BOSTON, MA-Newspaper circulation is declining in America today and many of our nation's newspapers are struggling just to stay afloat. As many of us know, the journalism industry is changing rapidly. Daily newspapers are losing millions by the week; massive layoffs are happening at newspaper chains across America; and readers are now getting their information from alternative information sources. Adapting to changes is critical for surviving in today's tumultuous environment. The key is finding out how to do so.

The New England Press Association held their annual convention in Boston last weekend and media critic Dan Kennedy discussed how newspapers and weeklies are struggling today. Kennedy is an assistant professor at the Northeastern University School of Journalism. He writes for the “Guardian (U.K.),” “CommonWealth Magazine” and the “Boston Phoenix,” and is a regular panelist on WGBH-TV's "Beat the Press," hosted by Emily Rooney. Many of you may also remember Kennedy in Greg Palast's documentary, “Counting on Democracy.” Kennedy penned several articles about the media's poor coverage during the 2000 election and the recount that followed. Kennedy still covers politics, journalism, media coverage, and the media industry at his popular blog “Media Nation.”

In order to survive as a media outlet, Kennedy suggests newspapers go where the readers are. In today's environment, readers are moving away from national daily newspapers and weeklies and switching over to social networking groups such as Yahoo! news groups, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and citizen journalism Web sites. Kennedy suggests daily newspapers and weeklies take advantage of the Internet's interactive tools to re-establish their communities and continue on as a viable news outlet.

I caught up with Kennedy at the NEPA conference and we discussed the role of citizen journalism in today's media environment. I know Kennedy has blogged about citizen journalism in the past and I always wanted to talk with Kennedy to learn more about his knowledge and insights. I also used to watch him every Friday on Greater Boston's “Beat The Press.” Here's what Kennedy has to say.

Christian Avard: I know you've written a lot about citizen journalism on “Media Nation.” As a professional journalist, what were your first impressions of the citizen journalism phenomenon? Has it turn the journalism profession upside down on its head or is it complementing the profession?

Dan Kennedy: Well, I've never been one to think that smart, well-meaning people can't do journalism. Although I think there is great value to going to journalism school and getting a lot of experience. But [citizen journalists] can pick it up pretty quickly and do good work, even if they're not following the traditional journalistic forms that we're all used to. I've been intrigued by citizen journalism from the beginning. I think where it works best is when there is a collaboration between professional and citizen journalism, so that you have a kind of professional journalistic component that is sifting the citizen journalism, finding the best stuff, and getting it in front of the people.

That leads into my next question. What do you think of the idea of former print journalists starting local citizen journalism sites in their communities that may have a professional-citizen journalism component?

I think these professional-amateur partnerships are wonderful, although there aren't that many of them now.

Any potential for growth?

I think this is a real opportunity. I look at things like “The New Haven Independent” which is a non-profit started by Paul Bass, a long time professional journalist. There's a heavy citizen journalism component to that. I think that's a great service. There's also one in Rye, NH called "Rye Reflections," which is run by the former Boston Globe editor Jack Driscoll. Driscoll, who is essentially in his retirement, is the godfather of this big citizen journalism project up there. [These are terrific examples] and I think that may be a very big part of whatever future we're moving into.

Because citizens develop their own content, what would say qualifies as news? What make a good citizen journalism news story?

That's a really hard question to answer because you're talking about journalists with all kinds of different skill levels. If you're talking about a citizen journalist with a low skill set and if that person was able to simply go witness something, describe what he/she saw and take some pictures, that is a perfectly fine contribution from somebody like that. But you could also have a citizen journalist with with little or no training, who may be a gifted writer, who can describe what he/she sees and produce a very good report. That brings us to a different level of citizen journalism. So maybe that person can simply go beyond witnessing the fire or the big car crash, make sense of it, and maybe even bring a different sensibility to it than a professional journalist will write it, maybe in a somewhat more personal perspective while still being accurate and getting the facts straight.

In general, how will citizen journalism continue in the future? What will it look like?

One of the challenges of citizen journalism is you need committed amateurs. You need a committed group of people who are willing to go do important work and not get paid. That's a hard thing to do. There are certain special types of areas that can foster such a thing. Brattleboro is one of those areas. I don't know if it could work in the community I live in (the Boston suburbs). Fortunately, we are surprisingly well served by a weekly and a daily paper. But I think if the citizens were left to their own devices in my own town, I don't think you have the base of people who would be willing to do that. In certain types of areas, I think it's going to work well because it's the sort of areas that always had an activist base and they can turn that base into journalism (or something like that) because the tools are there.

So what do you think of iBrattleboro?

I've been there quite a bit. I'm very impressed with what I'm seeing going on there. I think I would probably find it more compelling if there was more of a professional component of it, although I don't mean to take away from the citizen component of it. I think one of the challenges is there's no one who's saying "there's a really important event happening, we need someone to go out and cover it." There's lacking that editorial sense of thing. Instead, it's whatever somebody wants to go do, that's what gets done. I think there's real power in that but there's also something lacking in that too. I think people who are not activists, people who just want to know what's going on in their own community, there is still great value in an edited professional news product, whether it's paid for or not. Because professional journalism is becoming so difficult, I think the pro-am model is one I'd really like to see be fostered more.

Approximately 50-60 people attended Kennedy's seminar. Here is Kennedy showing iBrattleboro on the screen to everyone!