Great news this week as both the Huffington Post and New York Times announced their plans to recruit student citizen journalists as part of a scheme to create hyperlocal content drawn from university campus news.
Adam Clark Estes, editor of citizen journalism at HuffPo, has been inspired by the skills learnt as former editor of IvyGate, gossip blog of the Ivy League universities, to launch an appeal for enthusiastic student citizen journos to collaborate with the professionals at the Huffington Post to create hyperlocal news. Clark Estes says in a blog post:
“Student news, I’ve always believed, is news in its purest. The same way that small town newspapers chronicle the history of a community, student journalists amplify the voice of a generation. When there’s a protest on campus or reactions to world events, reporters from campus newspapers and magazines are often the first to cover it. When it comes to capturing the zeitgeist of America’s youth, student bloggers are inevitably the best.”
And he makes a good point. While it’s one thing to recognise and reward the audacity, skill and ingenuity of student journa-preneurs, working all hours to produce high quality journalism in print and online; it’s quite another to put this to even better use – something Clark Estes and the Huffington Post have decided to do. Last week, they put out a call for applications to join their citizen journalism unit, aiming to brigng 30 students, both photojournalists and videographers, to cover college issues. The job includes weekly assignments, training events, crowdsourcing projects, and most importantly, daily access to Huffington Post’s editors.
Image copyright Huffington Post
Women bloggers take note
Female citizen journalism website Shetizen Journalist is launching a special event to celebrate International Women’s Day, which takes place on March 8.
‘Being a Woman’ invites women from all around the world to get their voices heard, by submitting a post to the site about their experiences – good and bad – of womanhood. All the entries will be displayed on the website on March 8 in order to celebrate International Women’s Day by publishing personal stories about the divergent yet shared lives of women across the globe.
Image courtesy of Flickr
International Women’s Day (IWD) started on March 19 1911, and was celebrated in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. In 1913 the date was moved to 8 March and the festivities spread to other countries worldwide. Since then the date for IWD has remained the same, and it is an official holiday in China, Armenia, Russia, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Vietnam.
Shetizenjournalist.com is a tool for women who want to report, raise gender debates and discuss issues that matter to women and contribute to their empowerment. Under the banner of “she power”, women can upload news stories, viewpoints, opinion and experience pieces via the site – which serves as a focal point for amalgamation of female bloggers’ and reporters’ work.