Citizen Journalism Running Head: Citizen Journalism

Citizen Journalism: Effective News Production Faisal Iqbal Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA

Citizen Journalism CHAPTER 1- Introduction

For the purposes of this project and accompanying thesis, the client is We-town.com. Sponsored by Elizabethtown College, this citizen journalism website serves Elizabethtown and the greater Lancaster County communities to share the news most important to them by submitting photographs, interviews, stories, videos and pod casts covering community events (We-town Website, 2007). The clients concern is the lack of news content via stories, videos, pod casts and so on. Although students from certain classes are expected to report for the website, the level of content is still not meeting the anticipated margin. Specifics As mentioned above, the primary purpose of this project and the accompanying manuscript is the increment of subject matters on We-town website. In the words of Michael Rosenblum, It is now possible for a person working on his or her own to make high-quality, intelligent and, most importantly, very inexpensive television (Rosenblum, 2008). The issue of boosting news substance on the website aligns with a very important right and privilege i.e. citizen journalism. Rosenblum mentions that once video production was limited to larger media outlets because of their financial resources. However, with the advancements in technology in video recording and distribution citizen journalism can grow. Following the principles of video production as indicated by Rosenblum, the charge from the We-town website of effective video production needs to be addressed. This would not only cover the specifics of the necessary step by step action of video production but it would also meet the need for greater news content on the web through citizen journalism.

Citizen Journalism

In Neikamps research, a sample of citizen journalists from the Community Correspondent was examined to find out how many used digital media. Of the 179 contributions, 72 were video, 67 were text and 40 were photos. In this project, the goal is to produce news packages that will cover anticipated ratios of citizen journalism videos from the research. The first one will be about the relocation of the Health Center at Elizabethtown College, the next one will focus on the emergency preparedness of the Elizabethtown College in the unlikely event that disaster strikes and the last one will hopefully localize a national story such as the unemployment rates in the Central PA area and what does it entail for the graduating seniors of 2010. These packages will have some soft-news story component, which is a large portion of citizen journalism today, whereas the rest will culminate hard-news stories. These packages will project a higher level of content and hopefully raise some controversy, which in turn, would raise material. Conclusion Hence, in summary, what is the most effective way to increase news content on the We-town website? Professionally constructed news packages and podcasts can increase news content on the Wetown website. Deborah Potter, in her article You Witness News, (Potter, 2007) writes about the importance and need of citizen journalism. She mentions the execution of Saddam Hussein and the London bombings as part of her introduction. This gives an idea and necessitates that the residents of Elizabethtown and greater Lancaster County take advantage of the We-town website. This gives the residents an opportunity to express their views through videos, podcasts and news stories.

Citizen Journalism CHAPTER 2- Literature Review

This section of the paper contains the relevant research that has been conducted to incorporate the research conducted to examine the possibilities of answering the question: What is the most effective way to create news content on the We-town website? The following pages include the definition of citizen journalism, its need, and multiple examples of citizen journalism websites that support professionally constructed news packages and podcasts can increase news content on the We-town website. It also proves that the forces of free market and democracy continue to be important factors in determining citizen journalism. What is Citizen Journalism? When ordinary citizen or non-journalists are involved in the process of gathering, writing and the distribution of information it constitutes Citizen Journalism. At times referred to as participatory or public journalism, it emerged as one of the by-products of the development of Web 2.0. Due to the interactive nature of this second generation of the Internet, citizen journalism has grown extensively as it allows for more content generation from the users (Niekamp, 2009). Reich describes this fairly new phenomenon as a promising new breed of news-making that has been championed by various scholars as a kind of antidote to the bowling alone effect (Schaffer, 2007, p. 6 as cited in Reich, 2008) and for its potential to empower the former audience (Gillmor, 2006, p. XXV; Rosen, 2005 as cited in Reich, 2008) by granting ordinary citizens a novel, hands-on role (Reich, 2008). One of the purposes of citizen journalism is to provide information that benefits a community. Traditional news outlets have focused on delivering the information geographically- at the local, state, national, and international level. This type of traditional journalism was disseminated in an

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offline format textually, visually or through auditory means but citizen journalism has invited and included the online realm of information distribution (Carpenter, 2008). The Need for Citizen Journalism In You Witness News, Deborah Potter credits the new technologies that make it possible to record news events rather quickly and easily. For instance, the execution of Saddam Hussein and the London subway bombings, 2005 were recorded on cell phone cameras by citizens who witnessed the incidents and later reported about it. No professional journalists were involved in the production of these news stories (Potter, 2010). Natural disasters such as the California earthquake of 1906 and the more recent Hurricane Katrina had citizens account of the devastation through photographs, home videos and text blogs. Tragedies created and/or facilitated by people such as 9/11 or the Kennedy assassination were documented first-hand by citizens. As early as the eighteenth century, pamphleteers such as Thomas Paine printed their own publications to disseminate information (Gillmor, 2006 as cited in Muthukumarswamy, 2010). Niekamp indicated that the tragedy of 9/11, the attack on the World Trade Center changed the course of information distribution i.e. it introduced reporting by non-journalists by a large scale. The 2003 Iraq war, the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia, the elections of 2004, and the school shootings at Virginia Tech University are further examples of the emergence of citizen participation in journalism. (Niekamp, 2009) Reich quotes an even more interesting reason why citizens need citizen journalism and vice versa. He extrapolates as far to compare this upheaval to the one that was brought on by the printing press and its relative affect on the Church. In this major reformation, citizen journalism

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is Luther giving the ordinary citizens a direct access to information without the holy authority of the middlemen i.e. the journalists (Reich, 2008). Carpenter has conducted hefty research on the issue of citizen journalism. She pointed out valuable arguments for and against citizen journalism and traditional journalism. The altercation lies in the amount of background research that is being conducted for a particular news story between the ones who consider themselves online citizen journalists and those who work as traditional journalists. Citizen Journalists are criticized for their propensity to feature entertainment articles with little background research, rather than informing the public on matters that benefit them as citizens (Carpenter, 2008). Her research also mentions that routines seem to influence traditional journalists when constructing news. Carpenter incorporates Shoemaker and Reeses comments about how the traditional media workers who use the same patterned, repeated practices sometimes using the same figures of authority to finish their work in a timely fashion (Carpenter, 2008). Other authors have pointed out that many journalists follow the straight reporting formula because of deadline pressures, lack of creativity, or their inability to interpret complex events (Carpenter, 2008). Compared to citizen journalism, traditional journalism still maintains a strict guideline of the objectivity standard. This standard became a norm in the 1930s and since journalists have been afraid of including their own opinion into the stories because it might render the information biased. However, the standard of objectivity helped the daily publications be more appealing to a

