Where do blogs and ‘citizen journalism’ intersect?
From an article in AsiaMedia (March 7):
“Blogging is more of an individual process, where you might write about personal issues in your daily life or comment on an issue that is important to you,” said Lam Oi-wan, editor of citizen media site InMediaHK (in Chinese only). “Bloggers don’t normally go out and report something, whereas citizen reporting is all about listening to others, meeting people face to face and writing about what they have to say.”
Very well put, in my opinion. However, a blog (especially a group blog) can be a site for citizen journalism. During Hurricane Katrina — and even back on September 11, 2001 — we saw everyday personal blogs temporarily convert themselves into sites where journalism was published.
While Stuart Biggs, the writer of this article, predictably discusses OhmyNews at length, it’s refreshing to see also information about InMediaHK and even Minnesota Public Radio, which earned a Batten Award of Distinction in 2005 for innovation in journalism.
Biggs also mentions WangYou Media:
… a mainland [China] firm whose business model is based on user-generated content, is an early example of how even radio stations can incorporate amateur content via podcasts. The company has partnered with 60 radio stations in China to broadcast the best podcasts and user material — as voted for by users — submitted to its online portal Wangyou.com.
That’s something I haven’t seen in the U.S. yet — amateur podcasts hosted by, or promoted by, broadcast radio stations.
Technorati tags: citizen journalism | Hong Kong | China | blogs
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