Here Come the Participatory Media

Persephone Miel at the Berkman Center tells me that the new buzz phrase for citizen journalism is participatory media. As I understand it, the idea is to evoke more of the collaboration between folks with various levels of expertise that is possible on the Internet--as opposed to some probably overdrawn caricature of the "pajamas media."

Miel is not so sure that the folks formerly known as citizen journalists are truly up to the task of covering the news. But then again, maybe neither are traditional journalists, as she writes on the Media Re:public blog about the incredibly shrinking shape of news.

Meanwhile, the City of New York subpoenaed the creator of Txtmob, which is a text-messaging service that many demonstrators used to coordinate efforts during the 2004 Republican Convention in New York City. What does that have to do with global health? Know any humanitarian relief organizations that rely on text messaging to coordinate efforts on the ground? The solid citizens of the global health community are not so unrelated to the fringe as they might think.