Comments on: Citizens' media gets richer

By: J. D. Lasica

J. D. Lasica — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 01:58:38 +0000

Howard, we all admire efforts, like those in Ventura and San Diego, that have highlighted user-contributed content (as the fourth graf of this story makes clear, it’s not a new phenomenon).

But, in my judgment, what we’re seeing now is unquestionably an effort by the traditional media to incorporate citizens’ contributions into their online publications in a much more direct, profound and embracing way.

A year from now, we’ll see many publications include citizens’ podcasts and video, not just photos. Traditional news organizations sense that the readers’ gravitation to blogs and alternative news sites is part of a major gravitational shift, and they’re finally starting to get serious about efforts to include the community in the news process.

By: Howard Owens

Howard Owens — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 10:12:15 +0000

In 2001, the Ventura County Star provided a dozen disposable cameras to citizens and had them document a downtown event. In 2003, the Star invited readers to submit photos of wild fires, and received hundreds and hundreds of submissions. In early 2005, during the floods, readers submitted video to the Star.

SignOnSanDiego has been accepting user-submitted photos for a number of years.

I’m sure there are a few dozen other examples out there.

It’s not like mainstream media has suddenly discovered user-submitted content, as J.D. seems to suggest.

By: Sasha Costanza-Chock

Sasha Costanza-Chock — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 14:17:19 +0000

While it's true, and encouraging, that more news sites are opening the doors to deeper participation from their community of readers, it would also be nice to see stories of this nature do a little more research and give credit to those who have pioneered community news online: the Independent Media Center (www.indymedia.org has been providing a platform for open publishing text, photos, audio, and video since 1999, and has spread from one center in Seattle to over 160 around the world.

By: Kyle Summers

Kyle Summers — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 11:48:41 +0000

Well I think the media is moving from conglomorations to more individual opinion and I am still extremely bitter about google removing my site I worked 9 months on because I ranked to well so I put together this news blog…

Cheers, Thanks,
http://currentworldnews.blogspot.com/1990/01/sitemap.html

By: J. D. Lasica

J. D. Lasica — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 23:50:06 +0000

I’ve cleared up the misunderstanding with Susan M.

Meantime, we’d be delighted to hear of other citizens media efforts that involve users contributing video, audio and photos to news sites.

By: susan mernit

susan mernit — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 08:13:34 +0000

I would like to note that a) I appear in this piece but the author did not tell me I was being interviewed, b) I am misquoted: I said that NowPublic would like to be the AP, not that they are, and c) NowPublic is not now and has never been a client of mine.
It is upsetting that JD did not check his facts before publishing this story at OJR. I have asked for corrections.