Citizen Journalism

Keyword: onlinejournalism. The New York Times has an interesting article on Wikinews, which has gone fully live since I last reported on it. It makes a good point that the need for deadlines and topicality means users' contributions to shaping articles may not be as important as in other Wiki projects: "Wikinews articles are short-lived, so there is a reduced feeling of contributing to a knowledge base that will last a lifetime," the article quotes Erik Möller as saying (a "technology journalist in Berlin who drafted the original Wikinews project proposal").

There's a nod to other citizen journalist enterprises such as Korea's OhMyNews which, it should be noted, still employs a team of editors. And the extremely useful IndyMedia, a collection of independent news sources with a focus on alternative and protest movements.

Thanks also to Dean Heeley for introducing me to Out There News, "a channel for filmmakers, journalists and anybody caught up in the news to reach a world audience." with a current focus on Islam and the West. The site asks for "video, photos or articles which tell strong stories being ignored by mainstream media". As well as considering them online publication the site says it will work to find outlets for them in broadcast and print.