CJ looking for direction?

Citizen Journalism is under pressure. One the one hand it is still yet to be properly defined and made clear exactly what it is to the public at large. On the other, it has become almost mainstream. The major news organisations all seem to have some kind of CJ section offering exposure of citizen contributed reports and photos.

CJ reporting has become so easy with more and more blogging tools, either stand alone such as Blogger.com or via large sites such as newsvine.com. Now everyone can start something but can they all survive?

The pressure CJ is under comes not only from how they are going to generate revenue but also, where does it go next?

John Ndege's article at Journalism.co.uk ('Citizen journalism start-ups are doomed') paints a rather depressive picture. As more and more CJ websites spring up, the advertising money gets more and more spread out making it difficult to find revenue to support those sites...

Advertising revenues are dropping like a stone, largely due to the increased supply of content driving online advertising dollars down to the point where they are almost meaningless. Slapping subscription charges on a site is not going to work in today's market either, so developers are caught in a Catch-22. Citizen journalism sites need writers to make money but those same sites need money to get writers.

Steve Rubel at Micro Persuasion also takes up the theme and discusses how the economic downturn is effecting newspapers in general (How Newspapers Can Turn Problems Into Profit)...

Newspaper publishers are facing a perfect storm thanks to three megatrends: rising inflation, America's growing green conscience and disruptive technology. To succeed in this era of great change, they need to think about how to make lemonade out of these perceived lemons. Unfortunately, so far, they haven't.

So if newspapers are finding it hard, what chance is there for CJ websites who find it hard to get any sort of revenue to keep their writers happy?

The answer may come in the direction CJ must go in. There are many ways to accomplish CJ reporting but in my own opinion there are three that could survive.

The first is the lone blogger, writing their own opinions and experiences. They have low over heads and will always find an audience.

The second is CJ reporting coming from and supported by local newspapers. They have the know how and backing, most of the time by large parent companies. They already have a defined area that they cover.

But in the middle there is the third option. The CJ website covering the local area with out any backing and relying solely on unpaid contributions from the local citizens the site is covering. These are the sites that may feel it the most when the advertising money becomes hard to find.

So how would the large news agencies respond? Time will tell, just how much will CJ reporting effect their income. Will revenue increase or will they find it a drag on resources and so decrease their commitment?

CJ reporting is not dependant on large news agencies and never will be, whether they champion the cause or let it fade away. Citizen Journalism was born from the need to have the truth expressed in ways that the news agencies could not do or unwilling to do. What ever direction it goes in, it still has a long way to go.

Posted by Bob Toovey on 09 August 2008
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How citizen journalism kept a community informed

This YouTube video was first added in January 08 and relates to the flooding in the north of England that happened previously. The short video discusses how citizen journalism and citizen contributed media played an important part in keeping the local community informed. It as first shown at a citizen journalism conference at Leeds University.

Posted by Bob Toovey on 21 June 2008
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Blogger arrests increases

Bloggers still face arrest in many countries around the work according to the annual report by the University of Washington. Many detained for exposing human rights abuses or criticising governments.

Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog, says the University of Washington annual report.

In 2007 three times as many people were arrested for blogging about political issues than in 2006, it revealed.

More than half of all the arrests since 2003 have been made in China, Egypt and Iran, said the report.

There is more detail from the BBC, Blogger arrests hit record high

Posted by Bob Toovey on 20 June 2008
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Citizen reporting encouraged for West Africa

West Africa is the target of EWAN, the news agency that encourages the people of that region to become active Citizen Reporters. The countries that this site covers include; Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

Here is a snip from the about page...

The Enterprise West Africa News Agency website has been established to assist people in West Africa become ‘Citizen Reporters’ and provide a news gathering platform for current and relevant news.

The EWAN Agency aims to represent the stories and photographs received in a professional and unbiased way, and to accurately portray the West Africa region to the international community.

Through the truthful portrayal of the people and locations reported we shall endeavour to dispel the international ignorance that surrounds West Africa.

We welcome comments from all the Citizens of West Africa.

Posted by Bob Toovey on 09 May 2008
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Network mixes traditional and user generated content

Another site added to our search engine is CyberJournalist.net. This is a news gathering network that also has a job listing feature as well.

The site offers tips, news and commentary about online journalism, citizen’s media, digital storytelling, converged news operations and using the Internet as a reporting tool. CyberJournalist.net highlights examples of online journalism with the aim of recognizing those who do great work and helping those who don’t. The site also explores how technology is affecting journalism, with an emphasis on how the Internet can help all journalists better do their jobs.

CyberJournalist.net welcomes and incorporates tips, comments and other contributions from readers.

It seems to be aim more at the traditional journalist but mixed with user content. Interesting mix.

Posted by Bob Toovey on 26 March 2008
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Fake news and product pimping

Farhad Manjoo has a book out called, “True enough: learning to live in the post-fact society”. The book, “argues that new communications technologies are loosening the culture's grip on what people once called "objective reality."

