OMNI and the Fox News Strip Club.

On Tuesday (7th September) the new OhmyNews International Curator-in-chief Joe McPherson wrote a post on the site discussing OMNI's new direction.

One thing McPherson wrote about was the idea of a region specific approach to reporting on citizen journalism with dedicated curators for different areas. Not only will the site contain region specific information on citizen journalism but according to McPherson, OMNI will also provide 'tips and resources for citizen journalists'.

He also listed the following as things to watch out for in the future:

- Run-downs on news happening to actual journalists
- Tips on using technology and resources to make individual journalists stand toe to-toe with established media
- Regular employment opportunities
- Updates on how citizen journalists affect news culture

I wrote earlier that I thought there was potential for OMNI to act as a sort of watch-dog for citizen reporting. I don't know if they hope to achieve that but either way, its going to be exciting to see OMNI developing in the coming months.

- See McPherson's post in full here. Its only short.

Funding Ideas: YouCommNews, The PIJ Foundation & Kickstarter.

In FBtG's first ever post we talked about Ohmy News International (OMNI) an English language version of the Korean citizen journalism website of the same name. Today I want to talk about YouCommNews, another example of citizen journalism that is operating a little closer to home.

YouCommNews is an initiative launched earlier this year by The Public Interest Journalism Foundation (PIJF), a part of the Institute of Social Research at The Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne which aims to:

'develop new approaches to journalism that “maximize and explore the applications of emerging media technologies”. This comes in the wake of major technological, economic and demographic changes which are affecting the viability of established media organizations'.

YouComm is modelled almost identically off of a US citizen journalist site called Spot.Us. The concept works around the idea of public contributions being made not only for content but funding also. Ideas for stories are pitched by users on the site and then those ideas are funded (or not) by others interested in seeing the story published. The concept is unique because once stories are finished they aren't published on YouComm itself but are pitched to other media outlets, be it mainstream, independent or online.

YouComm has only been running for a few months and the official launch apparently took place yesterday at the NewNews conference run by the PIJF at the Melbourne Writer's Festival. However evidence already exists that the model can work. Another site, Kickstarter.com is a perfect example of ideas being funded not by large institutions with their own interests but by members of the general public. Kickstarter is not just (or primarily) a journalism site either; it funds art, dance, photography, film, theatre and much more.

- The Chair of the PIJF Margaret Simons writes a somtimes active blog over on Crikey called 'The Content Makers, you can check it here.

- YouComm itself is not independently funded. Part of its funding comes from The Financial and Energy Exchange Group (FEX) and The Victorian Government Department of Innovation, Industry & Regional Development.

Protest!

Interesting to see that the protest by Afghani asylum seekers being held in detention today in Darwin seems to have, if only momentarily, shifted the debate in Australia on migrants from BOATS! STOP THE BOATS! WHEN WILL THE BOATS STOP!? WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN? To an actual focus, albeit a fairly brief one, on the people behind the fifteen thousand volt electric fences.

The best thing I read was this quote from The SMH - One of the protestors questioning the current ban on Afghani Asylum Seekers being granted refugee status because it is supposedly safe there now:

If Afghanistan is safe, why are there Australian soldiers there? Why are there American soldiers there?".

A valid question and its refreshing to hear it being asked. Hopefully the next step is the media asking it themselves, rather than via proxy.

- And just quietly, Media Watch on Monday night raised a topic that tied in quite well with what I wrote about in my last post. Probably deliberately. Check it here