Move over journos

Roy Greenslade is professor of journalism at London's City University and blogs for The Guardian. He was in Sydney last week to speak at The Future of Journalism summit at the ABC.

Against a background of figures released in the US showing a marked reduction in the sale of newspapers, Greenslade writes in a piece in the SMH "Move over: journalists will have to share their space":

"Newspapers are dying in the United States and the death knell is also sounding for newsprint in Britain and across the rest of Europe. I still feel a little sad when I write that, because I've been a newspaperman for 44 years.

But the sadness is beginning to diminish because I've been a blogger for two years, spending five days a week writing on screen. So I have now come to terms with the decline of newspapers by realising that there is life after ink on paper. A life for journalism, that is."

And where are things headed?

"Instead, what lies around the corner is the widespread engagement with the public through participation. The Guardian's "comment is free" blog already attracts many thousands of commenters every day. Bloggers on every paper, and at the most popular news website in Britain, the BBC, engage with people 24 hours a day.

What lies around the corner is much more exciting. Comment may be free, but facts are sacred. So sacred that we journalists, acting as secular priests, have kept fact-hunting to ourselves.

Now we have to take up the challenge of citizen journalism or, more neutrally, user-generated content. We not only have to preserve journalism through the web, we have to take it to a new level."

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