I acknowledge the role of APO in drawing my attention to the article by Terry Flew and Jason Wilson Journalism as Social Networking: The Australian youdecide project and the 2007 Federal election. (as Submitted to Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, as QUT Digital Repository: Published in Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, Vol. 11 no. 2, April 2010; also available at http://eprints.qut.edu.au/ The abstract of your article entitled Journalism as social networking: The Australian youdecide project and the 2007 federal election, as published in Australian Policy Online interests me.

I certainly cannot profess to be undertaking journalism as I seek to find no ways in which I may be able to connect with Government. cyberspace blogging within all of its limitations, including word count, potential moderator prejudice and/or political constraints in the goals of enhancing free expression of citizen views expressed in a climate that purports to support citizen-driven initiatives in cyberworld.

My experiences have been mixed with regard to experimentation with social networking and cyberworld communication, so the jury is out at present as to my personal opinion, since am still in the process of questioning to what extent attempts to achieve true citizen-engagement driven.

There are so many impediments, far too many to iterate in an online blog in circumstances where word-count and in depth responses are frequently discouraged, not that I suggest for a moment that this remark applies to Australian Policy Online, through whose efforts to publicize the focus of your current research and interest in “the relevance of citizen journalism projects as forms of R&D for understanding news production and distribution in participatory media cultures, and the importance of grounded case studies for moving beyond normative debates about new media and the future of journalism.”

If you are interested in gleaning insights from the perspectives of an ordinary citizen whose efforts to engage with Government through unrewarding strategies in highlighting issues of concern from a consumer perspective, as well as from the perspective of impacts on the entire economy, please contact me directly.

Much has been said and written about the role and impact of what you have described as new media technologies and the rise of citizen journalism has coincided with a crisis in industrial journalism.

Unlike professional journalists, would-be citizen-journalists normally receive no training in the art of journalism, brevity and web-based technology.

Those citizens who are anything like me with limited technological skills, raw skills but importantly the will to influence policy change for the better in a truly participative democracy need to be nurtured and valued so that the value of meaningful reciprocal dialogue with elected governments, their associated incorporated bodies, including policy-makers, rule-makers, complaints handlers (often misleading called “industry-specific ombudsmen – refer to my extensive discussion for example on the Australian Productivity Commission (PC) website (e. g. subdr242parts1-5 and 8); the PC’s Review of Performance Benchmarking of Australian Businesses: Quantity and Quality; MCE arenas, the Commonwealth Treasury and Senate Economics Committee Enquiry into the Trade Practices Amendment (Australian Consumer Policy) Bill2). I am currently actively engaged in dialogue with the Gov2 online Project, response to various APO articles highlighting recent developments in social policy and other such online initiatives that are exploring the merits of social media in the context of policy initiatives.

After years of fruitless experimenting with existing conventional methods of effecting citizen consultation, I am seeking greener pastures, but I warn you that my standards and expectations are high and that I believe it is a mistake to generalize and box stakeholders as if they were commodities.

I am willing to dialogue with those parties and bodies who are willing and able to treat citizens and other stakeholders as unique rather than rely on theory models of behavioural economics or other such means of assessing the needs and behaviour of target groups. Let me know if my attitudes and expectations may assist the goals of your research interests. In my usual way I thank the APO for drawing these matters to me attention.

Madeleine Kingston

Individual Stakeholder

mkin2711@bigpond.net.au

PS I have enormous difficulties posting on ther APO site and would like to discuss this by phone. No-one but the most persistent citizen would continue against the odds. I resent my postings being regarded as spam and have geat difficult posting in the correct format despite all care taken. The last version of this at 8.20  is the one to retain. Please delete all others.