Reportr.net

It’s that time of the year for a mix of news executives, venture capitalists, advocacy groups and grassroots media to meet and discuss the relationship between journalism, user media and the internet.

The WeMedia conference in Miami is organised by iFocus, a non-profit which looks at how digital technology is changing the media.

PBS’s Mark Glaser written a good scene-setter in which he neatly sums up what WeMedia is all about.

Thanks to the audience taking control of their media experience and creating their own media in blogs, podcasts, video and social networks, the people who are losing control have decided to meet — and meet, and meet again — until they figure out how they can take back some control of this uncontrollable situation.

I was at the one in London last year and it was an interesting mix of the leading names from both top-down and bottom-down media. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it this year, so I’ll be following it online like so many others.

For a blow by blow account, click over the Jemima Kiss’s blog on the MediaGuardian. The one thing that caught my eye in her entry was an aside:

Jargon alert! Now we have soft media to describe blogs and independent, non-professional media. But that’s actually a pretty good term. Can we use that in place of “citizen journalism” please?

Citizen journalism is a clumsy term to try to define how people are reflecting the world around them, through a range of digital tools. Soft media is a far less loaded term. Why don’t we use that instead of citizen journalism?