Citizen reporting - can you get to close?

While Searching for Citizen Journalism on Technorati I found a posting on Kyle Littrel's blog. What drew me to it was his discussion of how close a citizen reporter should be to the story he is reporting...

The advantage to direct involvement is that the citizen journalist is more knowledgeable about the subject, closer to the subject matter and in theory, more accurate. The disadvantage being whether or not bias exists in their report.

Traditional media is often accused of bias, political or otherwise. Can a citizen reporter remain impartial even if they are involved in the story? Would disclosure of the reporters closeness and involvement give the reader a chance to make up their own mind?

Posted by Bob Toovey on 14 September 2007
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Fires in Greece as seen by bloggers

The fires in Greece are still raging and the political situation is also heating up. Questions are still being asked as to the Governments handling of it all and if terrorists are to blame.

I have picked two blogs that discuss the fires in Greece. The first is EllasDevil and here is a quote;

We have elections coming up and I'm not remotely interested in self serving politicians who are going to try and score points of this tragedy.

We're at the mercy of arsonists. It has to be arson, organized arson - how else do we have over 150 fires burning at the same time in different places.
Today fires have broken out simultaneously in several places near Athens including what is now a major fire on Mount Ymittos. Mystery callers have been calling and reporting non-existant fires to the fire department.

Some of the detail I have not heard on reported news. The second blog is Teacher Dude's Grill and BBQ. Again here is a quote;

Last night about a thousand people, dressed in black, came to mourn the tragic events that have overtaken Greece over the last week. Without fancy speeches and the like they quietly protested the awful mishandling of the whole affair. The mood outside the White Tower in Thessaloniki was one of sadness and muted anger and the atmosphere reminded me more of a funeral than boisterous, carnival feel that accompanies most public gatherings.

This blog features lots of pictures and some of the fires. Both sites are critical of the handling of the situation and the Government is under pressure to sort things out.

Posted by Bob Toovey on 31 August 2007
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New aspiring Citizen Journalism site from the UK

Citizen Journalism seems like it is all comming out of the USA, so it is very refreshing to see a UK website prepared to change that view. Vocal Public is a site looking for Citizen Journalists to write, not just to comment on existing stories. It is a very new site, online for about 3 weeks at the time of writing.

A quote from the about page...

Vocal Public is a community web site aimed at people that have an interest in citizen journalism - for users or aspiring journalists to either read, report, and comment on the news. Users will be able to report on issues that they have personally experienced and be able to comment on reports submitted by other users.

The creator of the site is 23 year old Bradley, a former Computer Science graduate at the University of Birmingham. He started the site as a Univerity project in PHP but rewrote it in ColdFusion. The site looks quite profesional and fairly easy to get around. I think it shows that Bradly has some talent.

The site is aiming to focus on the UK and needs more journalists to fill it out so I would like to encourage UK Citizen Journalists to visit and take part.

The most impressive thing for me is that there is no financial backing at all. This is a grass roots project that deserves success.

(Added to our CJ search engine)

Posted by Bob Toovey on 19 June 2007
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UK group do battle with Tesco

Most people like a “David and Goliath” story, the small guy battling with impossible odds. And so is the story of the “Stop Tesco” group who are trying to stop the UK supermarket giant Tesco from building and turning, “… an historic brownfield site into a superstore that could destroy local businesses, devalue homes and ultimately ruin a community.”

Here is a snip about the Stop Tesco Group...

“We are a group of residents concerned about Tesco's plans to develop a site in London Road, St. Albans, Hertfordshire. We believe the site could be much better used to help the local community. We are not affiliated with any political party nor are we directly supported by the St. Albans Civic Society.”

The investigative style postings reveal how, in the view of the protest group, Tesco strong arm their way in to building superstores and get round planning permissions. While the blog site is focused on St Albans, it does cover other related stories about Tesco from around the UK.

The blog site makes an interesting read and reveals the darker side of convenience shopping.

Link to St Albans Stop Tesco Group

Posted by Bob Toovey on 05 June 2007
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Update on Alternative channel

Since I last mentioned Alternative Channel, they have now properly launched. There seems to be at least 8 pages of content so far coming from France, Canada and Spain but nothing so far from the UK or the US.

