· In August, 2006 CNN launched CNN EXCHANGE, a page that encourages visitors to submit their stories, pictures and videos in order to enrich the professional 24/7 news coverage provided by CNN. Recent conflicts in the
Middle East brought about a massive submission of stories, pictures and videos on blogs, onlne picture and video repositories around the web. In view of this CNN decided to open it’s doors to such submissions to enrich it’s own news coverage and keep its audience on their pages. This move by CNN is the first venture into “citizen journalism” by a major news organization. (OhMyNews)
· A citizen journalist on Slashdot exposed a “testimonial” on a Microsoft site of an unnamed freelance writer who switched from an Apple Mac to Windows XP as a blatant copywritten ad. The expose’ forced Microsoft to withdraw the page.This is a good example of how sharp-eyed bloggers can team with professional journalists to help filter “news” and keep it clean. (Hypergene MediaBlog)
· Citizen journalist coverage of the Middle East Crisis involving Israel and Lebanon in July of 2006 received attention from CNN when they aired “Citizen Journalists Cover the Middle East Conflict” which reported about video that was appearing on YouTube. The conflict was being covered in ways that prior to Web 2.0 tools had not been available. (Viewers were warned that the material had not been verified.)
· Citizen journalists were the first to take photos with cameraphones and videophones after the London bombings in July 2005. A collective wikipedia page detailed the aftermath as did group blogs such as this hour-by-hour rundown. Unfortunately some viewed this as paparazzi rather than considerate journalism due to the gruesome details being relayed. (USC Annenberg, Online Journalism Review, Mark Glaser)