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larger audience. Critically speaking, this standardization in journalism has impended journalists to report beyond the facts and employ critical thinking in interpreting or explaining whether the facts actually reflect reality (Carpenter, 2008). Traditional journalists are also known to have a set of routine sources that help them identify news stories. The repeated use of sources may help a journalist finish a project under daily time constraints but it overlooks the possibility that certain public relations officers may be aware of their routine. Alternatively, criticism exists for their dependence on official sources of an organization. The fact that they do not have adequate time to seek and develop newer sources often give these organizational sources more chances of being prompt, reliable, and articulate (Carpenter, 2008). What does this mean? Michael Rosenblum asks. With the current technological ease, it is possible for a one-man crew to make high-quality, intelligent, and, most importantly, very inexpensive television (Rosenblum 2008). Along with that the obstacles to the access of information has been significantly lowered to nonjournalists. Rosenbaum mentions the example of J.K. Rowling. The 38-year old single mother on welfare had the compelling urge to share her idea. Her only requirements were a pencil and a piece of paper that resulted in the creation of the best book series ever sold: Harry Potter. She had no writing or valuable work experience but wanted to her voice to be heard. Similar to Rowling, there are millions of others who would like to share their opinion and citizen journalism provides the answer (Rosenbaum, 2008).

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Rosenbaum claims that the authority in a newsroom may not be the best reporter in certain cases. He provides a stunning example to support his view. The United States military has been in Iraq for over five years now. Throughout the entire U.S. occupation Iraq, American TV reporters have covered news stories and reported for their respective news networks with little or no knowledge of the Arabic language, the countrys history, or the country itself. Although these news pieces govern the opinions of the American nationals, the important question to ask is whether they are receiving fair, accurate, and timely news. On the other hand, several Iraqis with their video cameras have recorded and are still reporting the horrible life conditions that they are a part of today. How much exposure has those stories had in the news realm? (Rosenbaum, 2008) This has become a threat to the gate-keeping theory by traditional journalists. The attenuation of gate-keeping online has led to hyper-local coverage. The stories are designed to appeal to people in a small geographic area, such as a neighborhood, not necessarily a city. This type of hyper-local journalism has changed traditional news values (Niekamp, 2009). Jan Schaffer of the University of Maryland told the Project for Excellence in Journalism that items posted to hyper-local citizen journalist sites run the gamut from breaking news to school closings to city council hearings. Mixed in are wedding and birth announcements or favorite recipes (Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2008 as cited in Niekamp, 2009). Nevertheless, gate-keeping is crucial even to online journalism sites, because they help maintain the structure of the site. Although free expression must be encouraged online, proper accountability needs to be expressed when soliciting input from the public (Imfeld and Scott, 2005 as cited in Niekamp, 2009).

Citizen Journalism

Niekamps research also shows that now it appears the traditional media wants to tap in to nonjournalists for material. According to the Project for Excellence in Journalisms State of the News Media 2008, the mainstream media is attempting to find useful means to luring citizens to produce content for their own news outlets (Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2008 as cited in Niekamp 2009). In the same journal Niekamp wrote that there has been a further diminution of the gate-keeping status since the beginning of the 21st century. Mainly because most citizen journalism sites are not controlled by any authority, the push or the emphasis lie in the creation of more content and comparatively little attention is paid to filtering that information (Niekamp, 2009). An example is Community Correspondent: One Broadcasters Attempt at Citizen Journalism contrary to the traditional tenets of journalism, but according to former Chicago Tribune publisher Jack Fuller, it could bring about a new way of learning about the world (Fuller, 1997 as cited in Niekamp, 2009). Under the second generation of internet, along with the traditional values of journalism the degree of control is also questioned. The media has become more democratized and citizen journalism is often seen as achieving that. Community Correspondent, a creation of the Pappas Telecasting Companies is a privately held broadcasting company that owns 27 television stations in markets ranging from Opelika, Alabama, to Los Angeles, California. Pappas created Community Correspondent in 2006 to provide an outlet for citizens to report on items of interest in their communities (Pappas Telecasting, 2008 as cited in Niekamp, 2009). News items can be

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posted on the Community Correspondent site in text, video, and photograph format that link to Pappas television stations in seven different markets (Niekamp, 2009). The US chain Gannett, arguably one of the most proactive companies to implement participatory journalism, has expended time and money to transform its newsrooms: staff has been retrained, Web operations have been enhanced, and whole new departments have been created (Howe, 2006 as cited in Muthukumaraswamy, 2010). However, the lack of viable revenue-generating options online prevents many organizations from investing in Web technology, which is essential for novel concepts such as crowdsourcing (Palser, 2005 as cited in Muthukumarswamy, 2010). Jeff Howe, editor of Wired, defines crowdsourcing as a task that was traditionally performed by an agent, usually an employee, outsourced to a larger group of people encouraging feedback in an open forum (Howe, 2006 as cited in Muthukumarswamy, 2010). Weblogs, or blogs, got the most attention in the early stages of citizen journalism, but at the same time, other outlets for non-journalists work were developing. The Korean website Ohmynews, founded in 2000, allows ordinary citizens the opportunity to submit original news items. Now, citizen journalism websites in the United States are estimated to number about 1,000, and will approach nearly 1,500 in early 2008 (Project of Excellence in Journalism, 2008 as cited in Niekamp, 2010). Today, the numbers have certainly risen but exact or approximate figures are not available because of the transient nature and of these websites.

Citizen Journalism Host of other examples

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Online, citizen writers considered themselves storytellers, journalists, whistleblowers, counselors, journal writers, history drafters, meaning-makers, and opinion leaders. (Robinson, 2009) One of the really interesting things about being a journalist is I sometimes get to turn the tables on the traditional journalists. Were all inquisitive storytellers at heart so when you get a few of us in the room together theres just no telling what might happen (Beyond Katrina, 2006a as cited in Robinson, 2009). Beyond Katrina was published as a tribute to the courageos citizen journalists who recorded the accounts following the disaster, Hurriane Katrina. The quote above is from a conversation when a blogger was in a literal room with some journalists. In Beyond Katrina, he asserted himself as the us usually reserved for the presss exclusive interpretive community. He defined himself as a journalist and identified with reporters. These bloggers and forum contributors practised reporting by becoming watchdogs. Many other blogs introduced their own characters and sources as a way to provide information (Robinson, 2009). Goode defines this phenomenon as metajournalism in the sense that citizens fill out the fine lines that journalists often cannot access. Examples are social news websites such as Digg.com and Newsvine that permits users to submit, rate, recommend, and comment on news stories. Hence, providing a chance for metajournalism (Goode, 2009). Citizen journalism is generally associated with the internet. Yet, it does not begin and end online or even with digital-interactive media. Broadcast news, for example, sometimes feeds off and incorporates elements of citizen journalism: examples include eyewitness footage from cell

