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OhMyNews gets a financial boostPosted on Red Herring is news that OhMyNews has recieved an investment of $11 Million! The Korean website plans to launch a Japanese news site and develop video journalism. Here is a snip... "One of the most successful citizen journalism ventures, Korea OhmyNews, said Wednesday it had received an $11-million investment from Softbank.Softbank’s cash infusion gives the Tokyo-based firm 12.95 percent of OhmyNews’ outstanding shares. Six-year-old OhmyNews, which has previously said it is profitable, will use the investment to launch a Japanese news site, the first “stepping stone” of the soon-to-be-formed OhmyNews International. It also plans to develop its video journalism arm and improve its English-language edition." Take a look at the full article for more
Posted by Bob Toovey on 23 February 2006 Roll your own TV channel Citizen Journalism is currently text based, mainly due to blogging which makes it possible for anyone to participate. I know that the idea of citizen reports is new (well almost) and is taking hold slowly but surely. But the next big thing is going to be video reports. Producing your own video reports is easier than ever due to quality software and cheaper hardware to run it on. Windows XP does have Media Maker software, I have little experience of it but it does seem to be capable of stringing video clips together. What if I was to tell you, you could do it with professional quality for around £300? Here is a snip from the Visual Communicator webpage… Visual Communicator is a simple-to-use, affordable software solution that makes it a snap to create your own polished video news broadcasts in minutes instead of hours. It allows you to capture attention, establish a personal one-on-one connection with your viewers, and deliver journalistic content like never before—with the professionalism of a real network TV studio. So for cheap money you could create your own online version of a TV channel. If you are not sure then visit the EDP24 website, where this is already happening, with their online video bulletins. EDP or Eastern Daily Press is based in the county of Norfolk in the UK and mostly publishes newspapers. They are currently using Visual Communicator to create 3 to 4 minute video bulletins of local and regional news. More on this can be found here. It’s not going to take to long before we start seeing net based Citizen Journalism TV. In the UK broadband accounts for around 60% of internet connections. With high speed connections and low-cost production tools, it is now becoming available not just to the public but to enterprising Citizen Reporters who wish to go just that bit further. If you are not sure that video reports is the next big thing then take a look at Democracy, a video search and multi format player. It allows you to find channel listings via RSS, download content via BitTorrent from independent producers and is able to play videos in almost any format. Now combine that with the ability of publishing your own channels of video…I guess you can see where I am going! Democracy is available for Mac and for Windows and Linux versions are due soon. Best thing of all, it’s open source so it’s free! Posted by Bob Toovey on 22 February 2006 Citizen Journalism in the PhillippinesThe Sun.Star Cebu website based in the Philippines, has an interesting article about Citizen Journalim entitled 'Editorial: Journalism morphing'. Worth taking a look for another point of view at this expanding subject. Sun.Star Cebu is heavily promoting the whole idea of Citizen Journalism and now has a dedicated site and encourages citizens to post their news in words and pictures. Posted by Bob Toovey on 17 February 2006 Dick Cheney - cover up? Well it seems that the 'Dick Cheney shooting' is just not going to go away. The story put out at the time to explain what happened has started to fall apart. The Tomo Report has the headline 'COVER-UP! SCIENTIFIC PROOF CHENEY SHOOTING STORY IS A LIE...' while on 'thefiveforty.com' blog it seems that the victim, Harry Whittington, has appologised for being shot! Slipgird continues the conspiracy theory with a post titled The Cover-up at the White House which proposes that Cheney may have had a little to much to drink over lunch. This idea is also explored at Where I stand The Hiffington Post has an article, Sheriff's Report Corroborates Cheney's Account Because It's Based On Statements From Cheney And His Friends... , it seems the interviews were conducted 48 hours after the incident and Whittingtons statement was not recorded. Keep up with the blogosphere on the 'Cheney cover-up' at Technorati Posted by Bob Toovey on 17 February 2006 News and the Blogosphere The BBC has a good article about Blogs and their effect on mainstream media, in particular how the truth is eventually dug up about contentious new reports. Its was written by By Paul Reynolds, World Affairs correspondent for the BBC News website. Bloggers can often be seen as people who spread rumours and gossip but as Paul explains that is not true, he cites examples such as the recently controversy over the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. While not stating it’s an article about Citizen Journalism, it does discuss how bloggers can keep mainstream media on their toes. Posted by Bob Toovey on 12 February 2006 Michael Yon : Dispatches from Iraq
How would you like to go to Iraq, stand with the US soldiers facing what they face every day, join in with missions, take photos, update a blog of what you have seen and do it all as a volunteer, unpaid? Michael Yon has done exactly that. His blog features dispatches from his experiences from Iraq with photographs he has taken himself. Yet he states he has had no training in either journalism or photography. So what was and I guess still is, the motivation to being there? In his words, “I was in the Army some years ago and maintained close contact with many friends who made a career of military service. Naturally, I had an interest in what was happening in Iraq–I had friends in harm’s way. “But what spurred me to drop what I was doing, get on a plane and fly halfway around the world, to a war zone, was a growing sense that what I was seeing reported on television, as well as in newspapers and magazines, was inconsistent with the reality my friends were describing. I wanted to see the truth, first hand, for myself.” Again this sounds exactly like the philosophy behind Citizen Journalism and the driving force behind those blog sites. But what makes this such a good blog site or as Yon describes, a magazine, is the crystal clear photos beautifully taken and the authoritive text showing his experience and of the fact that he is actually there. Some have said there is a bias due to the fact he was in the army and American but what you can not dismiss is the fact the reports are of actual events he has witnessed, no political spin, no deep agendas, just the desire to report the truth. A very worthy aim. The site is littered with photos, not just the US soldiers at work, but of the local populace having to deal with everyday life in what seems to be still a war zone. The compassion shown by the soldiers, the devastation and the ruins are show in detail with no punches pulled. Here in France we get a mix of English and French News, the view of Iraq is a place of quiet, war is over and there are only small disturbances. As I have said, Michael Yon’s site shows the reality of what is going on, there are still battles, death and life struggling to keep on going. He has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, an honour normally bestowed on those who write for printed publications. If he wins then not only is it an approval and recognition for his work but also recognition for the new phenomenon of the Citizen Journalist. Posted by Bob Toovey on 06 February 2006 About me - Bob Toovey!
