New design, new look.

Adam Baker, Blottr founder, commented:

“The latest version of Blottr underlines the commitment we are making to both our audience and our community of citizen journalists, which has grown to become the largest in Europe. With this in mind, you will see an increased focus concentrated on big topics, taking a deeper dive into issues that affect us all, be it in the areas we live or world issues impacting our lives. The power of citizens from across the world collaborating together to expose news that would likely otherwise fall below the mainstream radar is hugely exciting, yet also necessary in the increasingly transparent world we live in ”.

Building their reputation with breaking news, all popular topics and events which marked media today like Occupy movement or London riots, Blottr earned their high place in citizen media sky.

Their new design is fresh, modern and attractive, so we can only give them our congratulations for successful work and invite everyone to visit Blottr and become one of their numerous contributors. Blottr has so much to offer.

Adam Baker added:

“Blottr has provided the platform for a wealth of fantastic writers, with strong personal opinions on many different topics, to reach a broad audience compelled to read their thoughts. We will be rewarding our most influential contributors with their own columns, which we believe delivers the most interesting, unbiased view of current affairs in the UK today, written by the people, for the people”.

Good job Blottr team !

Tunisian PaCTE,(Pacte des Compétences Tunisiennes Engagées), is a citizen project formed immediately after the revolution to bring together Tunisians and supporters to help build a better Tunisia. Speak Out Tunisia was created, in large part, by Tunisian PaCTE. In the days following the revolution, thousands of Tunisians living, working and studying around the world joined Tunisian PaCTE, bringing the total number of supporters to more than 6500 members and counting.

NewsMeBack is very proud to present our Interview with Khalil Ghorbal and we want to thank specially to Anne Medley – a photojournalist and videographer who launched in 2010 a multimedia education project called “Congo in Focus” and who helped us make this interview happen.

Khalil Ghorbal is a PhD in computer science and a Telecommunications engineer. His ultimate goal is to help create understanding in the world. He believes that the human resource (the only “natural” resource really available in Tunisia) is sufficient to improve people’s everyday lives by ensuring dignity, equality and hope for everyone.

Q: Present us Speak Out Tunisia.

A: Speak Out Tunisia is a citizen journalism training project that aims to teach a diverse group of Tunisian citizens about digital media and online journalism. After 23 years of oppression without a free press under Dictator Ben Ali, Speak Out Tunisia seeks to return the power of a free and fair press to the Tunisian people. We will be training two groups of citizens– one beginner group and one advanced group – for four weeks in the capital city of Tunis and a rural location in Tunisia.

Q: What initiated you to start this project?

A: Citizen journalism has been a major part of the revolution since the beginning of the uprising. However, right after the revolution, it became really hard to distinguish real news from fake stories among the thousands of videos and photos on the Internet. To help organize and improve the quality of the media and to help build the public’s trust in reported stories, we came up with the idea to build the first ever citizen journalism network in Tunisia to feed our already existing online TV. Around the same time, we met Anne Medley, a photojournalist and videographer from the United States, who successfully led a similar multimedia education project “Congo in Focus” in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2010.

Q: Who gave you biggest support for launching Speak Out Tunisia?

A: Our supporters are Tunisians and people who support freedom of speech around the world. Speak Out Tunisia is still in the fundraising stage of our campaign to collect the needed money for the project take place this March, so wherever you are, you can still help make this happen! We’ve received incredible coverage from many famous bloggers, local and international media and citizen journalists around the world.

Q: What is the position of citizen journalism in Tunisia and have Arab Spring events had a positive or negative impact on citizen journalism in Tunisia?

A: Let me put it this way – the Arab Spring is a direct result of citizen journalism! During the past year, every citizen suddenly became a local reporter. Thousands of photos, videos, blogs and articles have been uploaded daily and widely shared through social networks throughout all of the Arab revolutions. Citizen journalism has even influenced classical media. Journalists now closely watch online social media networks for news and information. In Tunisia, many ministries have even started their own Facebook pages.

Q: Tell us something about Speak Out Tunisia rewards.