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phones, reporting of stories originally broken by citizen journalism initiatives on the web, oreven guest reporter slots in which citizens front and participate in packaging an item for a television or radio newscast (Goode, 2009). Nevertheless, citizen journalism is seen to present a challenge to mainstream corporate media, it is tempting to conceive of it as a movement with intrinsically oppositional characteristics. An example travels back to Dan Gillmor painting a compelling portrait of citizen journalism as a grassroots movement whose historical antecedents include Tom Paine and the revolutionary pamphleteers (Gillmor, 2006 as cited in Goode, 2009). On one hand, the collaborative nature of a seemingly more postmodern journalistic form (Matheson, 2004; Wall, 2005 as cited in Goode, 2009) generates an emphasis on the processes of circulation, reworking and interpretation- the vital mutations, in digital parlance, of public information and discourse, whereby notions of collective intelligence, crowdsourcing and folksonomy (Levy,1997; Vanderwal, 2005; Crawford, 2007 as cited in Goode, 2009) loom large. On the other hand, there remains a tendency to invoke a modernist, heroic narrative in which individual citizens (Matt Drudge and Salam Pax, the celebrated Baghdad Blogger, are particularly high profile cases) serve as fitting descendants of the radical pioneers of modern journalism prior to its corruption by commerce and vested interests (Barlow, 2007; Habermas, 1989 as cited in Goode, 2009). One illustrative example is that of police brutality videos, posted by bloggers in Egypt, depicting two policemen savagely torturing a bus driver in a police station. After circulation on blogs, the incident was picked up by Al Fagr and Masry Al Yom, both independent Egyptian newspapers.

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The multiplier effect began. The victim was recognized by authorities and imprisoned for three months on the charge of obstructing officials. The driver, the bloggers, the media and public attention pursued the officers. Eventually they were tried and sentenced to three years (Isherwood, 2008 as cited in Handy 2009). This incident was viewed within the context of police brutality in Egypt. This too became a topic of national debate, giving opportunity for others to follow. Talk shows, government newspapers and radio stations brought the issue to their agendas, shows and articles. Although police brutality is not unheard of in Egypt, the public became much more conscious of yet another social ill when a lone blogger Mohamed Abdullah Khaled posted the video on his blog. The viewing of this barbaric incident not only raised awareness but also grabbed public attention, causing the government to scramble to portray the rape as an isolated occurrence and to try the officers. Furthermore, it also gave momentum to human rights organizations and civil society organizations that for years had been accusing the Egyptian Ministry of Interior of using uncouth techniques of interrogation against suspects (El Khashab, 2006; Stack, 2007 as cited in Hamdy, 2009). Once again, this example shows the influence of blogs on media and the public can intensify impact on wider circles. Sandmonkey, Baheyya, Sabahs Blog, Black Iris, the Arabist and Ghalias Cocktail Blog are amongst those who became famous for their articulate posts. Realizing that they had an audience, many tackled sensitive political, human rights, social and economic issues. They found that their blogs were capable of becoming a powerful source of information, an alternative to newspapers and television, at times an expansion to traditional media information, a tool for lobbying and

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reaching likeminded activists, and in many instances able to attract international attention to a cause (Levinson, 2005). Like other citizen-blog reporters around the world, they did not have the same resources or standards as professional journalists and, like their global counterparts, they too possessed those characteristics of the global blogging culture of outspokenness, humor, intellectual honesty and open-mindedness to alternate points of view (Domingo and Heinonen, 2008 as cited in Hamdy, 2009). It seems clear that the root of citizen journalism in some cases can be controversy; a movement away from the norm and making this phenomenon more of a right of the citizen than a privilege. Case study results Reich shows that Israel constitutes an outstanding case study, for it boasts one of the highest rates of broadband connection use in the OECD, and, relatively speaking, its citizens are quite interested in news and politics at least according to journalistic assessments (Tsfati and Livio, 2003 as cited in Reich, 2008). Furthermore, it has advanced models of both types of news organizations (Reich, 2008). Inspired by Ohmynews, Scoop (www.scoop.co.il) represents an ambitious, innovative, and wellfunded national citizen news website. The mainstream news websites also boast sophisticated formats of online news from an editorial, technological and commercial standpoint. The research method entailed a series of reconstruction interviews with citizen and mainstream journalists from the above-mentioned organizations. This approach was developed and tested in other news production contexts (Reich, 2008).

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During the interviews, the subjects were asked to outline how they obtained a sampling of their items. Additionally, the researcher spent seven days in Scoops newsroom observing the operations and interviewing its editorial staff. The paper opens by suggesting the news access model as a theoretical framework. However, the researcher has turned this same model on its head for the sake of adapting it to the realities of citizen journalism (Reich, 2008). The study showed that 94 percent of Scoops items and 95 percent of the mainstream items are contrary to the criticism of the naysayers, the school of thought that questions the journalistic competence of ordinary individuals. The citizen journalists produced a steady flow of original news. However, they sourced and produced their material from an outsiders point-of-view (Reich, 2008). Citizen journalism is still in its infancy, but given the fields impressive scope and rapid growth, the topic merits across-the-board research. Comparative studies should also be conducted in order to determine the added value that citizen journalism brings to the equation as a complement to mainstream news. Furthermore, research should be emphasized on the degree of professionalism in citizen journalism (Reich, 2008). This influx of self published content by readers on current affairs has become an alternative to established news providers. Concurrently, mainstream websites have begun to host spaces for user-generated content. The withdrawal of message boards at Independent.co.uk and FT.com prove that this move was not in direct and linear response to the grassroots or citizen journalism activities (Thurman, 2008). Studies conducted by news organizations show varied differences in reporting practices with local conditions having a significant pressure the range and character of initiatives adopted.

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Boczowski agrees that that innovations in newsrooms unfold in a gradual and ongoing fashion and are shaped by combinations of initial conditions and local contingencies with cost being an important contingent factor (Thurman, 2008). Potter cleverly points out this gap in logic and payment. With the abundance of camera phones and ease of internet technology major news networks are soliticing and encouraging contributors to be more active online and post their videos. But who's really benefiting from all this citizen journalism? (Potter, 2007) CNN, MSNBC and Reuters all encourage viewers to share their stories, photos and video. The companies use this information on television as well as the Web. CNN's "I-Report," MSNBC's "FirstPerson" and Reuters' partnership with Yahoo! on "You Witness News" differ somewhat, but they have one thing in common: They dont pay contributors a dime (Potter, 2007). Yahoos purchase of Flickr (the photo-sharing site housing many interesting developments in citizen photojournalism) in 2005, Googles acquisition of Blogger.com in 2003 and YouTube in 2006, and MSNBCs acquisition of Newsvine in 2007 are salient examples of influx of largescale commerce and advertising dollars encroaching steadily into the area of citizen journalism (Goode, 2009). Potter mentions Dan O'Donnell, news director at Hearst Argyle's WGALTV in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in her article who also sees citizen journalism as "a supplement to what we do," but he's taking a different approach. He is considering recruiting a few citizen journalists to cover high school sports and community events for the station's Web site. Their submissions would be edited and paid for, although the amount is undecided. "I really think we have to offer something," O'Donnell says. "Otherwise I don't think it's fair, and I think it surrenders a whole

