Citizen Journalism war in Colorado
This is amazing. Two major citizen journalism efforts have been announced in Colorado within the past two days, creating what may turn out to be one of the first hotbeds of such publishing. One day after the Rocky Mountain News announced the pending launch of YourHub.com, the Boulder Daily Camera launched Mytown.dailycamera.com.
YourHub.com
"It's a new approach to news, a participatory approach that puts you - our readers - at the center of the equation," Rocky Mountain News editor John Temple wrote in Saturday's paper. "YourHub.com is an electronic town square where people can share their lives and make connections. If they think something is news, they will be able to make it news at YourHub.com. The site is a community hub where you will be able to find everything from library hours to news about events and people in your community, written by residents - and journalists, too.
"YourHub.com is committed to being easy to use, interactive, interesting, friendly, fun, useful and up-to-date. To start, there will be 39 YourHub.com Web sites, one for every community in the seven-county metro area....
"YourHub.com will let you share stories, photos and opinions, list events and sell things. But YourHub.com is more than a network of Web sites. It's also going to have a print component....
"YourHub.com is going to allow us to add even more local coverage. Soon we'll be adding Rocky sections with names like YourHub.com/Highlands Ranch that dig much deeper into community life. These sections will be delivered on top of both the Rocky and Post to subscribers on Thursdays later this year. Think of them as a rich source of material to stick up on your fridge. The sections will be filled with pictures of your neighbors - and maybe even you - pictures that you provide to us, everything from anniversaries and award presentations to recreational sports and your take on major local events - and don't forget pets.
"Just as WeekendSpotlight shines the light on entertainment news and Rocky Preps covers high school sports, our YourHub.com sections will add a new, intensely local flavor to Thursdays. They will be print sections where readers get to define the news. Based on what you post online, we'll know what you consider important, and we'll publish it."
Mytown.dailycamera.com
"A new Internet portal, mytown.dailycamera.com, will take you to Web sites covering towns in Boulder and Broomfield counties — Lafayette, Louisville, Superior, Erie, Broomfield, Boulder, Longmont and the mountain towns," Daily Camera Editor Susan Deans wrote in today's paper.
"You'll be able to send in news from your clubs and organizations, schools, youth sports teams, softball leagues or even a photo of your child's first haircut. Your neighbors and friends, wherever they live, may access your news online.
"Clubs, organizations or schools also will be able to build their own Web sites....
"Mytown.dailycamera.com will get better as time goes on — and as it expands, some of that online news will be included in the Daily Camera in print, so moms and dads and grandparents can tear out those interesting items from the paper and hang them on the refrigerator. Soon you'll be able to blog or communicate with others — fans of local government news may want to expand on news coverage of their city council or school board meetings. Or they can debate the finer points of legislation and its effects on neighborhoods."
The Daily Camera says is also changing the name of its Sunday community news section to MyTown, emphasizing the connection between the Web and print sections (great idea).
Will be interesting to see how things play out in Colorado.... and if the Denver Post now makes a move.
CITIZEN'S MEDIA LIST: Can't keep track of all the Citizen's media efforts cropping up? CyberJournalist.net is trying, though it's getting increasingly hard! Check out the list and add any others you know of.
(Thanks for the pointer from Dan Pacheco of the Bakersfield Californian, a citizen journalism pioneer with Northwest Voice)
Apr 10, 2005 | E-MAIL | SAVE | PRINT | PERMALINK | DISCUSS(0)
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