Tag: Citizen Journalism

Citizen Snitch? Nah

The headline isn’t mine (thanks Jon Bounds) and neither is the story (thanks for the pointer from Pete Ashton again), but photographer Pete Marshall (troutmask on flickr) captured this pretty image of the Lord Mayor making fulsome use of the double yellows outside the side entrance to the Mailbox in Birmingham.

Citizen Snitch was the title of the e-mail alerting me to this. I think not, after all snitching is a core part of journalism – so Citizen Journalist it is. In true journalistic tradition Paul’s blog entry has even managed to tie editorial and advertising together, if you look at his site google ads is offering all sorts of options to help the Lord Mayor avoid driving fines.

Of course we are only talking about the evidence of one passing citizen.

Now where’s that parking ticket I need to pay (convicted on the evidence of one pair of eyes) and the speeding fine I need to settle (convicted on the evidence of one camera lense).

Youtube: Black Patch Park

More proof that citizens journalism is finding it’s feet here in the West Midlands comes with  the campaign to protect Black Patch Park in Sandwell. Simon Baddeley has written about the park for the independent website The Stirrer, keeps this wiki page up to date and now adds this to youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t4OsOZqSLg

Youtube: messages with your messages.

I was working yesterday with the Northfield Young People’s Forum (no website yet) here in Birmingham, looking at ways they can use online social networking to widen the conversation and attract more interest for what they do.

We explored youtube – citing the number of comments attracted by this Birmingham councillor for his film on graffiti tagging. The group I was working with all saw the possibilities, and highlighted the need to combine being entertaining with making a point.

Johnnie Moore spotted the video below, which shows how one person who is autistic communicates with the world. It is entrancing and intriguing and it part of a series of youtube films made to suport the work of www.autistics.org – a site which is also using second life to make their case.

The key lesson hear is that to be engaging you don’t need to set out to entertain. You do need to be authentic.

Couple this with news that Google is close to releasing a means of earning advertising income from you youtube videos and (ethics of taking advertising as a proviso) being engaging may also help your group raise money online.

Second Life for children

They have barely got their first life started and already children are being offered a second. The BBC has announced plans to create a Second Life style environment where children can play and create and communicate. The beeb says CBBC world will have an emphasis on safety and responsibility with

no chatrooms or facilities for building new parts of the virtual world

Sounds more like a second life half life? Expect more social web announcments from the BBC now the license fee has finally been settled.

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