Jay Rosen is a journalism professor at NYU who has been watching and thinking about the Web and its impact on the press for years now. He blogs actively at PressThink (among other places), and is a champion of the growing citizen journalism movement. I’ve been following his blog for a while now, but I recently subscribed to his FriendFeed, and the interaction has become that much easier, and much more participatory.

Jay deeply groks the Web; reading his articles on the challenges of journalism, or listening to him speak, provides a look into the growth of collaborative journalism, the art of participatory newsgathering, and future of media itself. He also practices what he preaches; he uses Twitter and FriendFeed not only as webs of potential contacts for stories, but also as a place to develop an insight that may eventually become a blog post (he refers to the process as mindcasting).

One of his recent FriendFeed posts prompted this writeup: as his network on FriendFeed and Twitter continues to grow out from his original niche (news, media and Web geeks like myself), he thought it worthwhile to point out a Rosen primer of sorts. This short (10-minute) panel talk that he gave recently (Feb. 2009) really distills a lot of his Web philosophy down. It’s fantastic! It also reminds me of the themes of Clay Shirky’s “Here Comes Everybody”; it’s a worthwhile cribsheet for either. We’re in the middle of a sea change, and it’s rare to get such a quick but thorough overview. Recommended.

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