A: Tunisian people are incredibly generous and gracious, particularly toward those who help them! Our rewards are in line with this giving spirit; they are full of love and gratitude. Depending on the amount pledged to our campaign, we offer our donors gifts ranging from a heartfelt thank you note, Tunisian souvenirs (wool scarves, traditional slippers, hot spices, etc.), a photograph of the revolution by award-winning Tunisian photographer Hamideddine Bouali and/ or exclusive links to the videos our future students and trainees produce, just to name a few. The more you pledge, the more you get rewarded! We even offer an exclusive invitation to the closing conference and VIP cocktail party with the directors of the project in Tunis at the end of April combined with two nights in a charming traditional hotel in Tunis.

Q: Do you believe that proper workshops and training are enough to educate any citizen to report as well as professional journalists and how do you see relationship between traditional and citizen journalism?

A: We believe that training workshops like Speak Out Tunisia are a good way to start educating people and improving the quality and journalistic integrity of videos and photos shared on the Internet. Citizen journalism acts as an alternative platform to professional journalism; a place for minorities and underrepresented groups to speak out and express their needs and concerns. It also provides a forum for the people to improve their everyday lives through open communication. Of course, citizen journalists need to continue to improve their skills through practice and mentoring by professional, ethical journalists in the field. Through Speak Out Tunisia, we hope to offer the right multimedia tools to our future students to enable them to report on their communities and then pass their skills on to trainees in the future.

Q: What is your experience regarding citizen journalists and their credibility since some traditional media deeply doubt in it?

A: Obviously, one of the main concerns surrounding citizen journalism is the integrity of its content. Photos and video can be manipulated; events can be staged. How can the public know that what they find on Facebook or YouTube is accurate and true? We believe that by educating our trainees in journalism ethics as well as practical multimedia skills, we can begin to build a network of citizen journalists whom the public can come to rely on for fair and balanced coverage.

Q: What do you expect from Speak Out Tunisia and what are your plans for the future?

A: We expect a lot! As mentioned earlier, we expect to build the first citizen journalism network in Tunisia to feed our online TV. Once established, this first corps of reporters will spread their knowledge through other organized workshops. We hope to give them the necessary multimedia skills and journalism ethics to tell the world their stories, the stories of their families, their cities and the minorities they encompass.

To donate to Speak Out Tunisia, go to Kickstarter

Between Arab spring, Royal wedding, Japan tsunami, UK riots, Occupy movement and so on, list is really too long, citizen journalists built their skills, ethics, experience and connections.
It was actually fascinating to see how citizens can climb in media from unwanted phenomenon to a necessary one.

As much as democracy was on the test, worldwide, it was the people who gave their best to coordinate, cooperate and communicate with each other and the rest of the world. Some communities showed their strength, some initiative.

When their democratic rights as citizens and humans were denied, like Internet ban or iPhone use ban, they managed to find the way out. They acted as professionals. And those are the actions which the audience appreciated.

Also, numerous new platforms were launched, inviting and gathering citizen journalism crowd. Some schools and Universities decided to include both social media and citizen journalism as part of their new educational program. New organisations from all around the world train and teach people how to join and become part of this amazing thing called citizen media.

But when we look back I suppose we all remember those breaking dangerous situations. This year has no lack of them.

And speaking of it, we all wish to start next year with better events, happier and stronger.

Good thing is that we already expect Olympic Games in London 2012 as one of crucial events for citizen journalists. Their skills and presence will be of great importance. So we can hope and wait some amazing citizen journalism Olympic coverage, like it was during Vancouver Olympics 2010 and FIFA World Cup 2010 South Africa. Major sports events that bring together sports fans and give place citizens to highlight their talents during the games.

We have all the reasons to hope and look forward next year.

Because citizen journalism family is growing, rapidly.

More about Citizen Media Guild and their work will say Brian Stokes, one of the co-founders of CMG.

Brian Stokes has an educational background in print and radio journalism and was employed as a reporter and radio broadcast engineer for a number of years. Now he is blogging on political issues, mainly covering civil rights, social justice and popular science matters. His current blog, Machine Gun Keyboard, has been active since 2005.

Q: How Citizen Media Guild idea came about?

A: CMG was born during a conversation with @Asher_Wolf on Twitter. We were both appalled at CNN’s sacking of 50 staffers including a dozen photojournalists, citing the availability of free content from their ‘iReport’ program. It also came to our attention that local Los Angeles TV news outlets were airing live streaming video from citizen journalists (CJs) like @OakFoSho during the 30 Nov 2011 raid on the OccupyLA encampment, not only without compensation but without so much as attribution. @Asher_Wolf and I are both sympathetic to the cause of trade unionism and agreed that CJs would benefit from a union dedicated to protecting their interests and promoting better presscraft.

