Tag Archives: citizen journalism

Reviews of the latest journalism startups

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Here’s the latest update from the team at JournalismEnterprise.com. This post is part of February’s Blog Carnival of Journalism.

Neaju, says Nicolas Kayser-Bril is “a smart way of making money using other people’s sweat … The total lack of journalistic work is a clever way to reduce costs. But it certainly doesn’t create any value for readers, who would have to fact-check themselves. For writers, the incentive to publish on Neaju instead of blogging is thin, as they lose control over content and leave behind any advertising revenue.”

NewsTrust.net, says Alex Gamela, is “A sort of Michelin guide for news media.”

The Panelist, finally, says Kayser-Bril, is “A niche publication for upper-middle class do-gooders, where a bunch of financial bloggers advises parents worried about the world and the assets they leave their children with.“

News distribution in a new media world (A model for the 21st century newsroom pt4)

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The fourth post of the Model for the 21st Century Newsroom looks at how distribution is changing from a push/pull model to a tripartite, push-pull-pass, one.

In the 20th century, commercial distribution of news was relatively straightforward: if you worked in print, you published a newspaper or magazine at a particular time, it was transported to outlets, and people picked it up (or it was delivered). If you worked in broadcast, you broadcast it at a particular time, and people watched or listened.

Simple.

In the 21st century, the picture is a little more complicated. Continue reading →

Review: Yoosk?

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Yoosk.com
What do they say it is?

“Yoosk is a news interplay magazine and community where you, the members are the reporters. Put your questions directly to politicians and celebrities and watch those questions gain support as other Yoosk members vote for them. Our pledge to you is that any question which reaches 100 votes will be submitted by us to the person involved and we will do our best to get an answer” Continue reading →

Review: iNorden

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iNorden

What do they say it is?

“iNorden.org is a joint Nordic citizen journalism initiative inviting bloggers, writers, aspiring and experienced journalists to contribute in the creation of a Nordic news portal.”

What do we say it is?

iNorden is yet another citJ experiment. The difference here is that it’s driven by a sort of pan-Scandinavian post-nationalism rather than profit. Continue reading →

Review: Instant Journalist

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In the first of a series of reviews of journalism enterprise launches, Nicolas Kayser-Bril takes a look at
Instant Journalist.

instant JournalismNo image rotation. And that’s only one of the bugs.

  • What do they say it is? “Instant Journalist gives you the power to easily create and manage an online community of citizen journalists. If you have the desire to give people in your community a voice, whether you are an individual or a large corporation, Instant Journalist will fit your needs.”  Continue reading →

iPM: have they been reading my model for a 21st century newsroom?

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Over at BBC Radio 4’s iPM website there’s an interesting experiment going on – and some good examples of my 21st century newsroom ideas in practice.

  1. Firstly, their ‘Rough Notes’ blog is a good example of the ‘draft’ stage of my News Diamond, with members of the team talking about what they’re working on (and comments facility for people to suggest stories – some very good ideas there, BTW). Also, posts labelled ‘In Production‘ allow you to see the work so far, while you can comment on the current running orders.
  2. Secondly, they have a Flickr page where users can upload images. Distributed Journalism, perhaps? Well, more like simple community.
  3. Thirdly, and perhaps best of all, they’ve made their del.ico.us account public, so readers can see what they’re reading. That’ll be the ‘What’ of my Five Ws and a H, then.

The blurb, BTW, is: “We’ll source what we do through the best blogs, passionate ‘ear catching’ online debate as well as comments and recommendations of others. So what ends up on air will be shaped by listeners and bloggers.”

Why does it matter if we call it journalism?

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I’ve just had an email from a journalist in Portugal, who describes an all-too-familiar scenario:

“On Portuguese public TV there is a show called “Journalist’s Club”. The moderator was interviewing the director of the Portuguese news agency LUSA. He asked: is citizen journalism journalism? The director of LUSA said ‘Yes’ with some examples. The moderator was insistingly, to say the least, denying this possibility, giving the final comparison: “The act of journalism is like a medical act” – i.e. journalists are like doctors – they hold a power. This is the opinion of a majority of professionals here in Portugal and I bet in many other countries too.”

It amazes me that people are still debating whether X or Y is journalism. Apart from anything else, it seems such a pointless debate. Why does it matter what you call it?

There’s the comment-fueller for today – I’d love to know your opinions.

Blogs and Investigative Journalism: conclusion

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The concluding part of this draft book chapter sums up some of the key points and looks at the future paths of investigative journalism in a new media age. I would welcome any corrections, extra information or comments.

Conclusion

Blogs and new media have undoubtedly changed the landscape of investigative journalism. In terms of its form, journalism as a whole has become more conversational, and iterative, as readers seek to contribute to the story, and journalists open more of their processes to public view. The time and space offered by the internet has provided opportunities for these conversations to take place, and for journalists to make raw material available to fuel them. And the networked nature of the Web has facilitated coordination of contributors across borders and industries, along with a now global distribution of material. Continue reading →