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lot of our control (Potter, 2007). However, to this day, WGAL makes no payments to its contributors. Potter hopelessly indicates why stations would pay for something they get for free (Potter, 2007). Citizen Journalism replacing local newspapers The Collinwood venture (collinwoodobserver.com) has been available since Summer 2009 and allows citizens to post news stories on topics they consider newsworthy. These reporters do not have any mention of the health care debates, the rising sub-prime mortgages, etc. as traditional newspapers and journalists bring to the table. The inverted pyramid style of writing which emphasizes important points first and ends with lesser-valued points and that has been in use since the Civil War do not usually appear in the articles of this venture (Serant, 2009). The Collinwood Observer, like its namesake sister Cleveland effort, the five-year old Lakewood Observer, will tap volunteer delivery persons, editors, illustrators photographers and writers to help the nonprofit civic journalism endeavor succeed said publisher Betsy Voinovich (Serant, 2009). This newspaper offers the community to write about almost any and every topic. It ranges from family news to local associations to what representatives are doing on local, state, and national levels. The Collinwood Observer does not include a police beat which makes the news items less negative. Although the readers are satisfied with its current contents, many wonder if that is infact a clear representation of the community (Serant, 2009). Mainstream news organizations have surfaced into the user-generated content area with programs devoted to video clips supplied by viewers (Palser, 2007 as cited in Neikamp, 2009). The level of gate-keeping involvement of the mainstream media vary, from making use of

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content supplied by non-journalists, to providing an outlet for citizen contributions without editing, except in extreme circumstances (Outing, 2005 as cited in Neikamp, 2009).

Pappas Telecastings Community Correspondent sites are an example of the latter type. Community Correspondent is a citizen-driven enterprise. In each market, the Community Correspondent site is identical. It has several categories of news: Headlines, Video, Galleries, Photo, and Assignment (Neikamp, 2009). The research questioned the use of digital media by the contributors. Of the 179 cases, 67 were text, 72 video, and 40 were photos. It must be noted that video and photo items were usually accompanies by some kind of text explanation, but if the main feature of the submission was determined to be either video or photo, it was not counted as a text item. Video Production For this project, three deadline video packages are required. In the words of Angela Grant, deadline video packages are a complete visual story and bear similarity to a foot-long print story with supporting photos (Grant, 2008). A video package is essentially under 2 minutes long and includes interviews from sources, a featured voice-over and a stand-up section by the journalist. Before recording a video, it is important to know whether the subject of the news is video-worthy. Certain elements help make that decision. Emotions, actions and outright novelty are some examples. For instance, news stories about a fire or an accident require personal interviews on video that capture the emotion of the subjects involved in the story. The same applies to a story of action that includes a lot of movement. Novelty items such as the letter-opening rabbit make for great news in todays world

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(http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=letter+opening+rabbit&aq=0). These are some ways to identify news stories worthy of video production (Grant, 2008). Conclusion There is actually no need to carry on an inspiration outreach program to create more news items on the citizen journalism website. It can definitely be beneficial to introduce to the community the existence of We-town.com. The fact We-town is a community citizen journalism website should drive bloggers to it. The rest of the process will be letting the forces of democratization of news and the right responses to controversy get to work. As soon as the citizens of Elizabethtown realize that the website is for them to use and there is an option to upload video and audio content on the web, greater response will appear. Nevertheless, standards of professionalism and accountability will need to be regulated in order to make sure that the news content is at par with a professional standard and not bear similarities to home videos.

Citizen Journalism CHAPTER 3- Pre-production Introduction

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In the last chapter of this manuscript, the literature review focused on the growth of citizen journalism in the realm of mass communication. It delved into the various positive aspects of the citizen journalism in terms of news-access theory and gate-keeping theory. Provisions were made for the multiplicity of websites and organizations that support and encourage citizen journalism and citizens video contributions. Niekamps research with the Pappas Community provides strong support of hyper-local coverage by citizen journalists. It also surpasses into exploring the objectivity standard as put forth by Carpenter. This chapter, as mentioned in the title, details the steps that were taken before the production of the news stories. This section will also include the application of the various new concepts and theories of citizen journalism. A. Project analysis and description The purpose of the project is to address the issue of the current need to produce more news content for the We-Town website. The project concentrates on increasing and enhancing the news content on the website through audio-visual content. In other words, the goal is to upload three video packages on the We-town website at different deadlines. A video package, as defined by Angela Grant, is a complete story with a beginning, middle and an ending. These usually run for about 2 minutes and include source interviews, usually from 2 sources. A stand-up part is usually included in the 2 minutes either in the beginning, middle or where it seems appropriate (Grant, 2008).

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Technically, the client for this project is the We-town.com citizen journalism website. Hence, the target audience is the students of Elizabethtown College and the residents of the Elizabethtown Community. The following were the initial ideas for the three video packages of the semester. Story #1: Emergency Preparedness This story will address the state of emergency preparedness of Elizabethtown College in the event a disaster struck. This would be an approach to more awareness for the residents of Elizabethtown, both permanent and temporary. The relative proximity of the Three Mile Island and the frequent fire hazards in the Central PA area necessitates preparation. Especially for students it is utmost importance to be prepared to handle such emergencies at the time of need. Possible Sources: Kathy Smyser, American Red Cross Dale Boyer, Elizabethtown College Campus Security Story #2: Job market in Central PA The story will localize the national unemployment scene and provide an insight into the strongest economic indicator- jobs at state and local level. The Elizabethtown College Career Services and the Elizabethtown Chamber of Commerce will be the desired sources. Sources: Jane Nini, Elizabethtown College Career Services Public Relations, Elizabethtown Chamber of Commerce Story #3: Flash Flood in Susquehanna Valley

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The story will focus on the awareness of flash floods in the Central PA area. The package will interview members of the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Team and victims, if any, of the tragedy. Sources: Members of the Disaster Relief Team of the American Red Cross Witnesses This however did not work out as planned. There has not been a flash flood so far in the central PA area. Thus, the replacement story was recorded about the relocation of the health center. Primarily, it was not clear if this package was newsworthy or specific to the Elizabethtown Community or just the College. Upon careful examination, it became clear that this facility is used by both the students and the community as it is established as part of Penn State Hershey Medical Center. Further details are available about this change below.