Q: What is Citizen Media Guild’s plan for the future, your aim?

A: We’re planning to set up CMG as a proper trade union, which will defend the interests of CJs and promote the legitimacy of their work. Our geographical areas interest at present are Australia and the US but will be by no means limited to those places. We’re likely going to be issuing press credentials and will be making representations to authorities as requested by CJs to get those credentials recognised.

CMG will operate as a non-profit organisation with full public transparency and accountability. We’ll probably need to ask CMG members for nominal annual dues to cover the cost of producing and mailing professional-looking press badges, though we may consider crowdfunding to support the hosting costs of the citizenmediaguild.org website and other projects as they are conceived. Someday, CMG may be able to act as an agency to manage royalties for CJ rightsholders, but that’s a long way down the track. In the nearer term, CMG will discuss presscraft and technical issues, feature CJ content and amplify their messages wherever possible.

Q: How do you see citizen journalism today?

A: Citizen journalism is still very much in its infancy, but the advent of portable technology which makes real-time live broadcast-quality streaming of events possible is making it grow up fast- really fast. Viewing audiences for top-notch CJs like Spencer Mills (@OakFoSho) and Tim Pool (@timcast) have numbered in the tens of thousands during police raids on various Occupy encampments. There’s definitely a market for raw, unedited, live coverage from CJs who have the grit to put themselves in the fray. It’s riveting viewing, without question.

Q: What do you think about relationship between mainstream media and citizen journalism?

A: MSM are largely- and to some degree reasonably- skeptical about CJs. CJs normally don’t have any journalism training and their coverage tends to be narrow, unprofessional and self-interested. It’s been suggested that MSM reporters fear for their jobs as a result of CJ reportage, but this has largely been dismissed as a conspiracy theory- by myself, as well- until CNN singlehandedly validated the idea by sacking a few dozen of their own working journos.

Q: This entire year was turbulent, lots of important worldwide events. What would have known of it if there were no citizen journalists to report?

A: CJs have the great advantage of not being edited. Editors in MSM news operations have to balance the public interest against time/column-inch availability. MSM editors also have to consider newsworthiness and as such ‘saleability’ of coverage to their audiences. CJs can self-publish via blogs and live streaming websites such as Ustream and Livestream, cutting editors out of the loop, reducing or eliminating perceptions of bias by omission.

Mind you, editors are not always the Great Satan. They can be inspiring angels to their newsies, helping them develop their craft, fining up their output and turning hacks into rockstars.

Q: Citizen journalism and citizen journalists are much disputed in previous years. Do you think that perception has changed?

A: Citizen journalism is coming of age, as previously described. It’s incumbent upon CJs to raise their game to make their coverage worth reading/watching. The perceptions of poor-quality coverage are in many cases warranted- we hope CMG can be an aid to CJs to help raise their game and change the general public perception of their reportage.

Q: Your opinion about future of the media in general.

A: MSMs have become far too beholden to their corporate masters. Fox/News Corp is so tainted by the stink of big money & GOP partisanry as to be impossible to define as ‘news.’ It’s shallow rubbish designed to be entertaining to regressive caucasian Christians- and nothing else. Once a paragon of journalistic innovation, CNN has done a big greasy slide into ‘newsfotainment’ which is unrecognisable compared to the roaring, adversarial journalism of the Ted Turner days. Ted would never have kissed ass but there’s not enough bleach in the world to remove the deferential brown ring from around the lips of today’s CNN. At this moment, US broadcast network news is all but irrelevant. US cable TV news MAY have some future, if MSNBC sun gods Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews and Chris Hayes are any indication. However, news media in general are going to have to find a way to make news riveting to consumers without tawdry titillation, fluffy celebrity obsession or partisan hackery- or they’re dog food. Dead-tree newspapers with no online presence, save niche-market local papers, are already irrelevant. Newspaper websites which implement paywalls risk becoming lickspittle echo-chambers for the demographic who will pay for their coverage.

Q: Citizen journalism in the future – how do you see it?

A: If CJs embrace high standards of presscraft and journalistic ethics, they will become the new gold standard of news coverage. However, there’s going to be a certain number of pathetic, unethical partisan hacks like James O’Keefe- who, shamefully to every other CJ on earth, can call himself a CJ, but of the very worst kind. It’s CMG’s goal to help honest, ethical CJs get high-standard work into the spotlight.

