WELL, it’s official: collaboration is here and is affecting the journalism industry.

There are a plethora of unofficial reporters active online: blogging, Twittering, publishing videos and sharing pictures.

And media experts say this is already completely transforming newsgathering dynamics in what is being dubbed the new ‘digital economy’.

In light of this fact, I forsee journalists are going to need to make three significant transitions in order to survive this cultural upheaval, and retain their role as major players in an progressively diverse communications eco-system:

1. Transition one: from reporter to interpreter

Let’s be honest. There is an over-abundance of news information published on the internet.

Google registers some 2,530,000,000 search results for ‘news’, and Twitter similarly registers a whopping 5,000 + news-orientated live feeds.

Instead of there being a few well-known news outlets, there are now literally, millions to choose from, and many are maintained by unprofessionals and ‘citizen journalists.’

In this everyday reality of over-exposure to facts, facts, facts and everyman’s opinion – one thing is being ignored by many news organisations: how do people make sense of the all the information they are being asked to consume?

How do they distinguish between competing voices, the legitimate and the illegitimate, weigh what they learn, and reconcile new information with the bigger picture, the over-arching metanarrative?

Perhaps news organisations – in partnership with seasoned journalists – should place more emphasis on articles with in-depth analysis.

Making a transition from simply publishing facts to championing authoritative, interpretive reportage would be a shrewd move.

People are looking for voices they can trust amid the quagmire of data-overload.

2. Transition two: from producer to facilitator

When everyone in the local community has the means to produce or publish digitally – don’t seek to control, simply adapt. Seize hidden opportunities.

Instead of seeing bloggers and citizen journalists as an economic competitors, consider them your co-labourers.

Why not use your existing news organisation and it’s brand visibility as a venue from which to collaborate together, and network in a visible place?

To do so is better than to be lost in the matrix. It will also keep those looking to participate in the digital economy interested in your own brand.

Together professional journalists and citizen journalists could even pioneer a new multi-lateral news gathering infrastructure. It would be automatically inter-connected, relevant, and user-driven.

Why would it be successful? Because consumers are involved, and become producers themselves. Trust me, it works.

Just look at the success of MySpace and Facebook in recent years. People want to contribute, to have ownership in the conversation.

According to industry insiders, news organisations both locally and nationally are already planning this kind of recalibration in the next two to three years. Watch and learn.

Under new digital publishing business models, editors will increasingly delegate or outsource newsgathering tasks to groups and ordinary citizens.

Owners will then downsize to smaller, multi-skilled staff teams and appoint a specialist community or digital editor to play more of a ‘people connecting’ role, and oversee editorial regulation and legal matters.

3. Transition  three: from special representative to mentor

Some exclusive professional press privileges will remain in this new, collaborative eco-system.

The expert role of editor at major news organisations, is one. Certain fundamental skills, such as how to put-together a publicly vital news story will always pay the bills, too.

However, the positional, legitimate power of the press, generally – the concept of “I’m a journalist so I know more”  -  is set to change astronomically in the near future.

In their bestselling book ‘Wikinomics’, authors Anthony Williams and Don Tapscott envisage that the day of ‘press privilege’, per se, is almost over – along with virtually every other hierarchical organisation.

No more will famous journalists have some sort of ‘elite’ public servant standing, they say, when information is freely accessible to everyone out there in cyberspace.

Formerly, journalists used to be paid to go places on the behalf of the public – like the Town Hall, and hearings at the local Court.

Yet today, in the interests of political transparency and openness, certain courts and local councils are already permitting local bloggers and citizen journalists to join official reporters in their press galleries.

Many even publish their minutes via their own blog or website the next day.

What of an uber-democratic eco-system in which ‘anyone and everyone’ has access to political information, or can begin their own blog, draw in an audience and publish their personal perspectives?

In my opinion, the professional journalist’s role will have to evolve – and fast – in order for him or her to thrive economically.

One new facet to the professional journalist’s role I foresee in a highly-collaborative, digital environment will be that of a mentor.

Mentors are simply those who are experts in a field; people who draw alongside amateurs with their tried-and-tested competencies. Kindly, they are able to teach them and help lift their skills to the next level.

This editorial coaching role – perhaps marketed to would-be citizen journalists – could be a lucrative little earner for journalists seeking to make a difference.

Question: there might be a profusion – or high quantity - of news bloggers and social media users present in a given context.

But are their contributions of an adequate quality to make them stand out from the crowd, to be taken seriously, to truly make a difference?

Professional journalists have valuable knowledge capital; they have pro writing and coding skills, video editing know-how, expert legal understanding etc.

These aspects of their training, often taken for granted, could literally be the keys to a citizen journalist’s success.

Obviously, such transitions in the media landscape pose gigantic shifts to the status quo. Operations will have to change, as will power attribution, community organisation and the like.

However, it is quite clear; a swift rethink on the part of the traditional press is way over-due – particularly in the declining print industry.

It will be very interesting to see how events unfold here, over the next year or so.

Who will sink, and who will swim?

Technorati Tags: Citizen journalism, Collaboration, multimedia, News