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Citizens on Journalism Patrol

The rise of blogs was supposed to fundamentally reshape the world of journalism. No longer would you need a degree from j-school (of course, I have the rare honor of a degree in Marxian economics, which is now useful only in North Korea and Cambridge, Mass.!).

No, news was to be driven by those closest to it: real, actual citizens.

Unfortunately, these citizen journalism sites were about as effective as Eugene Tackleberry on patrol.

The latest casualty is community news Web site Backfence, which recently called it quits, citing "business issues." What could those business issues be? No traffic and no ads?

Posted by Doug Barney on July 16, 2007


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