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Here’s a link to a darn nice slide show about citizen journalism posted by Jubanashwa Mishra from Mumbai area in India! Well worth your time to page through and learn!

Here’s the link: http://www.slideshare.net/jubanashwa/citizen-journalism-12783440

Honoring citizen journalists is also something worthy to be promoted. Here’s a link to a video where Elizabeth Christopherson presents the award for Citizen Journalism to Tracy Jordan of Perth Amboy at the Celebration of Leadership on April 30, 2012.

Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoeLr08vuXw

 On World Press Freedom Day 3 May 2012, the president of the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC), Dr. Dennis Smith and General Secretary Dr. Rev Karin Achtelstetter invited members and partners to work towards an international code of ethics for citizen journalism.

http://waccglobal.org/component/content/article/3057:wacc-calls-for-code-of-ethics-for-citizen-journalism.html

They wrote in an open letter to members and partners, “We urge media practitioners – professional and citizen journalists –collectively to find common ground in efforts to agree on professional standards and codes to guide the practice of journalism. An international code of ethics for citizen journalism would provide a much needed framework for new voices working to transform societies.”

Back in 2010 my co-author, Susan Carson Cormier, and I wrote a lengthy chapter in our book titled, “Handbook for Citizen Journalists” asking for the same thing. In our book we outline 15 core values for citizen journalists.

Here’s a brief excerpt: “The work of citizen journalists may not reach the heights of social or spiritual impact as the great men and women of history, but make no mistake, it is extremely important to the preservation of democracy. The basic principles of journalism – objective reporting, detachment from personal bias, a commitment to the truth and more – are needed today more than ever in history. These principles applied by well-meaning, truth-seeking citizen journalists across the nation and around the world will increase public knowledge, improve public trust and expand public discourse.”

We endorse the WACC’s attempt to define a code of ethics for citizen journalists and propose they start their discussions with a look at chapter 18 of our book. For more about our book, CLICK HERE.

Roger Ailes, CEO Fox News

In an article dated April 13, 2012, Julie Moos posted a very interesting story on Poynter.org about Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes’ visit to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The day before, Ailes gave the Roy H. Park Distinguished Lecture at the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication. According to Moos, about 350 people attended the event.

CLICK HERE to read how Ailes “elicited at least a few eye rolls” when he suggested the young journalists might want to change their major. You’ll want to read her entire blog because it includes several fascinating quotes by  Ailes such as:

• “If you’re going into journalism if you care, then you’re going into the wrong profession … I usually ask (journalists) if they want to change the world in the way it wants to be changed.”

Link: /www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/169950/roger-ailes-tells-journalism-students-i-think-you-ought-to-change-your-major/

An iPhone or a Smartphone can be a wonderful thing. You can do…well, darn near anything with it…including record for posterity any event within eye-range or should I say, I-range.

Unless you want to become famous (or infamous), don’t lose your temper at the check-out stand or yell at your kid in the WalMart parking lot. If you do, soon 145,329 (more or less) people could view it on the Internet because some guy caught it on his Smartphone, uploaded it to YouTube, then tweeted and Facebooked it even before you got to your car.

From this day forward, politicians at every level, classroom professors, town cops, TSA agents, and even FedEx delivery folks must be on their best behavior at all times. If not, their misadventures will be caught on tape and published for posterity.

We used to complain that Big Brother was watching us. Well, he is – security cameras are now ubiquitous, but your little brother and his anonymous film crew of thousands are also pointing and shooting their Smartphones at our every act of clumsiness, stupidity or illegality. This makes it very difficult to “spin” our faux pas once our wife or boss or principal or constituents or friends or enemies see it in living color. No one can get away with even a little prank without the whole world finding out.

Smartphones are good, I suppose, for citizen journalists. It allows them to break news before the mainstream media get back to their vans to edit their tape for broadcast.

But the problem is context. A properly prepared and delivered news story takes time and work. The reader/listener/viewer needs context to fully understand what they are viewing, not just raw footage. A serious journalist always tells the whole story of who, what, where, why, when and how, not just the slip-and-fall part.

In our book, “Handbook for Citizen Journalists” my co-author Susan Carson Cormier and I write that those who make intermittent or perhaps only once-in-a-lifetime Smartphone postings should not be referred to as citizen journalists. We call them “accidental citizen journalists” because that’s what they are. They are citizens who just happened to be somewhere when something interesting transpired and they pointed their Smartphone at it.

Filming something doesn’t make you a journalist any more than using your microwave oven makes you a gourmet chef.

Besides that, accidental citizen journalists have no training in legitimate journalism and no editor to demand they report the whole story. Historically, these kinds of people were referred to as eye-witnesses. They would be interviewed by a reporter then have their comments placed within the full context of a story.

A serious citizen journalist knows that no 44-second clip of someone’s violation of accepted social norms is the whole story. A serous citizen journalist knows how to put their stories in context.