My name is Bob Toovey, I live in south west France with my wife, 4 kids, 2 cats, 1 dog, 1 budgie and 7 fish. We have been here for nearly 7 years now and much prefer it here then in England! I have been programming websites since 1999, my first site which is still running is www.sizenet.com, a site for Size and Self Acceptance. With my wife as my strongest critic and acting as a quality control checker, we have recently launched Expatpress.com and Worldofsplendour.com. Expatpress.com is my
own Citizen Journalist site and I will post about how I get on with that here
on this site. World Of Splendour is my wife’s site about fashion for plus
sizes. It seems to a popular subject as it seems to be taking off fairly
quickly. For my own personal likes and dislikes, I am a big Sci-Fi fan, movies and books. I love CSS which makes website design so much simpler and quicker to do, it also means that I can concentrate on the ASP programming which I also enjoy. I hate coffee which is the French national drink (if you don’t count Ricard), I don’t like driving in Paris, though it’s marginally better than driving in London. The best part about living in France is the decent (and cheap) red wine, excellent cheeses and the long hot summers. Thanks for visiting my site!Posted by Bob Toovey on 31 January 2006 WestportNow.comWestportNow.com has an
interesting article; a review of 2005 with photos contributed by the public
and good ones they are too. This is not the first time they have done this as a
review, "citizen journalists" photos were use for a review of 2004 as well and include over 50 pictures. WesportNow.com covers Westport in Connecticut, it was founded in March 2003 and the site claims to be "one of only a handful of non-newspaper, non-broadcast professionally written and edited community news sites in the nation." A curious feature found on the site is "teardowns", basically coverage of buildings that have been demolished! Posted by Bob Toovey on 26 January 2006 Introduction to ExpatPressIn case it is not apparent, I am all for Citizen Reporting, I already have a Citizen Journalist site online and from time to time I will post details of how I get on with it and any difficulties I experience. The site is called ExpatPress.com and its niche is with expatriates and has been online for a short while. The basic idea is that English speaking Expats, where ever they are, can report on local news. One of the main tenants of Citizen Journalism is that local news gets reported by the locals. So with ExpatPress, the aim is for Expats to report news local to them, with the added slant of a foreigner in a foreign land. The website was created from scratch using ASP and a tiny bit of Javascript. The design philosophy was to keep it simple with the barest amount of graphics to ensure fast loading. The only function lacking at the moment is for authors to upload a picture to their stories but that is something I will be adding as soon as possible. Each author gets their own RSS feed and a home page in a blog style.
I am hoping this will be my contribution to Citizen Journalism and also to give me more insight and understanding of the whole thing! Posted by Bob Toovey on 18 January 2006 We the Media by Dan GilmorOne book everyone should read is the one by Dan Gilmore, 'We the media'. I have already made a reference to it but I have just found it on Amazon so I thought I would mention it again properly. The book when first publish was quite a revelation. Not that the subject was new or anything but no one had actually put it in to print before. Some have called it ground breaking but almost certainly very influential, changing the ways organisations gather the news and deal with it afterwards. The book also covers how the traditional media has transformed itself to take in to account Citizen Journalism. He discusses the beginnings, email lists etc and on to the new style with bloggers ‘doing it’ direct to the web. The news is no longer just filtered down from the top but is now being reported ‘grassroots’ style and Dan explains it’s effects on the news organizations, celebrities, politicians and business executives. If you are new to Citizen Journalism or just want some more background info then this book is ideal. Written by someone who is, as seen by many, at the heart of it all. Here are the links to Amazon UK and US. Posted by Bob Toovey on 15 January 2006 |
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