B. Forecast As the traditional rules journalism often require careful planning prior to execution of production process, the pre-production process is extremely important. The process starts once the conscious decision has been made to film a news story basing on the newsworthiness of the subject. Grant says that stories with a substantial emotions and actions form very good videos. Unusual and novelty items are a third category that too yields great video. Step 2 is source selection. There is a need for the sources to be appropriate and befitting the news story. The step that follows is scheduling interview appointments with selected sources. Once the appointments are set up, it is time to gather equipment. At some point in the pre-production process it is important to decide what kind of B-roll will be used for the featured voice over. In

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other words, what shots other than the interview will complete the video package. It is also important to explore the target audience for the news package and what type of news story does the package represent i.e. social, sports, feature, etc. C. Phases or steps Although it is helpful to start off with possible ideas for video packages, many obstacles appear in the actual production of these videos. The aforementioned list specifies the first package to be about the Emergency Preparedness. However, due to some technical difficulty that will be detailed below some changes occurred in the order that it appeared on We-town.com. This means that the order given below became the new and final order of the three news packages. Story #1: Health Center relocation Story #2: Elizabethtown Colleges emergency preparedness (http://www.we-town.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/EPpkg.mov) Story #3: Job Market on Central PA (http://www.we-town.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/PKG3JobMarket.mov) The first story focused on the relocation of the Elizabethtown College health center to an offcampus location across from Schlosser Residence. This relocation had an impact on the students of the College and the Residents of the Community. The new center is built as part of the Penn State Hershey medical facility where the residents and students alike are sharing the facility. This was the highlight of the first news package.

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For this video, the interview appointments were scheduled back to back on a Wednesday afternoon because of the relative proximity of the two sources. They were physically present on two different sections of the Brossman Commons Center. Sandy Spayd, Director of Health Services, and Brittany Daiutolo, a sophomore Biology major and an accomplished assistant of the Wellness Center on campus agreed to speak for the package. These sources were appropriate as Spayd is the overall authoritative figure for Health Services at Elizabethtown College. This shows that, in the event, expert advice is required on a subject; the sources ought to show some authority on the subject matter. Daiutolo, on the other hand, is a spokesperson for the campus community. An obscure aspect of the pre-production process is source selection. The quotes from the interviews should drive the main theme of the package. Therefore, questions need to be designed in a way that the authorities project a similar tone throughout the interview. Otherwise the central theme of the news story risks being transformed or might appear conflicting to the viewer. Technical Difficulty Technical Difficulties can sometimes render certain attempts futile. For example, the package about emergency preparedness was initially supposed to be the first news story to be posted to the website. However, a simple technical alteration caused an entire video interview to fail. Katherine Smyser, Director of Public Relations at the American Red Cross located in Lancaster agreed to be filmed for an interview. During the interview, one of her shirt collars covered the lavaliere microphone which resulted in the sound quality being extremely poor. Although, she agreed for a second recording, a more appropriate source was found.

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Currently the Director of Communications at Elizabethtown College, Lori Burke is a former employee of the Three Mile Island. The assumption here was that given that she does not have any direct affiliation with the Three Mile Island her views would have a greater possibility of fairness. Another contingent factor was that she had been an employee of the plant which exposed her to information to which Smyser never had access. This view also aligns with Rosenblums claims that the authority in a newsroom may not be the best reporter in certain cases. His example was about the United States military that has been in Iraq for over five years now. Throughout the entire U.S. occupation Iraq, American TV reporters have covered news stories and reported for their respective news networks with little or no knowledge of the Arabic language, the countrys history, or the country itself. Although these news pieces govern the opinions of the American nationals, the important question to ask is whether they are receiving fair, accurate, and timely news. On the other hand, several Iraqis with their video cameras have recorded and are still reporting the horrible life conditions that they are a part of today. How much exposure has those stories had in the news realm? (Rosenbaum, 2008) Serena Carpenter mentions that professional journalists have a tendency to operate on a very formulaic nature. Their obsession with the standard of objectivity and using the same routine sources repeatedly restricts their creativity and affects their roles as gatekeepers of information. Carpenter also specifies Shoemaker and Reeses comments about how the traditional media workers who use the same patterned, repeated practices, sometimes using the same figures of authority to finish their work in a timely fashion (Carpenter, 2008). This situation can sometimes be aggravated by the pressure of deadlines.

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However, for the pre-production phase of this project, it appeared simpler to keep using Smyser as a source mainly due to her training as a public relations person who would always find appropriate statements to make for a package. This is where professional and grassroots or citizen journalism diverges. Citizen Journalism allows for the room of creativity for the journalists where the sources need to be appropriate for the local coverage. This brings up the notion of Niekamps hyper-local coverage where the information is designed to appeal to a small geographic area i.e. Central PA specifically Elizabethtown (Niekamp, 2009). This poses a threat to the traditional gate-keeping responsibility of professional journalists. Nevertheless, now it has become a part of citizen journalism and it forms part of the citizen journalists duty to engage and provide that perspective that would help the immediate community. Goode defines this phenomenon as metajournalism where the citizens fill out the fine lines that journalists often cannot access. This limitation of access for professional journalists is fairly new as they are used to following the standard of objectivity since the 1930s where a reporter is just supposed to report the facts but not the critical thinking that ought to complement it. Social news websites are Digg.com and Newsvine permit users to submit, rate, recommend, and comment on news stories. These website are solid examples of the added dimension in the realm of news today. In the past entertainment encroached into the sphere of information coining hybrid terms such as infotainment, today opinions are emerging as an equal partner demanding its share. Thus, source selection became an important task. For the health center video, the talent stand-up contains opinions or agreed-upon facts such as proper hydration, etc.

Citizen Journalism Gathering Equipment

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Equipment can be the success or the tragedy of a great production. Items such as a camera, tripod, lavaliere or boom microphone, XLR cable(s), and a couple of batteries are absolute necessities when preparing to shoot video. The time when a microphone need not be carried is when B-roll is shot as the built-in microphone on the camera is efficient enough to pick up ambient noise. These requirements concur with Rosenbaums views. He said, With the current technological ease, it is possible for a one-man crew to make high-quality, intelligent, and, most importantly, very inexpensive television. All of the videos were completed by a one-man crew. This essentially requires the one person, the citizen journalist to make fool-proof plans that will hopefully not fail as these packages were constructed under lenient deadlines. The steps detailed above are as follows: selecting and scheduling sources, and gathering equipment to record the interviews and the relevant B-roll. These are all necessary and sufficient in the pre-production phase of project. It shows the amount of responsibility on the sole citizen journalist and the consequential joy of completing this challenge. As per the charge from the client more news content was produced for the We-town website via the three news stories. The pre-production phase of the project basically entails the building blocks for the rest of the venture until completion. At this point of any video package production, it is quite impossible to successfully predict the outcome or the centrality of the news story, mainly because of the quotes from the interviews which, once again, seem to be the driving force behind an entire video story. This is not to say that the sources have to necessarily agree with the

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citizen journalist because even a disagreement could be a newsworthy, although conflicting, item. Conclusion In brief, the pre-production phase of the process contains extensive planning and accumulation of necessary components to achieve the goal of increased news content on the web. The production phase includes shooting video interviews with the sources, shooting B-roll for the news footage and finally editing and piecing together the entire story. All factors starting from source selection to gathering equipment have a profound impact on the production process. If close attention to details is not paid, technical difficulties such the aforementioned interview with poor sound quality may occur. In the field of journalism, it is often said that video production is 90 percent planning and 10 percent execution. This ends the discussion of the first 90 percent. The next section will include the recording and editing phase.