Warren Buffet

Besides mowing lawns and shoveling snow, my very first job as a lad was an Omaha World-Herald newspaper route.  I delivered the paper every day to about 40 customers in the south end of Council Bluffs, Iowa. That’s why the headline that Warren Buffett has purchased the OWH attracted my attention.

The price, reportedly, is $150 million plus the assumption of $50 million of debt. Two-hundred-thousand bucks for a business that Buffett once told his shareholders has a “potential for unending losses.”

The biggest problems newspapers face are 24-hour cable news outlets and Internet news websites. They have drawn readers away from newspapers causing many of them to close or to operate at a deficit.

It is my hope that Buffett’s bet on the future of the newspaper is a winner. Not because he needs any more money, but because citizens in a free society need good journalism.

Buffett said there are many things newspapers can do “better than any other media.” He’s right about that. Here are two things newspapers do better: reach a local audience and explain the news with context and gravity.

Newspapers reach people where they live. Your local paper is, well, local, and that’s good. Local government, business, education, sports, non-profits, etc. all need the newspaper to tell their stories and to be held accountable for their actions.

Newspapers give news stories context and appropriate significance. Newspapers are more than three-sentence sound-bites. Watch any TV newscast, even the 24-hour cable news stations, and most of their stories are fewer than a few sentences long. It’s simply not possible to explain the complexities of a 2000-page bill in congress or a bombing in New Delhi or a natural disaster in the Pacific with five sentences and a 13-second video shot from a helicopter.

Of course, in depth reporting is expensive – hence the $50-million World-Herald debt. And that’s the problem I hope Warren Buffett can solve – not with the constant infusion of new investor money, but with an entrepreneurial  solution. A solution that will make print news profitable once again – profitable for both news producers and news consumers.

. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-30/buffett-s-berkshire-agrees-to-buy-hometown-newspaper-omaha-world-herald.html

A Montana Blogger was sued for defamation by an attorney and an Oregon federal judge ruled that she was not a journalist and therefore not protected by the same laws afforded to mainstream reporters, according to a story by the AP published this week.

According to the story, Eureka, Mont. blogger Crystal L. Cox (www.crystallcox.com) posted a story on her blog claiming that that Oregon lawyer Kevin Padrick was a thug and a thief who acted criminally during bankruptcy proceedings.  Padrick sued Cox for defamation and U.S. District Judge Marco Hernandez found that Cox was not a journalist and therefore did not have the same protections mainstream journalists enjoy.

The article by Jeff Barnard said that though “…the ruling would have little effect on the definition of journalism, it casts a shadow on those who work in nontraditional media since it highlights the lack of case law that could protect them and the fact that current state shield laws for journalists are not covering recent developments in online media.”

So what should bloggers do? Six things -

Number one: don’t defame anyone. Write your story in a way that does not include defamatory language, insults or slander. Use unambiguous language to tell the story. Leave conclusions to your readers.

Number two: Find out what the shield laws are in your state. That advice was part of the AP story with a quote by Lucy Dalglish, executive director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press: “My advice to bloggers operating in the state of Oregon is lobby to get your shield law improved so bloggers are covered, but do not expect the shield law to provide you a defense in a libel case where you want to rely on an anonymous source for that information.”

Number three: Get some kind of official affiliation with a legitimate news entity. According to the story, “The judge ruled that Cox was not protected by Oregon’s shield law from having to produce sources, saying even though Cox defines herself as media, she was not affiliated with any mainstream outlet.” The problem here is defining what is legitimate. I wonder if Cox would have been covered if she had posted her blogs on YourNews.com or Examiner.com, neither of which have editorial staffs that fact check articles or assign journalists, yet are significant disseminators of news.

Number four: Get some kind of professional qualification. The judge also claimed that Cox was not a journalist because she offered “no professional qualifications as a journalist…” At least take a journalism 101 course at your local community college or better yet, join the National Association of Citizen Journalists. However, even an education or certification will not protect you against acts of slander and libel.

Number five: Tell the whole story. The judge also claimed that Cox was not a journalist because she offered no proof of adhering to journalistic standards such as editing or checking her facts, evidence she produced an independent product or evidence she ever tried to get both sides of the story.” Most bloggers are advocacy journalists rather than straight-news journalists. My view is that a good advocacy journalist is not afraid to tell both sides of a story even if it discomforts what or for whom they advocate.

Number six: Write good stuff; quantity does not trump quality. Cox is no once-in-a-blue-moon blogger. She calls herself an investigative blogger and has produced more than 400 blogs over the years. She argued to the judge that she was a part of the mainstream media because her blog gets noticed by search engines. It’s true, her blog does get noticed. I Googled her name and it came up first! But just because you write a lot of blogs and get noticed by Google and Bing does not make you a journalist, and it certainly does not mean you can say anything you want about anybody and not suffer the consequences.

In the end this one decision probably will not have much impact on citizen journalists in the USA, though it does point out that citizen journalists need to follow the long accepted ethics and standards of journalism if they want to be respected by readers and protected by shield laws.

