GroundReport.com

News Publishers Debate Journalism's Future Live at Aspen Summit

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:00:52 -0500

Is American journalism in peril?

On August 16, leaders of the nation's most prominent media organizations will discuss the future of their profession in the leafy environs of Aspen, Colorado. The topic is a tortuous one: how to fund responsible, public-serving journalism as media models crumble in the face of dwindling advertising and classified dollars, increased competition and changing audience behavior.

The format of the Aspen Institute event, 'Of the Press: Models for Preserving American Journalism,' is meant to facilitate straight, informal talk across industries, juxtaposing power brokers like Madeleine Albright with new media proponents like Jeff Jarvis. Participants include NPR President Vivian Schiller, Washington Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli, Google VP of Search and User Experience Marissa Mayer, and MediaNews CEO Dean Singleton. Gordon Crovitz, the former Wall Street Journal publisher now launching the much-publicized Journalism Online e-commerce venture with Steven Brill, will also be in attendance.

Collectively, the participants at this year's forum represent thousands of newspapers, radio stations and television channels--meaning the corridor conversations at the conference could translate to sweeping strategic changes in American media.

Part of the Aspen Institute Forum on Communications and Society program helmed by Charlie Firestone, citizen journalism platform GroundReport will produce the live broadcast for the third consecutive year, powered by Livestream, at http://aspeninstitute.tv.

Watch the event live August 17-19 starting at 10:45 AM EST every morning at http://aspeninstitute.tv. Tune in for live chat and daily coverage via GroundReport and Twitter.

GroundReport Recognized for Raising Citizen Journalism Standards

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:42:03 -0500

What's next for citizen journalism platform GroundReport? Raising the bar.

I spoke last week with David Cohn about GroundReport's new editorial process and standards-- the highest in the industry-- and how they've led to better global reporting. The interview was published on the PBS MediaShift blog.

David Cohn is a friend, and founder of San Francisco's innovative community-funded news platform Spot.us, a GroundReport content partner.

GroundReport's Digital Reporter Toolkit at the NASA Shuttle Launch

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:36:43 -0500

GroundReport CEO Rachel Sterne was on site for the NASA Atlantis shuttle launch on Monday, covering mission STS-125 alongside big media outlets with vast budgets and resources.

Here Rachel walks us through the GroundReport digital reporter's mobile rig, livestreaming the video of the launch at a fraction of the cost with the latest tools and technologies that bring citizen journalists on par with mainstream media.

You can watch GroundReport's video of the launch here.

GroundReport's Field Guide to NYC Entrepreneurship

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:57:27 -0500

Want to get started as an entrepreneur in New York City?

GroundReport CEO Rachel Sterne asked the NYC Twitter community for their thoughts on why New York is the ultimate startup city. The tweets helped structure the Field Guide to NYC Entrepreneurship: a quick overview of the city's resources, with tips for getting launched and noticed.

Presented at BootUpNYC, the guide is free and available for download on SlideShare.

GroundReport's Field Guide to NYC Entrepreneurship

View more presentations from RachelSterne.

Beatblogging, Mashable and BootUpNYC on GroundReport

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 07:40:27 -0500

Our hyperlocal citizen media platform has seen a flurry of coverage in recent days. Here's the latest:

In BeatBlogging piece GroundReport is hyperlocal gone global — but will it work?, Lily Q digs deep for a well-researched piece that weighs GroundReport's strategies and interviews other innovators like Charlie Sennot of GlobalPost on the potential of the international news space.

Meanwhile Mashable's Social Media Hub: New York looks at key players in New York City's digerati, listing GroundReport CEO Rachel Sterne as a 'Media Maker.'

And BootUpNYC will host Sterne as a speaker on Wednesday, April 22, as part of their New York Entrepreneur Week event at Webster Hall.

GroundReport Named 'Most Promising Social Enterprise' in BusinessWeek

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 11:31:29 -0500

GroundReport in BusinessWeek!

Thanks to your hard work and bravery, I'm thrilled to announce that GroundReport is featured in BusinessWeek as one of America's most promising social enterprises. You can read the full story here.

But we still need your help. BusinessWeek is asking readers to vote on the ventures, and will announce a winner May 2nd. Please vote now for GroundReport and help us win!

Our Latest Breaking Scoops

Our ranks continue to gain valuable new contributors from around the globe covering issues of local and international significance. A few of our latest standouts:

Emanthi Marambe, a veteran journalist from Sri Lanka, produced stunning reports on Tamil Tiger confrontations and outbreaks of Rubella and Dengue Fever.

Photographer Stefan Kristinsson of Iceland is publishing breaking accounts of the economic crisis there, from videos of protests to updates on the banking sector.

And in Chicago, citizen reporter Gail Tang covered the extreme police response to the otherwise light-hearted World Pillow Fight Day, which ended in arrests.