His blog has an excerpt which covers TV 'fakery' and how it seems to be taking over local TV in the US (UK as well?), something I have already discussed.

Robin Raskin appeared to be a stay at home mom offering warnings on how pornography was making it's way on to Apple iPods.

“...On Pittsburgh's Fox affiliate, WPGH Channel 53, Raskin called the iPod one of the "scariest" gifts of the season. The ABC station in Columbus, Ohio, featured Raskin's warnings as part of a report by Kent Justice, a correspondent who produces a regular segment called "On Your Side." Justice told viewers, "If you didn't know it, now prepare for it: Hundreds of Web sites are selling iPorn."

Nine stations aired Raskin's warnings. Her segments had the look and feel of ordinary local news: Super-coifed anchors offer alarmist assessments of everyday objects, story at 11.

But something here was amiss. In addition to panning the iPod, Raskin used her time on TV to push "safer" holiday tech gifts, including products made by Panasonic, Namco and Techno Source. These weren't unbiased reviews. The local stations that featured Raskin were fully aware that the three companies had hired her to pimp their products during news appearances.

Found via BoingBoing.

Posted by Bob Toovey on 21 March 2008
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Leicester based site has it's eye on citizen reporting

There are not exactly a lot of community run news agencies in the UK, in fact Citizen Eye based in Leicester could well be the first. John Coster setup the agency following a meeting of the Black Minority Ethnic (BME) Citizens Jury held in 2006. The site is doing very well and feeding community news to community run websites.

Here is what the about page says about the site...

The Citizens’ Eye Community News Agency website has been established to enable people in Leicester and Leicestershire to become ‘Citizen Reporters’ and provide a news gathering platform for current and relevant news.

We aim to present the stories and photographs received in a professional and unbiased way, and to accurately represent all communities.

In our portrayal of the people and locations reported, we shall strive to dispel much of the ignorance that erodes community cohesion.

We welcome comments from all the Citizens of the City and County.

Community news through the Citizens’ Eye…Reporting by the People

The site itself looks very professional, well designed and easy to navigate. There are many sections including video's, events, columns, resources and 'your community'.

Citizen Eye is a good example of a local 'citizen contributed' news gathering, focusing directly on the community it is serving. Many more of these are needed for the UK

(Added to the CitizenPress search engine)

Posted by Bob Toovey on 19 March 2008
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CNN launches site for citizen contributed news reports

CNN has launched iReport, the YouTube of Citizen Journalism. The site will feature material that does not fit in with the editorial guide lines of CNN. According to Journalism.co.uk ...

Speaking at DNA 2008, in Brussels today, Chris Press told delegates that CNN launched the standalone beta site to accommodate the citizen journalism content it was unable to publish on CNN.com or use in television news.

"The aim was to create a separate community for our reporters and then enable the site to develop its own personality and functionality," he said.

"People can create personal profiles, they can make comments on other people's posts, they can tag and vote on posts, link extensively to other sites like Facebook and Digg.

The site seems to be in beta and to be honest it looks a lot like other video sharing sites. Hopefully the content will make it stand out.

Posted by Bob Toovey on 05 March 2008
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Technology and sports, two new sites for the search engine

Two new sites have been added to our search engine. The first is Digidave.org, David Cohn writes about, “the people, technology, theory and practice of Citizen Journalism”. Thats where I found the second site, Bleacher Report.

Bleacher Report calls itself, “the open source sports network”. Sports reports written by citizen journalists. It has just come out of beta and looks to be a good site. Small snip from their about page...

Bleacher Report is where the sports bar meets the press box, the place where fan-journalists create and critique high-quality sports analysis.

Technology has leveled the sports media playing field, and now more than ever before, sports fans around the world have the ability and inclination to be sports pundits. It's Bleacher Report's mission to give them the skills and tools to do just that.

You won't find "unbiased" coverage at Bleacher Report—and that's the point. Every contribution bears the stamp of its writer's personal convictions.

Posted by Bob Toovey on 20 February 2008
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Citizen Reporting from South Asia

Added today to the CitizenPress Search engine is SACRN.com, the South Asian Citizen Reporters Network. The website has stories contributed by writers from places like Bangladesh, Pakistan and India. From the email sent to me from the website team...

South Asian Citizen Reporters Network. A mission to make the South Asian Community closer and stronger. A common platfrom where the South Asians can express their feelings, opinions, views, culture , politics and more on. A road to friendship.

The about page has more info but I would like to highlight one paragraph particularly...

For me, it's no longer just a case of filing stories but rather documenting history for future generations of South Asians. I believe my duty is to do what I can as a frontline journalist and that it would be better to give my life rather than languishing in a refugee camp at the mercy of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). I have observed the appalling conditions borne by Afghan refugees in camps here."

Very courageous.

Posted by Bob Toovey on 18 February 2008
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