Blog paper goes to print - gets TV coverage

UK Channel 4 news has covered the Blog Paper in a brief report which you can see below. I have previously mentioned the 'crowd-sourced' newspaper before and seems that they are making progress and getting good media exposure.

 

Posted by Bob Toovey on 08 December 2009
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Twitter - news reporting large and small

I don't think many people doubt that Twitter is here to stay and will form an important part of social networking. But is it any good for news – gathering and dissemination?

MSNCB thinks is must be...

A Twitter feed set up by a Dutch teenager as a hobby has been taken over by Microsoft news channel MSNBC.com.

The BreakingNews feed, operated by BNO News and set up by 19-year-old Michael van Poppel two years ago, was handed to MSNBC.com on December 1.

The feed delivers breaking news to more than 1.5m readers.

This is from the BBC article, MSNBC.com takes over Breaking News Twitter feed

Just wondering how much money was involved in that deal.

For a smaller scale and closer to Citizen Journalism comes this small piece of news, again from the BBC...

A teacher has been appointed as the "tweeter in residence" for a County Durham town.

Mike McTimoney will use the networking website Twitter - updates on which are called tweets - to keep people abreast of news and events in Darlington.

From Town appoints resident 'tweeter'

Posted by Bob Toovey on 04 December 2009
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Allvoices offers publishing deal for Journalists

A recent press release by Allvoices announces that they are providing new way for Journalists to get their work published...

“...the leader in citizen reporting, is today announcing a program to provide journalists a new way to get their reporting published--and to get paid for it. Allvoices is augmenting its tens of thousands of global citizen reporters by building a professional network of journalists to cover key beats and cities around the world.

"We recognize that these are tough times for many journalists as news organizations downsize," Allvoices CEO Amra Tareen said. "We're providing a platform for the best of these journalists to continue to cover their beats, communicate with a global audience and earn money doing it."

Allvoices will pay up to $250 per story to qualified journalists who are selected for the Provoices program--and may pay much more for certain high-traffic stories. The Allvoices platform provides instant worldwide distribution of content in multiple forms, including text, photos and videos, and the optimization and enhancement of content through search and social media. “

Full press release is available from PRweb

Posted by Bob Toovey on 24 November 2009
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YouTube goes direct but should it be for free?

There has been much talk for the last few days about the new service from YouTube called YouTube Direct. This is a feature that allows videos to be uploaded to YouTube from a website which then has editorial control over it.

Quite a lot has already been said about it, for example 'Youtube launches channel for citizen journalist' from Bintulu.org

Media organistations now have better access to video content, in fact they can now ask for certain types of clips to be uploaded via their own site with the add-on widget.

So far no mention has been made about the financial side of things. Will Citizen Journalists be compensated if a media organisation use their work?

The act of uploading your video to a website must be an indication of 'permission to use'. Will you still have some kind of copyright control, no matter what license you decide to use?

Are you planning to use this new feature and how do you see it working for you?

Posted by on 19 November 2009
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Putting the digital word to print

Back in July I wrote about the BlogPaper, their aim was to take their top rated content from their site and put it in to print. Well that project has moved forward and 3500 copies were distributed in London recently. It has been met with mixed praise by looking at the comments on this entry, 'theblogpaper pilot' but overall it looks to of been successful.

There is now another site that aims to take user generated content and put it to print. The Newspaper Club aims to take PDF files submitted by users of the site which are then used to create unique and limited run newspapers. More info from the BBC, New lease of life for newspapers.

Both of these UK projects will allow web based or user created content to gain a wider audience. But will it contribute to the reported demise of the traditional newspaper?

Posted by Bob Toovey on 06 November 2009
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Hyperlocal blog sparks councilors to quit jobs

I previously wrote about hyperlocal sites being taken seriously by local Government. But it seems they can get too serious. This article published today on the BBC website reports that the CJ site Muck and Brass blog in Somerton (UK) has upset local councilors so much that most have resigned their posts.

