This website is an initiative of J-Lab
This website is an initiative of J-Lab
         Community Media NewsRecent news stories about community journalism.Mar. 15: The State of the News MediaCommunity Journalism J-Lab’s research of nonprofit-funded journalism projects was cited in the Pew Project’s annual State of the News Media report. In just a few years, more than $141 million has flowed into this arena, J-Lab reports. KCNN.org also served as a resource for the project’s reporting and Oakland Local, a New Voices grantee was also highlighted as a success story. Mar. 2: Lessons to be Learned by Legacy MediaLegacy Media Could Take An Entrepreneurial Lesson Following a speech by Jan Schaffer, Executive Director of J-Lab, this article touches on the point that journalists need to reexamine existing habits. “To be a genuine media entrepreneur, you need to have a comfort level with moving out of old lockstep ways of doing things and moving into what I call the ‘squirm zone,’ ” she said. You can read the entire speech here. Feb. 18: New News Site Mirrors OthersA New Non-profit News Site Mirrors Others The New York Times highlights the launch of the non-profit CT Mirror. The site has hired four experienced reporters and is funded with $1.8 million in grants for the first three years of operation. The piece quotes Dan Kennedy who says the state is an example of how “entrepreneurial online journalists are filling a lot of the holes left by the decline of newspapers.” Recognized as well is the New Haven Independent, CT News Junkie and New Jersey Newsroom.
Jan. 4: 2010 New Media TrendsNew Media Trends for 2010 Mashable.com recently listed eight new media business trends to look out for in 2010. Number four on their list is “Growth in Hyperlocal and Community Models.” To illustrate their point, Mashable named several community news projects, including Oakland Local, a 2009 New Voices grantee. According to the article, “With many traditional and regional news organization’s facing cutbacks in staff and in some cases closures, local and community-based models and startups will look to fill the gap in content.” These are exactly the kind of new media startups we like to fund. For more information and to apply for a 2010 New Voices grant, visit this site.
Dec. 3: Voice of San Deigo Bans CommentsVoice of San Diego Bans Anonymous Comments The Voice of San Diego has banned anonymous comments on their website. According to the announcement the new policy is designed to, “[C]reate an intelligent, creative and constructive conversation on San Diego’s most pressing issues,” and they want their conversation to be, “civil and smart.” The site has always moderated their comments to keep slanderous or offensive (racism, sexism, vulgarity) content off their servers. With this new policy the Voice will strive to verify the identity of the commenter in the same way they would a letter writer. Additionally, comments are now allowed on their newstories where previously they would not have been allowed. They are excited to see how this new policy plays out on their site.Check out the announcement and leave a comment here.
Oct. 12: Sacramento Citizen Journalism ContestThe Sacramento Press Announces Citizen Journalist Contest The Sacramento Press, a Web site with a hyperlocal focus, is encouraging citizens to commit acts of journalism in their First Pro-Am Citizen Journalism Contest. The goal of the contest is to engage users and readers and encourage participation with the growing site. The contest organizers urge participants to think small. “The blighted vacant lot on your street, the business person you patronize, the leader you admire, the trend you abhor, the community group you support, the artist living above you, the band rehearsing next door.” Prizes are listed on the contest page.
Sep. 10: YourHub.com users can benefit from new associationYourHub.com users can benefit from new association YourHub.com’s Parker, Colorado branch reports on the new National Association of Citizen Journalists. Launched September 1, the NACJ helps educate gumshoe and experienced reporters on YourHub.com who write about their communities. The founder Ronald D. Ross qualifies citizen journalists as, “...a seventh grader who likes to write about science, a mom who wants to write about her kid’s sporting events, or even government officials or employees who want to enlighten and inform the public they serve.” The NACJ offers online seminars and homework assignments to help participants improve their reporting. The basic level is free and, among other things, subscribes users to a monthly e-zine keeping them apprised of happenings in the world of citizen journalism.
Aug. 25: The Value of Rural NewsThe University of Montana’s online Rural News Network sustains community ties as newspapers close The Online Journalism Review’s Elizabeth Zwerling reports on the value of the Rural News Network (a 2006 New Voices grantee) following the shuttering of Dutton Dispatch, the paper of record in the small community. The Network has created two online publications: the Dutton County Courier and CrowNews.net.