Citizen Journalism CHAPTER 4- Production Introduction

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This phase of the project effectively combines the actual recording of the raw video: the interviews, the B-roll and the stand-up with edited entirety that is later presented on the citizen journalism website, We-town.com. Although this phase is considered to be only 10 percent of the entire project, this requires substantial amount of work. It is so because minor mistakes in this production phase heavily affect the final outcome. A. Forecast the production process to be discussed Fundamentally, the steps in the production phase include the recording of the source interviews, recording of appropriate B-roll, recording the featured voice over, and editing to piece together the entire story. As these videos are uploaded onto the web, the final step is to publish them on We-town.com through Word Press. B. Phases or steps It is not apparent but the learning curve for recording raw data is actually quite steep. Angela Grant, a writer for Quill magazine, says that there can be no how to or beginners lesson on video production (Grant, 2008). One can learn about the different functions of the equipment and what task, primary and secondary, they accomplish but in order to create excellent quality video. But videos can only be enhanced as a direct result of practice. Rosenblum explains the notion of the one-person crew creating, high-quality, intelligent and fairly inexpensive television (Rosenblum, 2008). As an experienced video journalist it is easier from Rosenblums frame of reference to say that one is capable of creating high-quality videos with the current technology. Nevertheless, in reality a citizen journalist might lack the

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professional journalistic knowledge to create those professional videos. Reichs research discussed this further detail and a portion of it will be included in the summative evaluation section of this manuscript. Reich simply isolates the opinion of the school of thought that questions the level of professionalism of the videos. Shooting Given the nature of video production, two elements have to concur in order for the video to look great. That is the immersion between the audio and the video components of a production. In other words, the final outcome of an audio-visual content means exactly that the elements of sound and vision need to be congruent. When recording personal interviews, it is absolutely imperative that the videographer carries either a boom or a lavaliere microphone. The training that students of Elizabethtown College receive from the Communications department it almost amounts to a cardinal sin if an interview is recorded through the built-in microphone on the camera. The purpose for that microphone, as it is often called channel 2, is to pick up ambient noise. Another emphasis needs to be on checking sound levels. The readings on the LCD display of the digital cameras reflect very closely the sound levels that are being recorded. However, one can always be conventional and carry a set of headphones to ensure that the right level of sound is recorded. Although there are several computer programs such as Audacity, etc. that allows the user to manipulate the sound wave in a given recording it renders the quality of the sound to appear maneuvered. Some may argue that these form part of the pre-production phase of a project but these concerns are not met with until the actual recordings are conducted. In order to capture superior quality

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video, it is essential to white balance the footage. This means that under a given lighting what the camera sees as the color white. Once again, the LCD screen on the digital camera projects a cogent reflection of the footage being captured. During the filming of the third news package, an issue with the white balance of the camera was confronted. The interview with Dr. Trostle was conducted in his office where upon entry the videographer white-balanced the camera. At this point the desk lamp was on that created a tint of orange for which the white-balance feature on the digital camera compensated. However, when the actual interview recording started the desk lamp was turned off. Consequentially the video looked orange as the colors had moved in the color spectrum because of the relative change in light. The pre-production phase is of utmost importance for this step to work i.e. recording the source interviews. If the questions that need to be asked, the acquisition or lack of proper equipment, and the time and place of the interviews are not established with careful planning the production phase may not progress smoothly. The step that follows the recording of the source interviews is the logging of tapes. It requires the footage to be closely examined to find out what quote, which should approximately run between 8 to 15 seconds, would work best for the package. Then it is time to record the time in the tape for the length of which it runs. This is how a tape is logged. The order of this step in the process varies according to the videographers preference as some may choose to log tapes after recording B-roll which was not the case in this particular video exemplified below. To view the actual production phase of this project, an example is given as follows: for the most recent video package about the job market in Central PA, the source interviews were conducted

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over a weeks time. First contact was established with the Elizabethtown Chamber of Commerce asking for a member who would like to speak about the situation of their business in terms of hiring practices since the recession. After a week of unanswered emails and calls, a public relations officer from the Elizabethtown Chamber of Commerce nominated Eugene Hollick, the President of Elexio Inc. as a source. This business has one of the highest employees in Elizabethtown and that is 23. After carrying out an interview with Eugene Hollick, the videographer for the project logged the tape. It means that using the VCR feature in the camera, the videographer noted down on a piece of paper the approximate minutes and seconds for the length of which the quotes run. This same practice was repeated after the interview with Dr. Randolph Trostle. This gave the videographer a rough sketch of the befitting B-roll that needs to be shot for completing the video package. On a separate note, it is important to highlight the alternative approach to combining raw video and then logging tapes. When the health center video was recorded, the source interviews and the B-roll footage was all recorded on the same day. It was more sensible to log the tapes following the entire recording yet prior to recording the stand-up. Along with the recording of raw footage for B-roll it is important to record the voice over prior to editing the video. This step is fairly simple given the technological ease and inexpensiveness. Most computers have built-in microphones nowadays or a desk microphone for about $10-15 can be used to record the featured voice over. There is a plethora of voice recording and manipulating software programs on the web today and most of them are open source which means that they are free to use. For the purpose of this project, the program used was Audacity and a built-in microphone was used on a standard HP Pavilion Entertainment Laptop Computer.

