A Russian police officer has been sacked after posting a video on YouTube exposing police corruption. Given what happens to many investigative journos in the country, we’d say he got off lightly.
Citizen journalism
Fort Hood: citizen journalists can’t handle the truth
The tweets, blogs and blurry mobile phone photos flooding the internet during the Fort Hood shooting did nothing but spread misinformation and breach the privacy of those killed or wounded in the incident, says Paul Carr.
The untold story behind the words that rocked the Obama campaign
Barack Obama’s notorious campaign remark in that “bitter” Pennsylvania blue-collar voters “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them” was almost his undoing. Mayhill Fowler provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes insight into why he said what he did.
The internet ushers in the age of the ‘amafessional’
The internet has allowed amateurs to directly rival professionals in opportunity, talent, quality and price, says Mark Penn — and not just in the field of journalism; bedroom musicians, artists and authors are all shaking up their respective fields with some serious competition.
We are all authors now
Two scientists have plotted the number of published authors per year since the year 1400, finding that with the rise of social media, the number is growing nearly tenfold every year. Authors — once an elite minority — will soon be a majority.
Freedom (or freebies) of the press takes another meaning
There was once a time when photographers were sent to cover major events, like today’s Sydney dust storms. These days, free pictures are harvested from the internet.
Fed-up unis take science reporting into their own hands
Sick of the mainstream media’s mediocre reporting on science and medicine, 35 US universities have partnered to create the non-profit wire service Futurity to distribute articles about their research and discoveries.
Photojournalism set for a shake-up
The launch of “citizen photo agencies”, where news outlets can buy cheap and sometimes exclusive snaps from amateur shutterbugs, could pose a serious threat to the future of professional photojournalism.
NYT Magazine photo fakery fiasco
Chalk one up for citizen journalism: how an eagle-eyed blogger caught out a New York Times Magazine photographer engaging in some digital trickery.
Iran’s digital warzone gets bloody
While the real-time blood conflict in Tehran seems to have settled down, the cyberwar is becoming bigger, more furious and, as always, more confusing, writes Crikey intern Bhakthi Puvanenthiran.
VIDEO: the geek revolution
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow calls Iranian citizen journalism “intoxicating” and interviews NBC News reporter Richard Engel who just returned from Iran: it’s a “very, if you will, 1980s, 1990s” media crackdown.
Citizen journalists blog (and tweet and video) Iran election result
Although there are signs the Iranian government is trying to cut some communications with the outside world, citizen journalism appears to be thriving on the web. BBC wraps the coverage.
Citizen journalism: 1, evolutionary instincts for survival: 0
Over the weekend there was a massive gas explosion in Moscow. It raised questions about Russia’s ageing energy infrastructure … and the sanity of Russian civilians.
New media lessons from Election ‘07
Australian citizen journalism and blogging have passed a milestone, if not come of age, writes Margaret Simons.
Burma’s online insurgency, part 1: revolution in your facebook
This is what dissent looked like to the Rangoon user. At least it did until Burma’s ruling generals decided that ham fisted expurgation simply wasn’t doing the job. They finally found the internet’s off-switch on Friday.
‘CrateGate’, citizen journalists join election action
For those who wonder whether the Australian blogosphere and “citizen journalism” will ever make a difference to politics, “CrateGate” – a mini controversy generated on the You Decide 2007 site - is providing some thought provoking material.
