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Phil Meyer’s Journalism 2.0: How to Survive and Thrive is a succinct, easy-to-read manual for using the new tools necessary to survive as a journalist on the web.

Chapter 2: “Web 2.0”

What is Web 2.0?

Meyer defines Web 2.0 as an approach to the web that integrates some degree of user-created content into a site. This can come in the form of text or media, comments and feedback, or features that allow users to tag and rate content to change the way a site organizes and displays it.

Meyer offers some interesting background on how familiar sites came into being, as well as what unexpected benefits and problems resulted from their use. For example, Youtube became a repository for media that violated copyright law, while MySpace emerged as a great tool for local bands to use in self-promotion.

Here are some well-known sites that embrace Web 2.0:

Youtube

• Allows users to post videos and sort them for search engines by tagging them with keywords. Also lets users go straight to newest, most popular, or most discussed videos.
  

Facebook

• A social networking site originally aimed at college students. Its features include groups, events, photo galleries, and optional user-created add-ons. Recently added an unpopular feature that tracks users’ activities on the site and posts them in a feed for anyone on their friend list to see.
  

Flickr

• A place for users to store and share photos. Has tagging features, advanced search functions that allow viewers to sort photos by rights reserved, and easy tools to post photos on blogs.
  

Myspace

• A social networking site used as a homepage for many users, as well as a promotional tool for musicians.
  

Wikipedia

• An open-source encyclopedia where the content and fact-checking is provided by users.

Journalism in the Future

To Meyer, these changes represent a move to a kind of news that is “a conversation, not a lecture.” Instead of one person broadcasting content to many, the members of the crowd are starting to create and share their own content and communicate amongst themselves.

While there may be no way to predict exactly where we are headed from Journalism 2.0, Meyer says that the best way to be ready is to get into the habit of following the trends now, and using tools that involve readers in the process of selecting stories, as well as giving them a forum to react.

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