The results of J-Lab“s recent Citizen Media online survey, in which this blog participated, are out. Ironically, they will be publishing the hard copy later this month. From the February news release:
Local news web sites offering content generated by users are securing a valuable place in the media landscape and are likely to continue as important sources of community news, according to a report released today by J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism.
The report, “Citizen Media: Fad or the Future of News: The rise and prospects of hyperlocal journalism,” was commissioned to determine the prospects for sustainability of these fledgling enterprises. It relied on in-depth interviews of 31 different sites and a 60-question, online survey that targeted 500 citizen sites that could be identified in the fall of 2006 and generated 191 responses.
Most citizen media ventures are shoestring labors of love, funded out of the founders’ own pockets, and staffed by volunteer content contributors … “While not all individual sites will continue to operate, we project that the phenomenon of citizen media will be sustainable, with new sites coming online in serial fashion to replace those that collapse as their founders burn out,” [J-Lab director, Jan] Schaffer said.
