Tragedy Brings Out the Power of Citizen Journalism

Amy Gahran notes that despite the reasons and events that drive citizen journalism forward – its value is clearly illustrated in the Virginia Tech shootings this week: “Doubtless in coming days we’ll be poring over the first-person blog entries, Twitter posts, forum discussions, Flickr photos, podcasts, moblogs, YouTube videos, and more from those unfortunate enough… Continue reading Tragedy Brings Out the Power of Citizen Journalism

Now Hiring: Citizen Journalists

Traditional journalism outlets are embracing citizen journalism: “CBS News and Fox News on Monday signed up Neighborhood America to create social-networking technology that will help them attract user-generated news reports from citizen journalists around the United States.” At what point will every niche, every industry, every B2B category have well established networks of “sources” that… Continue reading Now Hiring: Citizen Journalists

Where Anyone Can Be a Reporter, Writer, Researcher or Editor

Wired is diving into citizen journalism and crowdsourcing once again. A new project called Assignment Zero offers: “…any willing contributor the chance to do the work of a reporter, writer, researcher or editor in a joint investigation by Wired and NewAssignment.Net. When Assignment Zero ends, NewAssignment.Net will publish the results — articles, interviews and assorted… Continue reading Where Anyone Can Be a Reporter, Writer, Researcher or Editor

When Your Sources Go Directly to Your Audience

Doc Searls looks at how the web has changed journalism. “The Net is a giant zero. It puts everybody zero distance from everybody and everything else. And it supports publishing and broadcasting at costs that round to zero as well. “It is essential for the mainstream media to understand that the larger information ecosystem is… Continue reading When Your Sources Go Directly to Your Audience

Blogging’s Past, Present and Future

Dan Farber of ZDnet gives an interesting overview of blogging’s past, present and future. Some highlights: Dave Winer, who many consider the father of blogging, both technically and culturally, has been blogging for close to a decade. “Every entity, from newspapers and political campaigns to corporate executives and PR pros, has adopted blogging as a… Continue reading Blogging’s Past, Present and Future

Working for Free: User-Generated Media

As user-generated media becomes a prime force in the cultural and business worlds, Time asks ‘how much work will people will do for free?’ The power of volunteer-generated media has hit some important milestones: “Argue about its inaccuracies all you want, but the volunteer-authored online encyclopedia is on its way to becoming (if it isn’t… Continue reading Working for Free: User-Generated Media

Associated Press Welcomes User Generated Content

The Associated Press just struck a deal with NowPublic.com “designed to bring citizen content into AP newsgathering, and to explore ways to involve NowPublic’s on-the-ground network of news contributors in AP’s breaking news coverage.” “The goal of the effort is to expand the world’s access to news as it happens, the companies said.”