Agreement will see Hearst titles use Helium’s ‘social publishing platform’ for reader comments and commissioning local content from Helium contributors.
Media Release: Cit-j community Helium partners Hearst Newspapers
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Category Archives: Citizen journalism
Justin Williams: The UK’s independent local news sites mapped
Courtesy of Justin Williams, assistant editor at the Daily Telegraph, comes this map of independent news websites in the UK:
The featured sites present a snapshot of how the definition of local news and news providers is changing with dedicated ‘news’ sites mapped alongside village information websites and campaign groups.
Justin is still looking for more examples – if you’ve got one/run one, contact him via his blog or on Twitter
@Twitchhiker ‘Twinterviewed’ by @journalism_live
This afternoon @journalism_live ‘twinterviewed’ the Twitchhiker, aka Paul Smith, a freelance journalist from Newcastle. The background here is that on March 1, 2009, Smith will set off on a 30 day mission – to see how far he will get with the Twitter community as his only aid. Yup, he’s truly in the hands of Twitter altruism. And it’s all for charity: the same charity supported by Twestival, Charity:Water. Full details on his site, Twitchhiker.com. You can follow him, and his conversation with this search tag ‘#twitchhiker’.
So here’s how it went. When @twitchhiker ‘met’ @journalism_live
twitchhiker: Yes, hello. Good afternoon from a rather snowy North East of England.
Journalism_Live: So. No. 1. In 140 chs. what is @Twitchhiker all about?
twitchhiker: Twitchhiker is an attempt by me @paul_a_smith to travel the world in 30 days relying only on Twitter users
Journalism_Live: aha. so you have a real name,@paul_a_smith. And was this @dave_gorman style mission dreamed up in the pub?
twitchhiker: No, the slightly disappointing answer is the bread aisle of Gateshead Tesco about a fortnight ago.
Journalism_Live: Only a fortnight? You’ve acted fast. Has it been hard to organise?
twitchhiker: In terms of travelling, nothing’s organised. One of the rules is I can’t plan my route more than 3 days ahead.
twitchhiker: In terms of everything else, Twitter users are currently helping me to compile a list!
journalism_live: blimey. so let’s hear the other rules…
twitchhiker: I can only accept offers of travel and accommodation on Twitter, from Twitter users. No third party offers.
twitchhiker: I only spend money on food and what I can carry. If there’s more than one offer, I choose. If not, I don’t.
twitchhiker: Finally, If I’m unable move on from a location within 48 hours, the challenge is over and I go home.
journalism_live: do you reckon people might join Twitter in order to help you out?
twitchhiker: I’ve had messages from people who’ve seen the press coverage and joined up, so here’s hoping they’ll help!
journalism_live: and we hear you’re a journalist by trade…?
twitchhiker: No formal qualifications, but I freelance for the Guardian, write and edit for other sites and iPhone apps too.
journalism_live: ever worked as a travel writer before?
journalism_live: (impatient! – ed) it ain’t over yet. Can your thumbs keep up?
twitchhiker: A feature for the Guardian site, the iPhone app, some unpaid stuff, that’s it. More radio, tv and consumer.
journalism_live: aha! now we see the Tweet! So could this be a venture into pastures new for you?
twitchhiker: Possibly, but it’ll be an aside. Anybody who writes can lend themselves to writing about their experiences.
journalism_live: so money: you want to get sponsored? For water? Pray tell us more…
twitchhiker: Charity: water is a brilliant charity supported by today’s equally brilliant #twestival. Hope to do my bit too
journalism_live: nice. And how will you be reporting back from the field?
twitchhiker: Hopefully a mix of blogs, video, images and tweets. Not sure of the detail yet – mobile tariff’s [sic] aren’t cheap!
journalism_live: indeed! and making it to NZ – a realistic goal?
twitchhiker: I think it’s possible -it’s more important we’re all in this together and prove Twitter can make a difference
journalism_live: ‘we’re’ – you’re on your own! @journalism_news will be in the warm eating toast when you’re rummaging in dustbins
twitchhiker: If I’m on my own, I’m going nowhere. That’s the point really. There are 3,175 followers who are here too
journalism_live: ok! let’s wrap this up if not Qs from the crowd? Your biggest fear… and your biggest wish?
twitchhiker: Biggest fear – not enjoying the experience. Biggest wish; make this work, raise the money, meet great people.
journalism_live: @twitchhiker lovely! That’s us done. And woo-hoo – a Q from @DannyDougherty: @twitchhiker?
