citizen journalism

Late last Friday journalists and protesters gathered outside the home of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to speak out in defense of the First Amendment. The event drew more police than participants, which only reinforced the message the group hoped to send regarding the NYPD’s heavy-handed approach to journalists covering Occupy Wall Street. 

Last fall in New York and Los Angeles, when the cities and police departments internally coordinated efforts to block and suppress press coverage of raids on Occupy encampments, the bulk of the video and images coming out of those events was from citizen journalists and livestreamers. At the time, there was a lot of talk about whether police were intentionally targeting journalists. In light of many of the firsthand accounts from journalists who were arrested and harassed, it appeared so. Ironically, while police arrested and roughed up journalists with credentials and professional equipment, those with cellphone cameras and laptops often passed in and out of police lines documenting the raids.

Read more →

The Colorado History Museum gift shop in Denver is already selling collector’s copies of the final edition of the Rocky Mountain News for $5 a piece. 

But last night, more than 200 people showed up at the museum to prove that quality journalism is not yet a thing of the past. At an event organized by SaveTheNews.org and Denver’s IWantMyRocky.com, local citizens, journalists and nonprofit leaders came together to talk about the future.
 

Read more →