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Once the B-roll is recorded it is almost time to edit. However, it is usually very helpful to have more B-roll for padding than needed or planned. It is so because that evades the need to go back out and re-shoot more footage. The stand-up is usually about 8-15 seconds and contains the journalist on camera. The person may express his/her stance on the subject, clarify the conflict in the story or plainly recap what has been said in the story. The final step in connecting the dots is editing. Editing The current technological ease has rendered the editing aspect of this project extremely simple. The program that Elizabethtown College facility offers is Final Cut Pro 7. Final Cut Pro 7 is a software program produced by Apple that allows the user to perform nonlinear editing. The feature of drag and drop that runs similar in most other Apple products makes it incredibly easy for the user to create a high quality video in record time. Certain improvements make Final Cut Pro 7, hereafter FCP7, the best software today for editing. According to the Apple Website, FCP 7 offers expanded ProRes, an Apple code that lets one edit at HD, High Definition, quality video but save at SD, San Disk file sizes. In other words, it helps to create videos that are high quality but take up very little memory space. It also supports almost any format of tape or file-based files and often permits the collaboration of different formats (Apple Website, 2010). FCP 7 also provides a full range of editing and trimming tools added with an array of customization tools for greater flexibility and control. During the formation of the project, the seemingly feasible part was the time spent in the editing room. In addition, open standards such as QuickTime and FxPlug take away the restrictions of interoperability. This, in turn helps upload videos on the web.

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QuickTime is an industry standard for professional video and the FCP supports the full range of QuickTime formats, including expanded Apple ProRes formats. FxPlug is Apples format for filters and transitions that make it possible to create hundreds of extraordinary effects and transitions (Apple website, 2010). These enable the creation of extremely high-quality video with superior effects and transitions yet store them in sizes small enough to be posted on the web. Uploading the video to the web The step that follows editing and perhaps the final step in the production process is uploading the video to the web. The default for FCP 7 saves and exports the video in a standard QuickTime format but that leaves the files too large to be published online. The file tends to be around 100 MB whereas it requires being a fifth of that space. That is achieved through QuickTime compression to a web-quality video where the aspect ratio of the video is reduced to 480 x 360 dpi meaning dots per inch. The sound quality is also maneuvered to 4:1 IMA ratio and the rate is set to 22.05 seconds. These little changes in the compression process help shrink a 2-minute video to about 15 MB and that is acceptable by most standard citizen journalism websites including We-town.com. According to the objective of the project, following these steps with limited formative changes helped accomplish the production of three videos for the website. Although many obstacles arose in the path such as the quality of sound, color temperatures, and the sequencing of shots, the videographer learns and evolves with more practice.

Citizen Journalism Conclusion A. Summary

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The steps below are recaptured in the order that they appeared in the production phase. At this point in the project the sources for the interviews have been selected and sessions have been scheduled as well. The required equipment is gathered and a tentative plan for B-roll is assumed. 1. Recording the sources interviews. This requires the right questions and the expected replies to be congruent with the centrality of the news story. 2. Recording B-roll and the featured voice over part. 3. Logging tapes. This might appear as step two and step four or the way it is laid out here depending on the preference of the videographer. This alternative approach to logging tapes is explained above in the Phases and Steps section. 4. The video is edited. 5. It is compressed to be the appropriate size for web content and eventually uploaded. In this case, it is done using WordPress.

B. Forecast of next chapter The production process and thereby the completion of the project pinpoints several other concepts or ideas that need to be research to understand completely the role of video content through citizen journalism. It is also to be understood that given the increasing rate at which this field is growing there is definitely some monetary gain that is being made by someone in the

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chain. This requires further investigation but the next section will signify some of that information. In the literature review, there is an example of a police brutality video from the Middle East. A few weeks ago a similar video was posted on a citizen journalism website in Pakistan. This brings up the questions, Is Citizen Journalism causing democratization of the media? Will George Bushs dream of nation building and selling the idea of American freedom come alive in the next decade through citizen journalism? These are some aspects of the summative evaluation that will follow.

Citizen Journalism CHAPTER 5- Evaluation Introduction

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This step in the process is necessary to assess the work by quality and through content it represents. The challenge from the client, We-town.com is the research question: What is the most effective way to increase news content on the We-town website? The answer to this question, as supported by the extensive research and the 3-part video project, is that professionally constructed news packages and podcasts can increase news content on the Wetown website. The content that follows essentially provides the definition of formative and summative evaluation. The specifics regarding formative and summative evaluation methods are explained and their results and/or impacts on the project are discussed. Through the evaluation process it can be found that video packages meet the charge of the client, We-town.com.

A. Definition of formative and summative evaluation Formative evaluation, as the term implies, is the assessment that is conducted through the formation of the project. In other words, these could be concepts or ideas that occur to the project coordinator as a simple yet ingenious approach to completing the project. In recording video and editing data, it could be minute details that enhance the quality of the video. This project is particular utilized a formative evaluation process as it became easier to brainstorm, probe an issue, generate involvement, etc. for the components that followed. This process will be detailed further in the section about specifics.

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Summative evaluation is conducted post-completion of the project. It amounts to the realization of related concepts and ideas that are required to be investigated and researched. There are also certain components of formative evaluation that may transpire into the summative part of the story. As a result of completing the evaluation process, it becomes apparent the minor improvements that could be made previously and forms part of the summative evaluation. B. Specifics regarding formative evaluation methods and results/impact on project The evaluation method in discussion here is focus groups. There are certain factors that need to be considered when proctoring an evaluation process. They are detailed below. Qualitative vs. Quantitative Strategy Formative or summative evaluation Although the ideal number varies: the number of members in a focus group is between 56 people Participants should represent (sometimes not statistically) the membership of the target audience If multiple locations are a variable then, a. Location and establishment need to be controlled b. Ensure the recording of focus groups either through text or audio-visual format Employ a facilitator who possesses a script with agenda and questions The neutral third party facilitator introduces and explains the 5-10 questions with the intention to generate conversation The time of day and the length of stay are also quite important

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For all intents and purpose of this project, the evaluation method that was used most closely resembles a focus group. Given the technological connectivity of the Elizabethtown College Network, the video links were sent to four individuals via email and asked questions about the project when the project was in progress. Hence, it became formative evaluation. There are many reasons for using formative evaluation and they can range from brainstorming, probing an issue, generating involvement, testing ideas/concepts and finally exploring complicated scenarios. For this assessment, the list of questions included both quantitative and qualitative components. The members of the focus groups were 2 previous sources, Lori Burke, Director of Communications and Dr. Randolph Trostle, an Associate Business Professor at Elizabethtown College. It included one professor of Communications, Professor David Donovan and finally a member of the student body and a junior Communications major, Caitlin Koller. Some of these members were picked as they are resident of Lancaster County, with one exception, along with playing the aforementioned roles. This validates Niekamps concept of hyper-local coverage where the news stories are region-specific. Therefore, the evaluation standard followed suit. In order of appearance, only the second and the third video were used. In other words, the video package about the emergency preparedness and the job market in Central PA were the videos in question. The questions, with some minor changes, appeared to the members as follows: 1. Was the story newsworthy? 2. On a scale of 1-5, how would you rate it in terms of video elements such as lighting, shot sequence, etc? 3. Did the sources seem appropriate for the package?

