Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Citizen journalism: What And Why??

he citizen journalism refers to a wide range of activities in which everyday people contribute information or commentary about news events. Over the years, citizen journalism has benefited
from the development of various technologies, including the printing press—which provided a medium for the pamphleteers of the 17th and 18th centuries—the telegraph, tape recorders, and
television, each of which offered new opportunities for people to participate in sharing news and commentary.

With the birth of digital technologies, people now have unprecedented access to the tools of production and dissemination. Citizen journalism encompasses content ranging from user-submitted reviews on a Web site about movies to wiki-based news. Some sites only run stories written by users, while many traditional news outlets now accept comments and even news stories from readers.
The notion of citizen journalism implies a difference, however, between simply offering one’s musings on a topic and developing a balanced story that will be genuinely useful to readers.

The citizen journalism sites is long and includes sites limited to nonprofessional reporting, such as NowPublic and CyberJournalist, and divisions of traditional media companies that feature citizen journalism, such as CNN’s I-Reporter.

Some people use blogs, wikis, digital storytelling applications, photo- and video-sharing sites, and other online media as vehicles for citizen journalism efforts. Many projects take a local
approach, centering on news about a city or even a specific neighborhood, or focus on special-interest topics, such as financial matters or gender issues.

Many academic programs combine the study of traditional journalism with new media, and these programs typically address issues of citizen voices in reporting. Some institutions sponsor initiatives that focus directly on citizen journalism and other forms of user-created content.

Scoop08, founded by students at Yale University and Andover, is a Web site devoted to coverage of the 2008 presidential election. It bills itself as “the first-ever daily national student
newspaper,” with hundreds of high school and college students across the country submitting stories about the election.

6 comments:

msd said...

Namaste,
I am trying to find what became of citzenxpress.com and crfindia.org.. can you give an update as to how things are?
thanks
Mustafa Stefan Dill

Krishna said...

Dear Mr Rawat,
I am krishna, I recently started a website, www.aapkanews.com , a participatory journalism site for indian news. Please do visit the site and register and you can start posting articles.

Regards,
Krishna

EuroYank - Virginia Hoge said...

Great post. You should use videos to make your site more DRAMATIC. Get it at ...
Shockwave

Unknown said...

Hi. Liked your thoughts and approach to Citizen Journalism.

Would like to connect with you to validate some of my thoughts.

Unknown said...

Hi,
I'm a blogger who has recently just stumbled upon a site that I think is the perfect citizen journalism site. This site, http://newsparticipation.com operates on the simple premise that journalism is having the voice of the people heard and provides a perfect platform to help that happen.

On Newsparticipation, all a person needs to do is put a camera to their face and say whatever they want to say and upload. As they explain it, it could be your reaction to a political policy or it could be what you think about a current event.

Bottom line is that with this site, you don't have to be literate to have your say. You only have to be able to talk. And, unlike other video sharing sites, you don't have to be a film maker or go chasing news, you make your own news by giving your reaction to whatever is going on around you.

What I've been doing since I discovered this site is also make a video of my blogs by reading them into a camera and posting on newsparticipation. This means that not only am I blogging but also vlogging thereby reaching more people with my message.

Unknown said...

Hi all !! I want to know best college for Journalism.My younger brother wants to do Journalism courses. He wants to be Journalist. I have not idea which is best. When i searches on Google there are lot of colleges who are providing these courses. I found one college in Delhi - IIMM. IIMM is college for journalism courses in Delhi.Have any idea about this college ? Please share your views !!!
Thanks for your views .