My co-author, Susan Carson Cormier, and I have a whole chapter in our book, “Handbook for Citizen Journalists,” on core values to deal with this very issue.

Every movement in history experiences challenges that cause it to morph from the purpose and design of its founders, usually in an effort to stay alive.

The incredible world-wide movement of citizen journalism is no different. In chapter one of our* book titled “Handbook for Citizen Journalists,” I point out that the movement is happening with no organized structure, no inspirational luminary, no headquarters, no power center, little or no funding, usually no government help and often government interference, no mass marketing strategy, no fixed standards, and most significant, wild innovation.

The result is that many expressions of citizen journalism have been seen – some unexpected successes and some well-funded failures. As time passes and more entrepreneurial journalists find ways to take advantage of the gap left by understaffed newspapers and developing technologies, more changes are sure to come.

Blogger Tom Grugisich gives a good review of citizen journalism in his Oct. 27, 2011 posting on STREETFIGHT. Though his review focuses mostly on citizen journalism in large US cities, it does give a snapshot of citizen journalism today. It is titled, “How is Citizen Journalism Playing Out Today?”

It’s a good read. CLICK HERE to read it.

PS: If you are an entrepreneurial journalist with an interest in citizen journalism, please contact me.

*My co-author is Susan Carson Cormier. ”Handbook for Citizen Journalists” is the only book written FOR aspiring and active citizen journalists and has been distributed worldwide.

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When a citizen journalist trainer in Malaysia inquired about presenting a copy of our book, “Handbook for Citizen Journalists,” to each person attending their training session, my co-author and I wanted to make it happen.

Their event was imminent so shipping the books from the USA to Malaysia was not possible. I Googled “digital printers Malaysia” and contacted the one that looked best and sent in a request for a bid with information about the deadline. The printer responded immediately and after several exchanges of emails, the deal was done.

The printer printed and packed 200 books for Maran Perianen, a trainer of Malaysian citizen journalists, just in time for his weekend conference.

“The citizen journalists were impressed with the book,” Perianen, told us by e-mail.

Malaysian Citizen Journalists show off their copy of Handbook for Citizen Journalists

“I also plan to give the book in my future training for their reference,” said Perianen, who also is the program director for an online news agency, Malaysiakini.

Malaysiakini, with the assistance of Washington, D.C.-based International Center for Journalists, has successfully conducted almost 70 workshops across Malaysian and has trained more than 350 citizen journalists, according to Perianen.

As the result of this training, Perianen said, the citizen journalists have successfully produced more than 1,500 news videos and almost 1,000 news articles.

“These stories have triggered significant reactions from many individuaorganizations and the government itself.”

My co-author, Susan Carson Cormier, and I are pleased the citizen journalists will be using the “Handbook for Citizen Journalists” as a resource guide. We truly believe that the information, motivation and training they will receive from the handbook will help them in their future endeavors.

And, of course, Susan and I both want to congratulate the Malaysian journalists for their work and wish them continued success.

You can visit the Malaysian website at www.cj.my.

The Madison, Wisconsin police recently cited a protestor for disorderly

Greg Palast

conduct when he poured beer over the head of Wisconsin State Representative Robin Vos at a hotel bar.  CLICK HERE for the complete story.

Later, Greg Palast, a self-described investigative journalist, blurted out his left-wing opinion, “This is Wisconsin, this is the place where you had some guy pour a beer on the head of a Republican State Senator? No, no, no, that’s all wrong. You can’t do that. That’s just wrong. I’m from New York. If you’re going to pour beer on a Republican you have to drink it first.”

Evidently unable to engage in a critical, intelligent debate about unionism in Wisconsin, Palast’s contribution comes in the form of suggesting a crude, asinine stunt – pour urine on someone’s head.

Who is this guy?

According to his website – you should know. He brags that once he entered the field of journalism he was quickly recognized as “The most important investigative reporter of our time” by UK’s Tribune Magazine. (He may also be the dumbest.)

He also is the author of “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy” and claims to be well known for reporting how Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida, purged thousands of black Florida citizens from voter rolls before the 2000 election “thereby handing the White House to his brother George.”

Have you ever heard of that? I haven’t, here’s why – he claims to have won a record six “Project Censored” awards for reporting the news American media doesn’t want you to hear.

Oh, so that’s it. The media doesn’t want us to know about Jeb Bush’s stealing of an election from Al Gore for his brother George. That’s why you’ve never heard of Greg what’s-his-name.

The guy is nothing more than a repugnant progressive pundit who wears the title of “investigative journalist” in hopes it gives his silly ideas some credibility. It doesn’t.

BTW, if you like his stuff there’s a button on his website where you can donate. I’ll pass, thank you.

To hear Palast’s remark and the attendant cheers, CLICK HERE.

Ron Ross is the co-author of “Handbook for Citizen Journalists”.