iREPORT: The future of journalism?

(originally posted on Craig’s blog on the Purple State of Mind website)

My brother, Drew Detweiler, appeared on CNN last week, reporting on video/arts education in Brazil.  (His story is second, after the Indiam elections).   Drew spent last summer in Rio de Janeiro working in the favelas.  He put Flip video cameras in the hands of local kids, equipping them to tell their stories.  Drew partnered with local organizations like 2 Brothers and Cinema Nosso that have been serving their Brazilian communities for years.

What makes this story intriguing to me is how CNN got wind of Drew work’s in Brazil.   Drew served as his own reporter, uploading the footage, making the story available to CNN.   This is citizen journalism in action, “iReporting” at its most grass roots.   Will the future reports from the front lines of Iran or Afghanistan come from locals, filming the action as it happens?   Does it make everyone a reporter, an example of visual democracy?   Will tomorrow’s news organization gather and filter these first hand reports, editing the best together into a riveting view from the streets?

The explosion of media on YouTube makes everyone a broadcaster (or at least a narrowcaster).    With two hours of new video uploaded to YouTube every minute, who will sort through the electronic noise?   Perhaps the next generation of networks will simply aggregate the most timely and interesting homemade videos.    What will happen to commissioned news and entertainment?   Will there be broad enough audiences for broadcasters to survive?   Does the future belong to niches?   Or as with CNN, will the broadcaster find the appropriate niches, the iReports that deserve a moment in the spotlight?