Citizen Journalism

"Citizen journalism." It's one of the hottest buzzwords in the news business these days. But there's plenty of confusion about citizen journalism. What exactly
is it? Is this something that's going to be essential to the future
prosperity of news companies?

While the news agencies strive to answere these questions community activist are pulling together to provide open access local web portals for the citizen journalist.

Citizen contributors can submit whatever they want, from an account of a kids' soccer game, to observations from an audience member at last night's city council meeting, to an opinion piece by a state legislator, to a high-school student telling of her prom-night experience.

An advantage of sites like this is that citizens can cover issues and events that local mainstream media ignore. If you as a community member think that your fellow citizens should know about a stop sign that was knocked down and the county government won't fix, then this is an outlet to publicize news that's not big enough to get on the radar screen of the local newspaper or TV news outlets. Citizens likewise have a way to publicize big stories that local media outlets are
avoiding. Got a complaint about the local press? Go around them and publish your store right here on the community site.