We have already written about his exceptional work and his ultimate sacrifice for democracy and free media in one of our previous blog posts and now we want to mention him as a recipient of the Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism.

Nieman Fellows chose to honor Nabbous with this prestigious award because of his extreme courage and his wish to fight for a higher purpose and greater good.

Nieman Fellows at Harvard University said :

Mohammed ‘Mo’ Nabbous and others like him, at great personal risk, helped report the facts and spread the news of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.

Mohammed Nabbous Mo will be awarded posthumously on December 1.

View Mohammed Nabbous and over 3,000,000 other topics on Qwiki.

Rawporter is helping everyday people cash in on being at the right place at the right time. We connect the media and the masses by building an on-demand mobile news force to capture events as they are happening. Instead of sending out an expensive news crew or waiting on their loyal audience to submit “breaking news,” Rawporter enables news outlets to request specific content from everyday people who are near newsworthy events.  In return, those contributors get the cash and the credit they deserve.

Check out Rawporter’s How It Works video.

We are pleased to share our email interview with Rawporter’s Co-Founder Kevin Davis.

Q: What was the motive which impelled you to start Rawporter?

A: We think there’s an easier way for everyday people to cash in on being in the right place at the right time. We’ve experienced it first-hand—where you capture something newsworthy only to see it lost in the black hole that is YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter. Media outlets are desperate for ways to spice up their newscasts with locally relevant footage. We’re here to connect those media outlets with the masses.

Q: What is your primary aim and what are your expectations?

A: Rawporter wants to help media outlets crowdsource cost-efficient news content that they would normally not have access to. At the same time, it’s important to us that our contributors’ rights are protected, and that they get the recognition they deserve. That’s why, if something sells, contributors get paid. If something is used, they get the on-screen or online credit.

Q: Rawporter – very interesting word game, tell us more about it.

A: As we’ve seen with many recent world events, raw video is incredibly powerful and compelling. Rawporter is about reporting raw events as they actually happened. It is “raw” reporting…hence, Rawporter. We see value in citizen journalism and also see the need for pure raw content that doesn’t take a lot of effort to capture. We simply want people to use our App to capture newsworthy events when they find themselves in the right place, at the right time. The App automatically time, date and location stamps the content so all users have to do is add a few keywords and hit “submit”. They are welcome to act as a “Reporter” but we think the general public would prefer to let the experts publish “polished” content.

Q: Do you have partners who are helping you to carry out this project ?

A: Yes. We are a VERY busy team of three and growing!

Q: How do you see presence of citizen journalism in media today?

A: Citizen journalism is growing exponentially and becoming increasingly relevant because it provides compelling, cost effective content for the media. What’s really exciting is that we’re seeing journalism becoming increasingly participatory, where everyday people are capturing, sharing, and dictating what is newsworthy. That’s where we see Rawporter helping out, by making it easy for anyone to participate in the news.

Q: Do you think that media, in general, is completely in the service of people?

A: Media provides an invaluable service but there are always opportunities for improvement. More transparency and less bias are two examples. We believe those improvements are occurring with the convergence of mobile, social and media—now everyday people can help shape the stories that the mainstream media used to dictate. We intend to help facilitate that.

Q: As a mobile platform you have in front of you great market. What are you offering to ordinary citizens that will inspire them to become citizen journalists?

A: Rawporter is introducing a free iPhone App (Droid is coming soon!) that improves the odds of getting famous and getting paid for simply being in the right place at the right time. We’ve designed the App to make capturing news so easy that anyone can participate. In fact, with our Assignments feature, we’ll even notify you if you’re near something newsworthy and tell you what the media’s willing to pay for it.

Q: In your opinion, will the status of citizen journalism in the media change in the future?

A: Yes, definitely. In fact, we’re already starting to see the mainstream media rely more heavily on everyday people to provide them with compelling news. Occupy Wall Street, the Libya and Egypt uprisings—these are just the latest examples of how the media is relying on everyday people, armed with little more than a mobile phone, to get where their cameras and their crews can’t go. They’re telling the stories we all knew existed but couldn’t document until now.

Q: What are Rawporter’s plans for the future?