Jun. 19: CNN’s iReport Sees Iran GrowthBig Jump in CNN’s Citizen Journalism Reports From Iran MediaPost reported that CNN’s iReport citizen journalism effort saw a large amount of growth from the Iran area after its June elections, both in numbers of submissions and citizen journalists. More than half of the submissions to iReport over a four-day period were from the Iran area, and more than 3,000 new citizen journalists signed up to submit content.
May. 25: ProPublica calls upon CitJ’sCitizen journalists called upon to ‘Adopt a Stimulus’ The investigative non-profit news project ProPublica launched a Web site yesterday that will be used by citizen journalists to report every facet of the stimulus plan. The ProPublica Reporting Network, their mission is on the front page: “The federal government is propping up Wall Street with a massive bailout that will cost the public billions. The government recently signed the largest stimulus bill in history. Making sense of our new—and ever changing—landscape requires piecing together your stories neighborhood-by-neighborhood and state-by-state. That’s where you come in.” Apr. 14: Seattle Reporters Start AnewFormer P-I journalists launch online news site Almost a month after their last printed issue, some reporters from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer have launched their own nonprofit news site. Though the P-I continues as a Web-only publication, a small group of reporters, editors and photographers have said they intend to contribute to the new Seattle PostGlobe. The site expects to rely on reader contributions and paid advertising. Apr. 13: Hyperlocal Web Sites Delivering‘Hyperlocal’ Web Sites Deliver News Without Newspapers As newspapers suffer and the presses slow down, many communities are turning to new Web sites for local coverage. Some, including EveryBlock.com and Placeblogger.com, allow citizens to take a look at their area at a near microscopic view. This narrow focus is appealing to advertisers, but the trick is putting up reliable content quickly in order to keep readers interested. Apr. 13: CitJ at The Washington TimesTimes embraces return of ‘citizen journalism’ The Washington Times’ A-section is about to get another page thicker as they begin to publish contributions from citizen journalists. Each day will be divided into different subjects: academia on Monday, the Maryland and Virginia suburbs on Tuesday, the District on Wednesday, local military bases on Thursday, faith communities on Friday and the charitable and the public service community on Sunday. Feb. 27: NY Times & Citizen Journalism‘New York Times’ to Launch Local Citizen Journalism Sites The New York Times is jumping on the citizen journalism bandwagon by launching two locally-focused Web sites dedicated to three communities in New Jersey—Maplewood, South Orange and Millburn—and two Brooklyn neighborhoods, Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. Times staffers have been recruited to edit and oversee the sites. Feb. 10: CCJIG Q&A with Leonard Witt“I want conversation, I want collective intelligence, but I also want sound journalism.” A Q&A interview between Civic & Citizen Journalism Interest Group chair Nikhil Moro and Leonard Witt, a veteran of the public journalism movement who recently received a multi-year gift totaling $1.5 million from New York’s Harnisch Foundation to start a Center for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University. Jan. 4: Hyperlocal Sites to BoomHyperlocal Websites will Boom in 2009 as Community Newspapers Fold While there has been some debate over what “hyperlocal” actually means and encompasses, there is no denying that there is a demand for community news. Many towns and small villages have felt neglected by the large metro daily newspapers in their area. Small community newspapers have filled that void in the past, but The Inquisitr predicts that in 2009 we will see those small papers fold in record numbers, giving way to Web sites with a concentrated local focus. Nov. 11: Seeing SpotsSpot.Us Launches Crowd-Funded Journalism Project Spot.us, a project of David Cohn, winner of a two-year grant in the Knight Foundation News Challenge, officially launches Monday with hopes to offer a new buesiness model for media: community-funded journalism. “Anyone can submit a story tip for something they’d like to see investigated, and any reporter can submit a story pitch, which they will investigate once funding is complete. The final product is then available for free to any publication.” Cohn’s non-profit, open-source project will operate in San Fransisco for the time being, and, if successful, will be expanded elsewhere.