I do like how they are promoting Citizen Jounalism, this snip from their about page…

This isn’t a place for dumping clips from CNN and Al Jazeera for our collective titillation. We aren’t looking for amateur documentary filmmakers, or artists intent on personal expression. We are looking for journalists—people who can zero in on something and share exactly what they see. We are looking for communicators. We are looking for people to make connections, to make compromises in order to be understood. It is a place to share, a place to gather, a place to question, a place to learn. The videos we are looking for on A-Channel manage the miracle of putting forth perspective without bias.

YouTube`s CitizenTube seems to be the direction Alternative Channel is heading for. There should be enough space for the both but it will be interesting to see the sort of content A-Channel ends up with.

Posted by Bob Toovey on 04 June 2007
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Video on UK - US differences in Citizen Journalism

A nice but brief video from Jeff Jarvis who is an associate professor, City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. The video is taken from an interview given to Journalism.co.uk about digital publishing. First publish on 5 February 2007.

Interesting aspects include the differences between the UK and the US and how Europe is very innovative.

Posted by Bob Toovey on 15 May 2007
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Dissident voices from the UK

If you ever wanted to prove that Citizen Journalism was alive and well in the UK then Dissident Vox is the place to show it. The site is run by John B with some media credentials but his work makes you feel like you are reading a seasoned profesional.

His words echo the feeling in the UK, surveillance, unjust wars, finger printing schools children and more (Freedom and Fear - Part 2). Though the site is politically oriented, it also covers other aspects as can be seen in The True Face of Christmas..., The Empty Heart of the Empire and Invasion of the Bodysnatchers!

This is an excellent site, well laid out with good mix of photo's, text and audio blogs.

( www.dissidentvox.com has been added to our CJ search engine)

Posted by Bob Toovey on 14 May 2007
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International Citizen Journalist Contest launches

I have received an email from David at Alternative Channel. They are launching a new website for Citizen Journalism. To help get the new site launched, they have created a competition. To enter all you have to do is make a video between 90 seconds to 3 minutes, a report or testimonial. There is some big money in this as the 1st prize is worth €10,000

Here is the detail of the competition...

www.alternativechannel.tv - an independent television-over-internet news channel - launches the 2007 International Citizen Journalist Contest.

This contest is open to everyone who feels they have something worth saying using video & producing a 1m30s to 3 minute video (report or testimonial).

$100,000 in prizes. 5 categories.

The Alternative Channel audience will nominate their top 30 favorites in each category.

The final will take place from September 15th to November 15th, 2007.

A jury made up of professional journalists will choose the 3 winners in each category, and prizes will be awarded on the 1st of December 2007 during the first International “Citizen Journalism Summit”

The five award categories:

1. Best subject “English language”

2. Best subject “French language”

3. Best subject “Spanish language”

4. Best Alternative Channel “International news subject”

5. The “Audience Choice” Award

The prizes are the following

1st Prize of each category: 10 000 €

2nd Prize of each category: 3 000 €

3rd Prize of each category: 2 000 €

The two man team who are involved in this venture (French and Canadian) are getting their funding from IpexTv (Canadian B2B E-commerce marketplace). The launch of the service is due next week.

The website has an introductory video explaining more about their aims. The competition is good marketing as it should generate a good Internet buzz and plenty of interest. If CitizenTube is anything to go by then this should work well.

Posted by Bob Toovey on 03 May 2007
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Online magazine for the Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight has it's own independent online magazine called Island Pulse. The site covers events, news and issues relating to the island. The Citizen Journalism section has a good mix of news relating to the Isle of Wight and national and international news items.

Most of the articles are published by one or two authors but I guess the content is contributed my many. I did try the 'Welcome' link (about page?) but at the time of writing this the link was not working, error 404.

There are many pictures from events and other happenings in and around the island. Seems like an active website with a good eye on whats going on.

Posted by Bob Toovey on 03 May 2007
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Video reports on the Scottish elections

Scotland goes to the polls on Thursday May 3^rd 2007 to elect a new parliment. YouScotland.com are reporting from the 'front line' via YouTube's service, CitizenTube. Alan Smart has recorded a series of video's describing what is going on and how he feels about it. So far the comments are positive and the reports are being warmly welcomed. Nice to see some UK related political content being featured amongst the collection of US political video's.

Link to Alan Smarts video selection 

Posted by Bob Toovey on 01 May 2007
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