DannyDougherty: OK, how ambitious are you. I’m over in Wash, DC — any chance you’re going to make your way out here? Do you have travel goals?
twitchhiker: @DannyDougherty Twitterers offer to get me places, I have to go to one of them. So I might come the States
DannyDougherty: So, you’re free as the wind, no personal goals you want to hit, eh?
twitchhiker: @DannyDougherty I am, but as a freelance, I still have to work. I’ve got my full time workload to fit in too
twitchhiker: @journalism_live There you go! Thanks everyone! That’s why this will work. It’s a brilliant community. Global but together #twitchhiker
journalism_live: Send any new Qs to @twitchhiker; have to get back to work. We’ll post link/s later via @journalismnews. Cheers @twitchhiker!
and then the party continued without us…
KCNN: ‘Citizen Journalists’ Guide to Open Government’
Great interactive/slideshow guide from the Knight Citizen News Network covering public access to government records and other tips for citizen journalists in the US.
Flickr and geotagging: Part of the newsgathering model?
After speaking with Matthieu Stefani from cit-j platform Citizenside about how the site mobilises its users to cover local news events, a Flickr development came to mind as a useful tool for tracking/aggregating content around breaking news.
Using Flickr’s map function, you can search by keyword and location. A quick search for bushfire and Australia, for example, brings up a host of images from Flickr users:
A great resource for news organisations looking for new images and on-the-ground witnesses and contributors (just remember to respect Creative Commons licencing and attribution principles).
Flickr announced last week that it has passed the 100 million mark for geotagged images and the site has also introduced a feature, as part of the geotagging process, called ‘nearby’, which allows users to search for other geotagged images located with a 1km radius of their photo.
Amtrak arrests competitor in its own photography contest
Big hat tip to John Watson at Photodoto for this – The Colbert Report featuring photographer arrested by Amtrak allegedly for taking photos of Amtrak trains for Amtrak photography competition:
Goldacre on the ‘intellectual property absolutists’ – LBC’s legal warning
Ben Goldacre found time for a chat with Journalism.co.uk today in regards to LBC radio legal team’s request that Goldacre remove audio from a radio show concerning MMR vaccinations. Three days ago, Goldacre – Guardian columnist, BadScience.net blogger, Bad Science author, doctor etc. – had posted the extract of a radio broadcast by LBC’s Jeni Barnett on his blog – a piece Goldacre believes ‘exemplifies every single canard ever uttered by the anti vaccination movement.’ He has now removed the offending audio after Global Radio lawyers contacted him to say it was an infringement of copyright. However, bloggers have been quick to upload the audio elsewhere.
Later on, we’ll post back here with a podcast. In the meantime, some of the things Ben Goldacre said during the interview (of which the forthcoming audio is an edited selection – hope to upload by end of afternoon, or Monday if not): Journalism.co.uk has now recorded some new audio, updated since the weekend: listen here at this link.
- “It genuinely never occurred to me – for even half a second – that what I was posting was any kind of infringement of any kind of law at all.”
- “To me I heard a very, very irresponsible piece of broadcasting, but more importantly a very instructive piece of broadcasting (…) particularly in the case of MMR – the media’s irresponsible and misleading reporting has led to quite serious public health outcomes.”
Goldacre said it was important to have the piece available for public access, and that replication was commonplace on the web; people often use his own blog posts and ideas, for example, he said. ‘Journalists often routinely steal my ideas,’ he said. “I want people to have my ideas. I want my ideas to get around.”
- “I suspect they [LBC] are intellectual property absolutists. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt because the alternative is that they wanted to silence discussion”.
- “This has had massively paradoxical effects (…) “It’s gone from being a little one-off blog post that I wouldn’t even write about in the column to this enormous cause-celebre.”
- He just wanted to use this as an example to highlight his concerns with the representation of the MMR debate in the media: “To catch one of these slippery animals from the stream as they all fly past, to hook it out and hold it up … to have a look at it – is massively informative and instructive …”
“This episode today, this ‘debate’ if you want to frame it in mawkish terms, is not about the dangers of MMR, it is about the dangers of the media,” Goldacre added.
Global Radio, LBC 97.3 owner, has confirmed that they have been in contact with Goldacre. The official statement says: “LBC 97.3 invites debate and encourages people to share their views as part of London’s Biggest Conversation – which is what Jeni Barnett’s discussion about the MMR injection did. We can confirm that the Global Radio legal team have been in contact with the writer of this blog, as he did not have the necessary permission to post the LBC 97.3 audio on the website.”
BJP: Getty and Scoopt founder on why cit-j site was ‘doomed’
Dedicated citizen journalism agency model can never work, says founder Kyle Macrae.
Stock-photo blog: Getty closes cit-j photo site Scoopt
Getty Images has announced the closure of citizen journalism photography site Scoopt, which it acquired in 2007.
University of Kentucky launches free citizen journalism classes
The university’s Kentucky Citizen Media Project (KCMP) launched its website Lexington Commons on January 23 and will begin its free citizen journalism classes from February 14, according to a news release.
The four workshops, which are open to members of the local Lexington community, will teach the basics of journalism (e.g. how to find a news story and how to write it), as well as exploring ethical and legal issues.
With a focus on multimedia, the classes will teach participants how to upload blog posts and stories, video, audio and images to the Commons site.
The project is funded as part of the Knight Foundation’s New Voices scheme.