Oct. 31: Consistency in Grassroots ReportingThe state of independent local online news, part 4: Seeking consistency from grassroots reporting David Westphal’s final day of OJR’s week-long look at the state of independent local online news start-ups. In this edition, he highlights ChiTown Daily News, a three-year-old news operation focusing on Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods. The nonprofit site is staffed almost entirely with citizen journalists. Included in the article is a Q&A with Geoff Dougherty, editor of the ChiTown Daily News.
Oct. 30: A Boom and a Bust for HeliumHelium Raises $17 Million, Lays Off 30 Percent of Employees Even companies making money are slashing jobs. Just days after raising $17 million in revenue from various sources, start-up Helium laid off 30 percent (or 18 people) of its employees. Helium is a “citizen journalism outlet offering a platform for writers to write articles on topics about which they are knowledgeable.” Oct. 30: Citizen Media Monitors VotingCasting a Ballot, and a Wary Eye Laws in some states prevent citizens from taking photos or video while voting or at a polling place. However, because of the ease of technology now (tiny video cameras, cell phone cameras), people are going to do it anyway. And they’re going to publish those videos and photos for everyone in the world to see. YouTube has launched its own Video the Vote project, where they intend to make the “largest library of Election Day experiences, ever.” In addition, two wikis exist for voters to help document problems with voting: the Voter Suppression Wiki and the Election Protection Wiki. Oct. 28: Bluffton Today to ChargeBluffton, SC daily paper will no longer be free In an effort to cover the escalating cost of printing, popular South Carolina citizen media outlet Bluffton Today will begin charging 25 cents for hard copies of its daily newspaper (75 cents on Sundays). The change will take effect on Dec. 1, 2008. Oct. 26: OJR Looks at Online Start-UpsOJR launches week-long look at the state of local online news start-ups In the hunt for the new model for journalism, one can’t help but turn their attention to the cropping up of more and more “hyperlocal” news blogs. All across the country these sites are forming, bringing together formally trained journalists and concerned members of the community. Today, the Online Journalism Review starts a week-long look at where these sites are coming from and where they are headed next. Each day’s report will include an article, Q&A and links for extra information. Oct. 15: Election Day with PBS & YouTubePBS, YouTube Team On Election Day Project YouTube and PBS are teaming up to provide coverage of Election Day experiences. The Video Your Vote channel on YouTube plans to collect thousands of videos taken at polling places around the United States to create an online library of voting experience. In addition, PBS and YouTube will also distribute 1,000 camcorders to nonprofit groups and local PBS stations for use in the project. Oct. 3: False Report on Apple’s JobsFalse Jobs heart attack post highlights perils of citizen journalism When a false report by a citizen journalist was released on CNN’s iReport, it prompted a temporary 10% drop in Apple’s stock and caused the media to wonder about what ethical standards should be applied to user generated content. It turns out the reason people took the report as valid was because CNN’s name was attached to it. Oct. 2: Citizen Journalism in AfricaNamibia: What is Citizen Journalism? An opinion article published in the Namibian lays out what it means to be a citizen journalist in Africa. It also discusses what citizens in Zimbabwe did in March 2008 when the election results were stalled. Thousands of SMS messages were sent out, mocking Mugabe and his failed election. The article draws the line between a citizen journalist and a professional journalist, too. “Africans, especially Namibians, cannot afford to be left behind by new media technology. The reality is if the media are not telling the stories from the citizens’ point of view, it will result in citizens in telling their own stories.” Sep. 22: CBS Opens Arms to User ContentCBS Moves Further Into Citizen Journalism with “EyeMobile” for iPhone CBS is the first of the “big three” broadcasters to accept and encourage user-generated content under their umbrella. Today they launch EyeMobile for iPhone, allowing users to submit photos, video, and stories to its citizen journalism site, CBSEyeMobile. According to Mashable, the site is very You-Tube-esque, allowing users to browse photos and videos by most recent, most