citizen journalism resources Archives

Jump-start your journalism with these resources for amateurs & pros

Note: Some links in the resource kit below may no longer work.

Do you need to find an expert, research your U.S. senator’s voting record or find out more information about a local nonprofit? Here are some resources to help you get started.

OpenCongress

www.opencongress.org

This site houses official government data, including full text of bills that are going through congress and information about votes. It
features “Bills Most Viewed,” “Bills Most Covered in the News” and “Bills Most Covered in Blogs,” as well as its own blog on congressional happenings. [Read more…] about Online toolkit for citizen reporting

Where to find citizen journalism sites — and how to start your own

Editor’s note: Some links in the article below may no longer work.

By Christopher Grotke, Mediagiraffe
and Jarah Euston, FresnoFamous

What is citizen journalism?

It is community news and information shared online and/or in print, with contributions written by users and readers. It can be any combination of text, image, audio file, podcast or video. Stories typically include user comments, fostering additional discussion.

What else is it called?

Grassroots journalism, community news, we media, open source journalism, folk journalism, bottom-up journalism, etc.

How does citizen journalism differ from citizens media?

Citizen journalism is a narrow subset of citizens media. Citizen journalism chiefly centers on covering news and events in your community, whether it’s a major news event that someone captures on a camera phone, or a podcast of a political rally, or coverage of a swim meet or little league game. Often, citizen journalism can fill in the gap in local news coverage that newspapers have abandoned. [Read more…] about Citizen journalism questions and answers

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