Citizen Journalism 4. Did it contain elements that seemed specific to this community? The email transcripts of the answers from the members are included below:

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Reviewer 1: Dr. Randolph Trostle, also a source interview, reviewed the video package about the job market in Central PA. 1. Yes, the current recession and resulting higher than normal unemployment are both very newsworthy and the subject of almost daily articles in both the regional/local newspapers as well as the more national papers. 2. 4 3. Yes 4. Yes P.S. - Please see belowplease note that the national unemployment rate is 9.7% (covering all categories of persons). The figure you quote at the end of the video is for college

graduateshence, the pointa college degree makes a big difference regarding the probability of being employed vs. a non-college grad! Reviewer 2: Prof. David Donovan reviewed the same video and had the following comments 1. Yes somewhat. It is good to see that the central PA seems to be a bit more recession proof than most areas. 2. Lighting 3.5/4.. Many off center shots and I wasnt too keen on the coffee cup in the background but it did make it seem more informal. 3. Both are leading member of the business community..so I would say, yes. 4. Yesbut more so to the general area than just Elizabethtown. Reviewer 3: Lori Burke, another source interview, reviewed the emergency preparedness video.

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1. I think emergency preparedness is one of those tough issues people OUGHT to be concerned about it, but it slips to the bottom of the plate in the face of more pressing news. Should the story be newsworthy, ABSOLUTELY. Is it newsworthy, not sure. I think you did a good job with stringing it together. I would have liked to have seen the piece either take a educational tone, and have provided the viewer with information on how they could be better informed, or a hard-hitting news tone. 2. Im assuming that 1 is low and 5 is high Id probably give this a 3 in terms of the video elements. I thought you did a nice job stringing the story together. [Im sorry I gave you such a feeble quote to work with. =)] I liked the way you integrated the interviews with your B roll. The story flowed logicallyyou seemed to use ambient lighting with most of the shoots. 3. I think you chose the right people to interview on the subject. And the quotes seemed relevant to the topic and meaningful for the story. 4. The story certainly should be of interest to/relevant for the community. Again, I have to go back to the point that people generally are interested in emergency planning only during an emergency which is a shame, in my estimation. Unfortunately, Kollers comments did not make it in time to be recorded. However, the rest of the comments show the mistakes and errors that existed in the formation of the project. As the objective of the evaluation process is to yield constructive criticism, the goal was obtained as changes or improvements were made to compensate for the ones possible. More importantly, it showed the videographer the steep learning curve that even professional are climbing at all times.

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C. Specifics regarding summative evaluation methods and results/impact on project Short-term and long-term summative evaluation The following text includes both short-term and long-term summative evaluation. With the transforming nature of citizen journalism and it relative portals it would be difficult to distinguish a timeline for these assessments. Citizen Journalism today is causing the media to be more democratic, even in countries where the freedom of speech is oppressed. From the literature review an example is of a police brutality video from Egypt. A few weeks ago a similar video was posted on CNNs I-report by a Pakistani national. This brings up the notion of the level of democratization that Citizen Journalism is causing and projects and will these change the value systems in oppressed nations around the world. These concepts require further investigation. Product-placement was considered the destruction of the fourth wall and a revolution in the world of advertising. Is citizen journalism that destruction or addition of a dimension to the traditional journalistic practice? When Goode defined meta-journalism was he indicating in this path? This should prompt one to ask should the incredibly fast emergence of Citizen Journalism have an ulterior motive of making greenbacks somewhere in the chain and in essence, it does. Larger news networks such as CNN, MSNBC and Reuters all encourage viewers to share their stories, photos and video. This information that the companies use on television as well as on the Web once posted on the website legally become a property of these networks. CNN's "IReport," MSNBC's "FirstPerson" and Reuters' partnership with Yahoo! on "You Witness News"

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may bear some differences superficially but they do not pay contributors any monetary compensation (Potter, 2007). Yahoos purchase of Flickr (the photo-sharing site housing many interesting developments in citizen photojournalism) in 2005, Googles acquisition of Blogger.com in 2003 and YouTube in 2006, and MSNBCs acquisition of Newsvine in 2007 are salient examples of influx of largescale commerce and advertising dollars encroaching steadily into the area of citizen journalism (Goode, 2009). With the introduction of AdSense on Blogger.com and advertisements on Twitter marks the beginning of product placement in the realm of news. These facets of citizen journalism need further research and exploration. The future students of Senior Seminar either in Communications discipline or another closely related field should consider investigating and exploring some of these aspects of citizen journalism. Some research may also be conducted in the relative use of videos on the web and how it affects the modern society. Other possible topics of research might be attention spans and level of retention through the use of short videos that this generation so frequently feeds off.

Conclusion In conclusion, the objective was to create more audio-visual content for the We-town website. Hence, the research question became what is the most effective way to increase news content on the We-town website? This research paper introduces the charge from the client and the possible solution. The second section details the research accumulated for the smooth operation and the formation of the

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project. Chapter 3 and 4 discuss the production phase in its entirety and this section emphasizes on the post-production assessment of the project. As a result of conducting extensive research and completing the three-part video project, it is evident that professionally constructed news packages and podcasts can increase news content on the We-town website.

Citizen Journalism References

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Carpenter, S. (2008). How online citizen journalism publications and online newspapers utilize the objectivity standard and rely on external sources. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 85(3), 531-584 Goode, L (2009). Social news, citizen journalism, and democracy. New Media and Society, 11(8), 1287-1305. Grant, A. (2008). Backpack journalism: Get a camera and go! Its the only way to learn. Quill. March 2008, 16-17. Rosenblum, M. (2008). Video news: The videojournalist comes of age. Nieman Reports, Winter 2008, 75-77. Hamdy, N. (2009). Arab citizen journalism in action: Challenging mainstream media, authorities and media laws. Westminster Papers in Communication & Culture, 6(1), 92112. Muthukumaraswamy, K. (2010). When the media meet crowds of wisdom. Journalism Practice, 4(1), 48-65. Niekamp, R. (2009). Community correspondent: One broadcaster's attempt at citizen journalism. Southwestern Mass Communication Journal, 24(2), 45-53.

Potter, D. (2007). You Witness News. American Journalism Review, 29(2), 66.

Reich, Z. (2008). How citizens create news stories? Journalism Studies, 9(5), 739-758.

Citizen Journalism Robinson, S (2009). If you had been with us: Mainstream press and citizen journalists jockey

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for authority over memory of Hurricane Katrina. New Media and Society, 11(5), 795-814. Serant, C (2009). Citizen journalists starting newspapers in towns that have lost their weeklies. Grassroots Editor. Thurman, N. (2008). Forums for citizen journalists: Adoption of user generated content initiatives by online news media. New Media & Society, 10(1), 139-157. Unknown Author. (2007). About Us page. Retrieved from http://www.we-town.com Unknown Author. (2010). Final Cut Pro page. Retrieved from http://www.apple.com