All Thanks to You

Once again, thank you all for making GroundReport what it is today. Your efforts continue to amaze and, yes, change the world. Please help us continue to grow by telling friends about GroundReport and covering the world's most crucial stories.

GroundReport busca bloggers de Trinidad y Tobago para cubrir la Cumbre de las Américas

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:30:06 -0500

La plataforma internacional de periodismo ciudadano GroundReport.com busca bloggers y periodistas digitales nativos de Trinidad y Tobago para cubrir desde una perspectiva local la Cumbre de las Américas que se celebrará en Puerto España entre el 17 y el 19 de abril de 2009.

GroundReport esta interesado en todos los formatos de cobertura digital, incluyendo vídeo, texto y fotografía. Los elegidos no recibirán un pago específico por su colaboración, pero obtendrán una acreditación de prensa para asistir el evento, la publicación de sus trabajos en GroundReport y la potencial difusión de esos trabajos, bajo su firma, en otras plataformas y medios. Y el poder compartir su voz con el mundo para mostrar la visión trinitense de la Cumbre de las Américas.

Para participar, hay que enviar un email con los datos personales a info@groundreport.com, poniendo como asunto ‘Summit of the Americas’. E incluyendo enlaces a los blogs personales y trabajos similares si los hubiera, así como un curriculum o historial personal si se tuviera.

El último día para enviar solicitudes es el martes 24 de marzo de 2009.

Los finalmente elegidos se comprometerán a publicar en GroundReport dos entradas diarias sobre el evento. Esas publicaciones podrán ser en inglés, español, francés u otras lenguas locales.

As Pakistan Censors Media, GroundReport and Twitter Become News Hubs

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:53:15 -0500

As Pakistan's Long March protest heats up, the government has begun to crack down, arresting and torturing activists, blocking roads and banning public assembly.

The next casualty? The media.

The Long March is nationwide protest in Pakistan in which lawyers are marching from all corners of the country to stage a sit-in March 16th in Islamabad, demanding the restoration of judges fired during Ex-President Pervez Musharraf's reign.

The rallies have the country in upheaval, and media censorship is underway. Today, the Committee to Protect Journalists confirmed that cable carriers have dropped Geo TV, the largest independent news broadcaster, in five major cities. On Twitter, user @Sharj commented that "Pakistani Government has also blocked the transmission of News Channels in many cities."

And indeed, Twitter has begun to serve as Pakistan's news hub in the absence of a functioning media. There's a Long March 'hashtag', #longmarch, which functions to make related news updates more easily found.

As events unfold, GroundReport has identified local reporters via Twitter, culling the best updates and analysis.

Local Pakistani blog Chowrangi is using Cover It Live to display realtime Twitter updates and chat messages from selected bloggers.

The latest? Pakistanis are doubting that the lawyers will even make it to Islamabad, suggesting, as @kashaziz does, that they will reach an agreement beforehand.

SeeClickFix and Extraordinaries Win $50K We Media Contest

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 07:50:40 -0600

Young entrepreneurs Ben Berkowitz of SeeClickFix and Jacob Colker of Extraordinaries won $25,000 each last week as part of the We Media conference's Pitch It! competition. The guys faced fierce competition in the contest, but ultimately won over judges by showing a game-changing but financially viable media model.

Here Ben and Jacob introduce their projects, plans to spend the money, and how they might work together.

How Can We Distinguish Credible Citizen Journalism?

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:53:48 -0600

This week our peers at the International Center for Journalists ask the most crucial question facing citizen media: how to separate the wheat from the chaff?

Jessica Weiss writes:

For the most part, citizen journalism remains unedited and unfiltered. But some Web sites are trying to change that. Citizen media site GroundReport, for instance, was founded in 2006 by a reporter hoping to find, highlight and monetize the most powerful and credible citizen media reports online.

The business model: Try to incentivize high quality work by paying contributors whose reports receive the most traffic, and vet content through a team of community and internal editors. Individuals, in a sense, become self-sustaining news producers.

What do you think: is a "self-policing" model such as GroundReport a way for credible reporters to distinguish themselves amidst the deluge of citizen reporting? Is this the future of citizen journalism? Are there other ways to distinguish credible citizen reporting?

But payment and self-policing are just a small piece of how we vet content on GroundReport. I added a few more methods to keep in mind:

Anyone can flag any article or video, and report abuse of GroundReport's guidelines
Every reporter has a rating, out of five stars, that shows her average report rating over all time
Every reporter has a profile that details all of his past work, as well as credentials
Most crucially, GroundReport is eternally thankful for our hard-working core of selective Editors. Editors are professionally trained and can edit and flag any piece of reporting on GroundReport.com

What do you think should be done? How can we bring higher standards to citizen media, and make it into a viable part of the media landscape? Join the discussion here.