True Citizen Journalism

There's been a lot of talk about citizen journalism. Steve Rubel touts it. You also see it at Poynter. The Cyber Journalism site even has a list.

But, likely one of the oldest (if not the oldest) truely citizen journalist site around is OhMyNews.com. The SF Chronicle had a great piece on it in Sunday's (Sept. 18) edition.

Nothing but news from "citizen reporters" across South Korea, and even outside the country. Yes, South Korea. Not the the U.S.

According to the story, the site very much has an "us vs. them" attitude:
"'So here we hoist our flag and declare war on the old media system. ... We are overthrowing the basic principles of news reporting, which for many years has been taken for granted by many of the world's newspapers,' declares one of the company's brochures."

The site, which pays for submitted stories (about 2 in 3 are accepted) generates revenue from ads (70 percent), syndicated sales and premium contents.

Wonder when the first one will be nearly as successful here in the states?

-- Mike

Technorati tags: South Korea, Citizen Journalism, Journalism, Media

The power of blogging

I've said it before that the power of Web logging is the immediacy and the intimiacy it offers.

Yes, the Web is known for quick information -- a basic site can be up in minutes. Live video. Podcasting. Breaking news.

But, nothing yet is faster than blogging. Especially with the free services available.

That speed and the personal communications blogs enable has never been more evident than the impact of the NOLA.com site in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

MediaChannel has a story from Online Journalism Review's Mark Glaser about the actual life-saving impact the "Times-Picayune's" site had on the residents of New Orleans. For example:

"[NOLA.com Editor Jon] Donley said that an aide of Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, the commander of the relief efforts, had tasked a group of people with monitoring the NOLA View blog, and were taking notes and sending out rescue missions based on the postings. 'In fact, one time we had some server issues,' Donley said, 'and [the aide] wrote us frantically saying, "Get this up as soon as you can, people's lives depend on it. We've already saved a number of lives because of it."'"

Yes, NOLA.com reported news, but it also allowed displaced citizens to post help for people still trapped, and other information via its blog.

That is the power of blogging. A definite congratulations to Jon Donley and the entire NOLA.com and Times-Picayune staff for their dedicated, life-saving work.

-- Mike

Technorati tags: Blogging, Blog, Weblog, Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, Journalism, Citizen Journalism,

The "new" Quark

Props to Glen Turpin and his team for the new branding identity at Quark.

From a writer's viewpoint, the "Q" graphic logo treatment is interesting. It took me a couple seconds to realize what it was (with the dangling part of the Q shortened). But, I think it'll be well received.

Those in the graphics community are very passionate about their programs (and computers). It'll be very interesting to gauge the reaction.

-- Mike

Technorati tags: Quark, branding, identity, marketing, business, publishing, logo

Cool trick for NYT articles

Dan Kennedy of Media Nation posts a cool trick for bloggers to link to "NY Times" articles that won't expire.

(Actually, the trick is from Aaron Swartz, but still thanks to Mr. Kennedy for posting it again.)
-- Mike