Blogs and citizen journalism

Auteur : Louise Hain - Publié le : 2013-09-13 10:22 -

Blogs are a powerful tool for any citizen to share insights, knowledge and ideas; spread the word on local news and actions and interact with other citizens from all parts of the Globe. The growth of Citizen Journalism is a collateral effect of blogging: a way for citizens to report on what they experience using the Internet.

Picture from Dafyd Jones: Blog as an image

The Concept

The concept of citizen journalism (also known as "public", "participatory", "democratic "guerrilla"or "street" journalism is based upon public citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information." (SOURCE: Bowman, S. and Willis, C. "We Media: How Audiences are Shaping the Future of News and Information." 2003, The Media Center at the American Press Institute.)

How to start a blog and become a citizen journalist

Tools for citizens journalists: A wiki tutorial from the SourceWatch Project by the The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD)

Valuable resources around Citizen Journalism and blogging

DIRECTORIES:

List of citizen journalism websites: wiki page from the SourceWatch project providing Country by Country participatory media
The BOBS: Best of online activism: “The Bobs awards honor websites in 14 languages that champion the open exchange of ideas and freedom of expression. When the annual awards launched in 2004, blogs were just beginning to establish themselves as a new type of media and the Bobs aimed to show that this new form of communication was worthy of being taken seriously and to point to the excellent example of work being done online to foster dialogue across language barriers » (a DeutschWelle Initiative)
UN Foundation’s Social Blogs recommendation: 13 blogs recommended by the Vice-President of the UN Foundation for 2013.
Social Good Blogs: a collection of social good blogs (powered by the Blog catalog)

CITIZEN BLOGS AND PROJECTS:

Global Voice: Global Voices is an international community of bloggers who report on blogs and citizen media from around the world.
EU in Crisis : During 3 years, more than 80 bloggers from all other Europe reported on the crisis as they experienced it, highlighted alternatives and published it on the Global Voice platform. The collection work available in 8 languages:
the BloggersUnite:“Bloggers Unite is an attempt to harness the power of the blogosphere to make the world a better place. By asking bloggers to write about a particular subject on 1 day of the month, a single voice can be joined with thousands to help make a difference; from raising awareness for cancer, to an effort to better education systems or supporting 3rd world countries. »