Citizen Journalism and Grammar Software

The proliferation of so-called citizen journalism is generally seen as a boon to democracy in the Information Age.

A paper produced by We Media refers to this as participatory journalism. In their introduction they have this to say:

We are at the beginning of a Golden Age of journalism — but it is not journalism as we have known it. Media futurists have predicted that by 2021, "citizens will produce 50 percent of the news peer-to-peer." However, mainstream news media have yet to meaningfully adopt or experiment with these new forms.

It may be the "Golden Age of journalism," but so far it hasn't yet become the age of golden journalists.

Sure, anyone with access to the Internet can become a "citizen journalist" but so far most of them are lacking in fundamental writing skills, such as proper grammar.

Most of these "participatory journalist" would do well to take advantage of an online grammar checker. Educators did society a great disservice when they started cutting back on the teaching of basic grammar.

Some will argue that the available grammar checkers in popular programs such as Microsoft Word are adequate for the average reader, but why not take advantage of advanced contextual grammar checker software?

The best software scans the entire text and "operates a complex set of procedures based on the context of your very own newly created English text."

As an old-school journalist and editor, I welcome the new journalism. It is just what this country needs to combat corporate-own media to ensure the "real" news is presented.

But would it hurt the citizen journalist to make sure his copy is grammatically correct and his message is not being misinterpreted?