Online news guru proposes citizen obituaries

Online news guru Steve Outing has hit on a morbid new idea for participatory journalism – citizen obituaries.

“Because not everyone can be written up by a staff journalist, citizen obituaries can serve to supplement the professionals’ work,” Mr Outing wrote at Poynter’s E-media Tidbits, “and give every person who dies a decent write-up, not just a community’s most prominent individuals.”

He also proposes the creation of professional obituary writers to guard against families who would attempt to alter the true facts of a relative’s life.

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