OpenFile, Toronto’s new crowd-driven journalism project, is an admirable startup. But it’s only a start.
OpenFile, launched into beta last week to much fanfare, takes pitches from readers, puts them through an editorial approval, then throws it over to the sites’ readership to vote and comment on.
If the pitches strike a nerve with readers – it’s not clear how much weight popularity of a pitch is given – it gets the go-ahead to become a story on the site.
Unlike much of the independent (ie, non-Torstar) media in town, OpenFile does not cover restaurants, bars, music, arts or culture.
And unlike much of the web-only media ventures, it’s starting out with a budget and an experienced editorial team behind it.
So already there’s a lot going for OpenFile.
But there’s also a lot going against it, too.
Let me start by giving a shout out to the elephant in the room: citizen journalism sites have not been successful.
Even further, I’d argue every attempt to bottle participatory journalism has been a complete failure. The model has simply not worked, from the near-death NowPublic to the…well, I had to Google “citizen journalism” to find others.
Sites like YouTube or Twitter at times hits news stories first, but not reliably so. And besides that, those sites are indiscriminate portals for anyone to broadcast as opposed to a site which actively shops for amateur reportage.
The problems of participatory sites have been those of dependability. What news coverage can readers expect? And when? What tone will it take? Citizen journalism sites are, by nature, all-over-the-place on all these fronts.
For instance, a post currently on OpenFile calls fringe mayor candidate Sonny Yeung “among the most measured and pragmatic” of all the politicians running for the position. Interesting point of view, for sure, but it’s not entirely clear where that opinion is coming from. The site has no political identity or voice, so unfortunately this sort of comment just comes across as random. Much of the coverage faces the same problem.
Perhaps if the site opened with a dynamic investigative story, or something to set the tone…? I’m not entirely sure because I’ve never seen a citizen journalism site work to any degree of success.
I can certainly appreciate OpenFile’s stated goals, as lofty as they are. But, being as they are goals, not much of what OpenFile promises has been realized. Then, of course this the curse and blessing of any startup. There’s a lot of potential here, but there’s even more work to be done.[rssbreak]
