Citizen Journalism vs. Traditional Journalism

I have been following this ongoing debate as to whether free journalistic content on the Internet and real-time amateur photos uploaded from the world’s flashpoints will outpace traditional journalism. No, say the traditionalists: our investigative journalists go deep and cover many viewpoints. Wrong, say the citizen journalists: our information is current and we have no profit motive behind it. We are impartial, counter the traditionalists. You are paid by advertisers, so you have to be politically correct, say the rebels. Our personnel risk their lives in the world’s hotspots and many of... (more)

Tags: journalism, writer, citizen, journalist, internet 2.0, traditional, traditionalist

Steven Pearlstein: 'Death of Journalism is Overstated'

Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist and George Mason University professor Steven Pearlstein sounded an optimistic tone about the future of journalism at a time when the profession is going through a massive upheaval and many are concerned about the current state of the media.

The remarks were made during a panel discussion last Tuesday afternoon at the GMU campus in Fairfax, Virginia. Pearlstein was joined on the panel by former National Public Radio and current Fox News Channel political analyst Juan Williams; and NBC Washington weekend anchor Angie Goff. The panel was... (more)

Tags:

Three Women Journalists Receive Courage In Journalism Awards

The International Women's Media Foundation has honored 3 women journalists who risked their lives to cover the news in their homelands of Iran, Mexico and Thailand with the Courage in Journalism Awards. A fourth award, the Lifetime Achievement Award was given to the BBC's Kate Adie. Katie in her job has covered the news from Afghanistan, the Tiananmen Square protests, the war in Bosnia, has slept in graves, has been shot in the elbow and still has shrapnel in her foot [the Huffington Post.]

“We are proud to recognize these brave women, who endure the most incredible trials... (more)

Tags: journalism, media, journalism awards, international womens media foundations, courage in reporting

Writer's Forum:: Citizen Journalism... What's The Point?

...in which we are all engaged.... the appropriateness of content, the tone of language, the depth of research behind claims, and arguments about why or why not things bear publication at all.

Quite a few authors who are involved here are deeply committed to the thing that it "citizen journalism," and in this, approach the work thus seriously. Others perhaps see it as more of a social network with a shared blog component, in which content is barely if at all policed, and serves no particular civic or social purpose.

Instead of continuing to merely argue content, purpose and... (more)

Tags: journalism, citizen journalism, broowaha

Gray Lady Or Yellow Journalism?

...a fact-finding and newsworthy exposé.

Sadly, this shoddy and willful betrayal of trust is reminiscent of another ethically challenged New York Times reporter, by the name of Jayson Blair who committed frequent acts of journalistic fraud. Blair repeatedly violated the carnal tenet of journalism, that of truth, and continually fabricated and plagiarized from others.

Astoundingly, Blair’s immediate supervisors knew of Blair’s erratic behavior, and rumors of his plagiarizing long before it became public knowledge, yet he worked at the paper for well over year, long after the ... (more)

Tags: los angeles, new york, journalism

The College Journalism Professor and Citizen Newspapers

Professor Al Miller has taught Journalism, Screenwriting and Voice and Diction at Moorpark College, in Ventura County, for some 35 years. In the mid 60’s, his radio resume included stints as director of news operation and news editor for WILL-am and WIL-FM in Illinois and he also held positions as a newscaster at WGK Atlanta. He was a participant throughout the beginnings of cable broadcast and video, as we know it today, and also as we experienced it in the past. He is the holder of two A.B. (Artium Baccalaureus) degrees from the University of North Carolina. The first was earned... (more)

Tags: los angeles, journalism, citizen journalism, atlanta, movie, california

Local California Paper Taps into Citizen Journalism Market

...photos, events and opinions on their neighborhood YourHub.com Web site. Every week we take the postings from the Web site and print five different YourHub.com sections and deliver them with the Tuesday Ventura County Star." Hot Diggity Damn, the local press wants a "piece" of the "citizen Journalism" pie. It's a blatant "cake and eat it too" attempt. Same old, same old, at the daily press, but why not try to carve a little niche out of this new concept?, thinks the Newspaper. There seems to be a "fundamental problem"... While, "YourHub.com" is the home website, the main purpose of the... (more)

Tags: los angeles, journalism, citizen journalism, california, broowaha

What is journalism?

Wikipedia.com defines it as a discipline of collecting, analyzing, verifying, and presenting news regarding current events, trends, issues and people. Those who practice journalism are known as journalists. Yet the arguably more scholarly Webster's College dictionary defines journalism as the occupation of gathering, writing, editing, and publishing or broadcast news. And further more the fictional character, Jenny Stagecoat, a toothless orphan whom I just now created defines journalism as candy. Who's right? Who's clearly wrong? Who's just a little wrong? Who cares? Our culture... (more)

Tags: journalism, citizen journalism, poetry, poet, what is journalism, subjective, objective

England, My England

...There they are before me: Langland and Chaucer; the Bible, both in William Tyndale’s translation and in the King James’ version; the Book of Common Prayer; the plays and poetry of Shakespeare, the Jacobean poets and more.

I’ve been working my way through The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell. He’s a super writer, a true craftsman, expressing himself in simple, limpid prose. In England Your England part of a longer essay entitled The Lion and the Unicornhe analyses at some length what exactly it means to be English.

A lot has changed since... (more)

Tags: patriotism, england

Pick up the Flag and Soldier On

...conservative impresario”, which seems to have been a well-deserved accolade, one I feel sure that made him proud. A champion of the Tea Party and baiter of Obama (he described him as Marxist in an interview with the New York Times), he set up conservative websites like Big Government, Big Journalism and Big Hollywood, the three areas of American life which he considered to be dominated by a liberal elite, unreflective of the views of ordinary people.

In an interview with Time he said “Most conservatives are individualists. For years, they have been pummelled by the... (more)

Tags: