

The debate that ensued attempted to address the important questions: What is citizen journalism? What is news and who should decide it? Can we trust news generated by citizen journalists? What’s the importance of being the first to break a story? How can we safeguard against minority user groups?

Find out the answers and catch up with the debate on Twitter via the #blottr hashtag.