From 'Blog sparks mass council walkout'

Ex-vice chairman Anthony Canvin said 11 of Somerton Town Council's 15 members resigned at a meeting on Tuesday.

On his Muck&Brass blog Niall Connolly called members "jackasses" and said a leaflet was "like a Nazi call to arms".

However, Mr Connolly rejected the idea that the councillors had resigned as a result of his blog. He attended the meeting himself on Tuesday.

He said: "If blaming Muck&Brass helps these ex-councillors to sleep at night then that's fine but it ignores the truth.

"These councillors had, for too long, ignored the community which they were meant to serve."

The council will have to hold new elections as there are now too few councillors to make decisions.

There is a posting about this meeting on the Muck and Brass site, 'Doing the Berlin wall'.

Posted by Bob Toovey on 30 October 2009
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Do hyperlocal sites get taken seriously by local Governemt?

A lot of talk about Citizen Journalism is confined to the big sites that has many authors covering a wide range of topics, the Huffington post is a good example. It covers the big issues as detailed by CJ authors. What really interests me is the hyper local sites that cover tiny areas, street level of a couple of square miles, the ones that have a big local audience but are tightly focused.

However that is not with it's problems. The BBC has a good article about the relationships between hyperlocal sites and press offices of local Government. Most of the hassle they face is down to credentials and being taken seriously.

From The fight for a right to report...

One difficult step those fledgling reporters will have to take is handling the relationship with the press officers and media relations teams at their local council.

Mr Hawkes, from The Lichfield Blog, said it had an "fantastic" relationship with local press officers but said it took work to get to that point.

"It's in the way you approach them," he said. "You need to know the pressure they are under as a press officer and what they can or cannot provide you with."

Posted by Bob Toovey on 23 October 2009
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Two sites that encourage collabrative efforts

Found some sites for you to check out. First is Peoples Republic of South Devon (heck of a domain name), a bright yellow site that hurts they eyes. This UK collaborative project encourages CJ reporters and the general public to work together...

Welcome to the News and Media Republic newsroom where you can collaborate on articles that will be published on across sites including the Devon Week, the People’s Republic of South Devon, D+CFilm and Arts+Culture.

Next up is Grocotts Mail online. This is a CJ site and newspaper based in South Africa...

The Grocott’s Mail Citizen Journalism Newsroom - opened on 8 September 2009 - is a walk-in community facility where citizens of Grahamstown can produce their own journalistic content (written stories accompanied with photographs, for example), for publication in Grocott’s Mail, in the MyStory section on Grocott’s Mail Online and elsewhere.

Both have been added to the CitizenPress CJ search engine.

Posted by Bob Toovey on 22 October 2009
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Sacramento Press announces CJ Competition

The Sacramento Press, a hyperlocal site, have announced their Citizen Journalist Contest. It's main aim is to get citizens to 'commit' acts of journalism.

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.”

Tweeted by @Crindalyn, found on Knights Citizen News Network. Full press release on Reuters.

Posted by Bob Toovey on 13 October 2009
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CJ watch in Australia with GateWatching

If you want to find out more about Citizen Journalism in Australia then take a look at GateWatching.org. The blog was, in part, created as a way for discussing the Youdecide2007 citizen journalism project for the 2007 Australian federal election.

From the 'about' section...

This site is a group blog run by the three of us - Barry Saunders, Jason Wilson, and Axel Bruns. What we’re looking to do here is to track and analyse the further development of the phenomenon of citizen journalism, in Australia - where we’re all based - and elsewhere; in fact, the recent federal elections in Australia in late 2007, and in the U.S. in late 2008, produced plenty of interesting developments for us to observe and examine. In the Australian context, we were also part of the team behind an ARC Linkage research project into citizen journalism which operated a hyperlocal citizen journalism site for the 2007 election, at youdecide2007.org.

Posted by Bob Toovey on 12 October 2009
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