A: The first step is our beta launch on 11/10/11. We’ve been coding furiously this year to build the first iteration of our online and mobile platforms (iOS at launch and Android coming soon). We have also been busy making media introductions and building support in news community. Rawporter is changing the traditional content sourcing model significantly, and we expect a significant learning curve. While in beta, we will gather feedback from both contributors and media partners to improve the experience. Ultimately we hope to bridge the current gap that exists between the media and the masses. Finding a way to solve for both audiences will improve the quality of news for everyone and make the media landscape more compelling than ever before.

Thanks to Kevin Davis for taking his time and sharing these information before launching, and these are some benefits for Rawporter’s Contributors and Media:

Contributor Benefits

• Recognition with on-screen credit
• Compensation for submissions that sell
• Active participation in the evolution of new media

Media Benefits

• Efficient resource for fresh and abundant news content
• Visceral and compelling content from a first-person perspective
• Access to content not normally available through traditional sourcing methods
• Ability to push assignments to Rawporter contributors
• Unlimited access to ever-growing stock content database
• Intelligent alerts so you know when news is breaking
• Competitive advantage through innovation

It is also great when they tell you this. Or when they get involved, by praising you or criticizing.

Both are welcome.

First colleague website which gave us support was Periodismo Ciudadano from Spain. They were among first who wrote about our Citizen journalism directory in their post.

After that, in the meantime between then and today, we got boost from social media and other citizen journalism websites and blogs, but most recent we wish to mention now.

One month ago our blogger friend, and also a member of our website, Lisa, wrote a blog post about our website on her own blog. It was great for us to see that she liked it and found it useful. She recognized it as a good place to stop by and share her posts. And she invited other bloggers to join.

Considering that bloggers represent important part of citizen journalists, we are very happy to see that we reached their interest and attention.

And after that, another great thing happened yesterday. Which we absolutely must share.

Just while checking our profile and videos on YouTube, we bumped on a video about our website, uploaded on Oct 2, but made by someone else. An unknown supporter.
It was a bit of a cool surprise. And quite a mystery.

Video lasts five minutes and describes in detail each and every step on our website, its purpose, how it works… Everything.

And also mentions our social media profiles, citizen journalism blog and directory, and the way visitors can search it.
All that in Spanish language.

Video is great, in our totally biased opinion, and shows our website and directory at their best.
So, besides being completely astonished, we are also proud and thrilled with this amazing surprise.

This is our way to say thanks to our unknown friend for wonderful presentation and promotion.

Gracias

P.S. If anyone has some interesting idea how to surprise someone in this digital age, please share and leave a comment.

Aidan McCullen, CEO of Communicorp Digital, is the best representative of YouReport and its history, so thanks to his kindness and time we have an exclusive opportunity to present our email interview.

Q: What inspired you to create citizen journalism platform YouReport?

A: We prefer to refer to it as an engagement platform, to enable engagement with the station.
We are very much a listener driven media group, focused on engaging with our audience.
On our station website newstalk.ie, we have many of comments on our online content.
A few years ago I did a course in music production and the course was packed with talent that had no way of being discovered.
I thought how there are so many talented people who do not have a way to be heard.
We decided to create a platform for people to be heard.
We decided to enable the site comments to become the content rather than being a reaction to the content created by the station.
These 2 worlds can coexist in a much more cohesive fashion.
A Steve Jobs (RIP) would say, we connected the dots and YouReport was born!

Q: Since Newstalk is a radio station, was the interaction with audience (citizens) crucial for a starting citizen journalism website?

A: The station is focused on what the audience wants and YouReport lets the audience drive the station more and more as it grows bigger and bigger.

Q: How YouReport works?

A: Post your photo, video or story to YouReport or use the Newstalk mobile app.
Then share it on your social networks getting as many views as possible once your story is published.
When the clock stops, the top four articles with the most views are in with a chance to win the weekly prize.
The final winner is chosen by Newstalk and announced on the Right Hook Shoe every Wednesday and published on the Newstalk website.
As you upload more reports, you’ll earn badges indicating your status as a YouReporter. If you report regularly, you could be awarded reporter, journalist or editor status. The higher your status, the greater your profile.

Q: Tell us something about your rewards – badges.

A: This element is a bonus element to integrate with the growing phenomenon of gamification.
It also ties nicely in with the idea that we want each YouReporter to create a profile.
The profile can act as a CV, where all that YouReporters reports are gathered.
We hope this may lead to either employment or promotion for the reporter.

