Multimedia resources

YouTube. 25 Aug. 2008 (http://www.youtube.com/citizennews)

At its core, citizen journalism is media produced by people with little or no formal journalism training. It often acts as supplementary material to national or international stories at the local level. YouTube has all the characteristics of a citizen journalism site, though the news pieces are not always so obviously placed. YouTube will launch aa journalism program that solicits news videos from viewers about topics that might not be heard about otherwise. This vlog improves the concept of YouTube into a consolidated format specifically meant for vloggers. Additional features of the site include how-to videos and a playlist of work by citizen journalists.


Flickr. 25 Aug. 2008 (http://www.flickr.com)

Flickr is a photo-sharing site where users download their photos to an album and can send the link via e-mail to family and friends. In the past, it’s been merely another personal photo gallery with capabilities for sharing photos with anyone around the world. Recently, Getty Images, a stock image Web site, began looking through Flickr galleries and offering people royalties for their photographs. The company plans to pitch stock photographs and newsworthy photos to various media outlets. Photo-sharing sites such as these are related to citizen journalism because anyone can use them and anyone can view them – now even media outlets in need of photographs.


Your Hub. 25 Aug. 2008 (http://www.yourhub.com)

Your Hub is primarily a photo site, but also serves as a story-submitting tool for local newspapers. The Sebastian Sun in Indian River County, Fla., asked their readers in May to submit their photos and stories to their newspaper. The newspaper’s Your Hub site is full of local events and announcements for the county. The newspaper isn’t primarily online and it’s not a wholly citizen journalism project, but their ingenuity to use such a portal is quite unique.