viewed, and most commented. The site also allows users to copy and paste code to embed photos and videos elsewhere. CBS has not released information about whether or not the citizen-reported stories will become a part of their regular broadcasts. All the tools are now at their disposal, it’s just a matter of how much CBS wants to show off its user generated content. Sep. 18: Reframing News Challenges MediaReframing news to focus on strengths challenges established media Journalists should take a look at their citizen media counterparts for ideas on how to cover events. AxiomNews.ca’s Jennifer Higgs’ article explores why traditional media organizations are challenged to move towards a solutions-based approach to coverage. Sep. 15: Letter on Palin Launches Wasilla Resident into the SpotlightKilkenny on Palin: Citizen Journalism Success One week after Wasilla resident Anne Kilkenny sent out an e-mail about newly appointed Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, there were over 3,000 Google results for Kilkenny and her email. Jon Greenberg’s blog on Poynter outlines in detail how and why Kilkenny became so popular so fast. He said, “This is another moment that proves the Internet’s power to carry a message from a very small town to the entire world.” Greenberg points out that newsrooms can learn a lot from Kilkenny’s example and that citizen reporting offer a huge opportunity if journalists can seize upon it. “If newsrooms pull this off, they will establish a new social contract between themselves and the public—a new social contract that can breathe new life into the news we all rely on,” said Greenberg. Sep. 12: Purple States TV Reports on ElectionPurple States TV Partners with WashingtonPost.com to Produce Citizen-powered Video Coverage Purple States TV, an innovator in short broadcast-quality news video and interactive programming, announced that it partnered with washingtonpost.com to produce a documentary series that captures the run-up to the Presidential Election through the eyes of ordinary citizens. Purple States TV will be following five diverse citizens who will travel around the country to report on the 2008 election. “The Purple States video series will showcase citizen journalism at its best,” said Eric Pianin, Politics Editor at washingtonpost.com. “Our readers and viewers will have the unique opportunity to hear from well informed and highly motivated citizens who are being sent out on the campaign trail to ask tough questions about the economy, education, national security and race and then demand straight answers from the presidential candidates and their advocates.” Sep. 5: YouTube Starts CitJ ContestYouTube Encourages Citizen Journalism with New Contest Aug. 21: AllVoices Will Pay Citizen JournalistsAllvoices.com goes all in: Commits to pay citizen journalists Aug. 14: Introducing HuffPost ChicagoHuffPost Goes Local: Introducing HuffPost Chicago Aug. 11: YouTube Journalism Contest AnnouncedYouTube Citizen News: Heads-Up Aug. 5: In Place of C-SpanUS: Congressman acts as a citizen journalist, streaming video from discussions after House adjourned Jul. 28: MSNBC’s Amateur Political CorrespondentsCitizen journalists make new inroads into political reporting Jul. 23: OffTheBus Going StrongOff the Bus, but Growing Thousands Strong Jul. 11: Truemors Acquired by NowPublicCitizen Journalism: NowPublic Acquires Truemors Jul. 9: WTSP to Hire 20 Citizen JournalistsWTSP-Ch. 10 seeking 20 citizen journalists to help gather news Jun. 28: Citizen Media on Public Healthir sPublic Health Projects to Use Citizen Media to Empower Community Voices Jun. 9: OJR: LoudounExtra’s OversightsIt’s a lo-o-o-ong way from Lawrence, Kan., to Loudoun County, Va. May. 12: Disney Park Goers Share InfoUS: Cit-J lessons from Disney World May. 12: Newmark Buys into CitMediaCraig Newmark pursues politics and citizen journalism May. 5: No Business Model, No SiteCitJ photo site Skoeps closes, no business model Apr. 1: Cit Journalists on the SceneNo Casual Operation: Inside a Citizen Journalism Newsroom Feb. 29: Cit Media Speaks SpanishCitizen Journalism Spreads in Spanish-Speaking World Feb. 26: Citizen Photogs: ‘Right Place, Right Time’The Rise of the ‘Citizen Paparazzi’ Feb. 12: Nonprofit Journalism Filling GapsNonprofit journalism on the rise Feb. 11: CNN’s iReport to ExpandReport: CNN citizen journalism site close to launch Feb. 11: National Press Club Recruits Citizen JournalistsNational Press Club targets citizen journalists Jan. 28: The Year of Citizen JournalismWhat’s in store for citizen journalism in 2008?
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