citizen journalism

In the ongoing debate on journalist vs. blogger, a Portland judge’s recent ruling draws a clear distinction between the two. Crystal Cox, a self-identified investigative blogger, was sued by the investment firm Obsidian Finance Group for defamation. She wrote several articles that were highly critical of the firm’s co-founder Kevin Padrick, who told OregonLive.com “The damage to me is forever. The Internet is not capable of being undone.”

U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez decided that Cox is not entitled to protection under Oregon’s media shield law because she is not “affiliated with any newspaper, magazine, periodical, book, pamphlet, news service, wire service, news or feature syndicate, broadcast station or network, or cable television system.” He disagrees with her self-identification as “media,” but goes on to say that even if she were entitled protection, it would not be granted due to the case being a “civil action for defamation.”

This case highlights the gap between our slow-to-change institutions and the always-changing Internet. As Matthew Ingram at GigaOm pointed out, there are “shield laws” in 40 states, “but some have been updated to include cover newer forms of media such as blogs, and others haven’t.” Just a little bit north in Washington state, Cox would’ve been protected by an expanded shield law. Read more

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You may remember an article from The Wall Street Journal earlier this year which talked about the lucrativeness of selling video scoops directly to media outlets. The company at the center of this article was Citizenside, a French company created in 2006. Since then, the company has grown by leaps and bounds, most notably because of a 2007 partnership with Agence France-Presse (AFP), one of the three largest news agencies in the world. This year, Citizenside also released their new smartphone app which lets users capture video and photos and upload them directly to the Citizenside website.

Citizenside’s global news coverage is the focus of their service. Most of the stories are based around events in Europe, with a good number of stories from Asia, North America, and South America. Members can add videos and photos directly from the Citizenside website, or they can use the Citizenside mobile apps. You can share your news images with Citizenside’s online community of global citizen reporters, leave comments, and share media to your social networks. Active members can also earn points for their submissions. The more your photo or video is seen, ranked, or commented, the more points you can earn. The highest ranked members of the month are featured on a monthly leaderboard.

Perhaps the largest benefit for joining and posting news to Citizenside is their commission program. Citizenside acts as a sales agent for their extensive network of print and online news outlets (300 in France and 7,000 internationally), and members can receive up to a 60% return on media sold to these outlets. Payment is delivered to members via PayPal within 60 days, and Citizenside maintains an exclusive three-month publishing license once media is uploaded to their service. If you are a buyer for a media agency and want to use any of the photos or videos offered on Citizenside, check out Citizenside Pro for more information.

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Citizenside is currently available on both iOS and Android for free. Keep up with the Citizenside team by visiting them at http://www.citizenside.com/, or by following them on Facebook or Twitter.

Last week, I blogged about the Guardian’s experimental decision to share part of its newslists with the public. The move was somewhat risky. Traditionally, newspapers keep their lists of upcoming stories close to the vest in an effort to scoop the competition.

A little more than a week in, and the Guardian’s experiment is going well, writes Dan Roberts, the paper’s national editor. So well, in fact, that they are extending the process and including more sections of the paper in the newslists made public.

“… the remarkable thing about our experiment publishing the Guardian’s list of upcoming stories is why newspapers have been so secretive about such information for so long,” Roberts comments in the blog post. “Whatever competitive advantage may have been lost by giving rivals a clue what we were up to was more than made up for by a growing range of ideas and tips from readers.”

This begs the question: Should more newspapers/news organizations consider an open news approach?

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With the first caucuses and primaries just months away, Google is turning to the crowd to find neat election trends using the Internet giant’s myriad of tools.

In a post yesterday on the company’s Politics & Elections blog, Jake Parrillo sent out a call for help.

Search trends could help explain poll fluctuations, he wrote, using an example of how Herman Cain (who is surging in the polls) is widely being searched for in Texas cities, where Rick Perry (whose poll numbers are declining) is governor. Read more

For independent journalists, raising funding to pursue your stories can be difficult. Crowdfunding through Kickstarter can be a great way to raise awareness about your project and build momentum around your cause.

Currently, Kickstarter is the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world and has helped users raise over $40 million since its inception in April of 2009. While film, music, and design projects tend to be the most successful, there are also a great number of journalism projects available. Pledges on some of these campaigns are as little as $1.

Here are a few great journalism proposals on Kickstarter which span a wide range of voices. Do your part and pledge your support to any or all of these campaigns!

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