Evolution of civic journalism

The citizen Journalism movement

This is a good article about the origins of citizen Journalism and the part that citizen journalists played in breaking the scandal over the firing of eight U.S. attorney.

Commenting on the important role for such a new media that is not corporate dominated and owned, but that is able to fulfill the role of citizen journalism, Linda Milazzo writes, "New Media voices ... won't permit another president to disregard the will of the people as the "Old Press" wantonly do, a new press will have free unencumbered voices, much of which arise from the Internet."(12)


Citizen Journalism has played a big part in the middle east when the mainstream media is often run by the government and their are severe restriction on freedom of speech. In China, Iran and Egypt several bloggers have been arrested for casting a spotlight on social justice.

OhmyNews International is a good site to go to for stories about citizen journalism since Oh My news was one of the first major media organizations to promote citizen journalism.

Iraq still remains the most dangerous assignment for Journalists according to the Committee to Project Journalists as the death toll for Journalists killed since 2003 reaches 100. This also is one of the reasons why American journalists rarely leave the settle of the green zone to capture the story of Iraq civilians. The best way to get their story as I state in early blogs is to go on the Internet and search out blogs and video blogs create by Iraq citizens.

The Sunlight Foundation is pooling citizen journalists to investigate the government. One of the projects gives directions of how to see if representatives are putting their spouses on their campaign payrolls.
So far they have investigated 438 member and found 19 spouses who were paid by a member's campaign committee-totaling $636,876 since January 1, 2005.

They have also sent letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging her to lobby for legislation to require members file their personal financial information as part of their campaign for government transparency.

Here is a good blog about the development of blogging and how the mainstream media has turned towards bloggers and citizen Journalists for help with reporting.

The L.A. Times published a debate between two journalists about the current state of the news media and its future. They both seem to agree that the Internet is

opening up a whole new world and dramatically transforming the possibilities for journalism.
and To secure its future, Big Media is going to have to try something it hasn't excelled at in recent years: Producing a quality product.

More and more websites from The Chicago Tribune with Triblocal to neighborsgo are going up all the time that act like community bulletin board with community-generated content, where people can post info and picture on local events. In a sense these sites let average citizens contribute to a profiles of their home town Like MySpace made the art of creating you own profile popular. In a way these sites can also give little towns a chance to advertise themselves with real stories from people without all the spin that tourism office's dream up.

Why blog when you can Vlog?

Mefeedia just realized there first "State of the Vlogosphere" report which found that the size of its index gre to 20,913 Video blog in January 2007 from just 617 in January 2005.

Go Vlogs! with the rise of Youtube people around the country are uploading great vblogs. You know the motto of the Internet "The more the Marier" Vlogs are cool. the add the visual element to lameo bloggers who just a create a little text with a few links. here are a few examples of vlogs Atlas Shrugs.com she talks about everything from the new HPV vaccine to the New democratic congress




to the New democratic congress


of you can watch the vlog Ask a ninja answer random questions about thinks like net Neutrality for example.

Milestones in Blogging

For those of you that still believe that bloggers should not be considered part of the "Press" because many of them are written by geeks from their parents basement this story may change your mind.

The California Legislature gave blogger Frank D. Russo a "Press" credential by the California Correspondents Association. Russo is the first blogger to be credentialed for his blog the California Progress Report.

Politics and Technology: California Legislature credentials first blogger as "press"

will this lead to more bloggers being credentialed and being treated like members of the "Press"
or is it just a sign of the blurring line between citizen Journalists and real Journalists -(Whatever that means anymore) no one knows.

I think that what it proves is that you do not have to be part of the corporate media to be recognized by the CCA as part of the "Press". Bloggers and other citizen journalists should have the opportunity to become credential members of the press if they have a proven background of providing accurate interesting news.

Their body of work of a journalists should matter more then what college they graduated from or if they worked for the mainstream media.
Since I have spend the last 2 years working for the school newspaper my body of work is next to worthless.


The blogosphere hit another milestone recently Blogs turn 10
people have been ranting and raving online for ten years on every subject imaginable. Now there are over 100 million blogs around the world this is now the hobby of computer geeks and their four-eyed, pencil pushing children who are spending more time in front of the Computer screen then the Tele.

However in China Blog is still nasty version off that evil thing we like to call "Free Speech"
Zhang Ming, Dean of political sciences at Renmin University of China lost his post for a blog post that broke the "hidden rules" of posting an article attacking the "Bureaucratization of Chinese colleges."
Zhang will remain a professor at the university bu the university said that his blog post was lies which "Victimized its faculty".

But Blogs are so last decade today's techy are wasting their time glued to the YouTube watching vlogs that range from funny version of the news like Rocketboom to a Vlog by US soldiers in Iraq. The vlog called "May God have Mercy on our souls" made by a Fort Lewis Stryker recon platoon known as "Deuce Four" called



A memorial to Spc. Jeremiah Schmunk



So keep Vlog, blogging and logging hour upon hour on Warcraft slowly the mainstream media is realizing the power of citizen journalism.