The concept of citizen journalism and its part in the media ‘ecosystem’ is still misconstrued by those who believe that sites like the UK 's pioneering
The-Latest.Com and the successful South Korean based
OhmyNews have been constructed as an alternative to mainstream news outlets. At
The-Latest our brave challenge has been to give representation to a wider set of views, opinions and comments that the mainstream media would rather not address because of timidity and in the case of some newspapers, the narrow political agenda set by their powerful proprietors. Critics of this new frontier in journalism question the commitment of citizen journalism to the principles of accuracy, fairness and transparency. These ideals are all important in citizen journalisms pursuit of the peoples truth behind the issues that matter.
At a recent international forum on citizen journalism in Incheon, South Korea, the future path of open source journalism was enthusiastically discussed.
Craig Newmark, founder of
Craiglist (which features free classified advertisements) invests in projects like citizen-edited sites that ‘root out corruption and bring transparency to the system’ in the US. He said “The technology part is quite easy, what really matters is to talk truth to power". Although I want to change the world, I am tremendously lazy. So I see my participation more in helping other people help other people change the world”.
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