Q: Now that you have both – traditional and citizen media do you think it’s possible, in general, to connect these two media?

A: Definitely, traditional media must adapt to an increasingly digital world.
We work to Charles Darwin’s observation:

” It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. “

Q: How do you see citizen journalism in Ireland?

A: It is a new phenomenon in Ireland and we like to lead the way in media innovation in Ireland.
Like anything new it will take time to grow, but we believe in it.

Q: Is your country more open to traditional media or it’s moving towards online content?

A: We believe all media is moving towards a digital or digitally integrated future.
Yes, we are moving more towards digital.

Q: How do you see influence of social media in today media, especially in traditional?

A: It has a huge benefit.
Our stations have the highest Facebook following in Ireland.
Spin1038 for example has 110,000 active fans.
This is because this is not just part of our offering, it is a key part of our offering.
We were the first media group in the world to create a Facebook app to listen live. Listen to our archive and listen to podcasts via our Facebook Pages.
We reward our fans as much as possible with prizes and competitions.
Most importantly we listen to and reply to our fans.
We strive to be available on emerging digital platforms to welcome our audience there rather than follow them there.

Q: Citizen journalism future in Ireland from your point of view.

A: Positive, it will grow more and more.

Q: YouReport plans for the future.

A: Grow with our audience.
Give our audience more and more of a voice and include them more and more in the station.

As Andy Leff, Meporter CEO, describes his project :

Meporter is a local mobile news desk that allows citizen journalists to report, update, and read local news as it happens from their mobile phone. We have some really cool location based features allowing Meporters to check in to news stories when on the scene and winning badges for reporting breaking news. Here is a short video on how it works:

We were first only on iPhone iOS when we launched in May 2011 but we have now just released our Android App in public Beta which can be downloaded here

So the Android App was released on September 9th 2011. Users of the Android App can expect a similar experience to our iPhone app and will be able to post local news and events as they see them from their Droid phones and Tablet devices. The layout is similar to the iOS version except for a new home screen that is consistent with other Android Apps. We have been slammed with emails from people all over the world asking about when the Droid app would be released so we now finally have an answer for them. We welcome all user feedback as it helps us create a better experience and product for future releases.

We invite everyone to check out this new Android App by Meporter. And of course enjoy in doing citizen journalism.

For example if you take a picture of something and you are not sure about details but you want to have some text besides photo when you put it in public, best is to write what you know for sure, like where this happened, what time it is and things like that.

If you write more and claim those information before checking, than you are not only spreading rumors but you can make damage to other people. Instead of doing that, better be modest but trustworthy. Readers will appreciate this quality more.

If you are an amateur you don’t have to be unprofessional.

This may not sound logical but it’s true. Person does not have to be trained for every single thing before doing it. Enough is to have serious and dedicated approach and wish to give your best. Like I already wrote in my previous posts, education is not crucial for doing citizen reporting.

But mostly when people who dislike citizen journalism talk about it their key reason for proving citizen journalists shouldn’t be present in media is that famous saying – citizen journalism is like citizen surgery, would you like to be operated by citizen surgeon? Besides this one there is the one about who can write and spell and mostly again citizen journalism opponents say that citizen journalists are more than often illiterate.

I’m wondering why do they think that professors, students and other educated people, but without journalism degree, do not like and sometimes do citizen journalism.

So, back to beginning, if we do something for the first time we should do it, learn on our mistakes which are unfortunately unavoidable, but great as training and continue with learning more. People can overcome unbelievable obstacles if they have right stimulus.

Being professional does not require 20 years of experience as a guarantee. It requires commitment and thoroughness.

No sensationalism.

Sensationalism is great, fabulous and well – sensational.
But sadly very often one-time interest.
Everyone wants to be sensational at least once in a lifetime. In work or life. That moment may come but not for sure. And it is a moment. People forget about it.

Things that are not that sensational but long lasting have more value. They really last long. If you win the trust of the readers, they like your work and believe in your words, that is more valuable than one-day hystery over half-true news.

Luckily for humankind things like devastating fires, earthquakes, tsunamies and floods don’t happen every second so we can’t rely on them as certain news which will draw huge attention. Using everyday details from our environment is skill and capability to impose yourself as citizen journalist who notices everything and gives right information.

These are some basic tips for making citizen journalism easier and more acceptable. Attractive thing with citizen journalism is that we don’t need preparation, it comes spontaneously and it’s available for everyone.