The term Citizen media refer to forms of content produced by private citizens who are otherwise not professional journalists. Citizen journalism, Participatory media, and Democratic media are related principles. This Manual of Style has the simple purpose of making things easy to read by following a consistent format — it is a style guide. ... Citizen journalism, also known as participatory journalism, is the act of citizens playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information according to the seminal report We Media: How Audiences are Shaping the Future of News and Information, by Shayne Bowman and Chris...

Principles of Citizen Media

There are many forms of citizen-produced media including blogs, vlogs, podcasts, digital storytelling and more, and may be distributed via television, radio, internet, email and many other forms. Many organizations and instutions exist to facilitate the production of media by private citizens including, but not limited to, Public access, Independent media centers and Community technology centers. It has been suggested that Online diary be merged into this article or section. ... Videoblog, a portmanteau combining video, web, and log, (usually shortened to vlog) is a blog that includes video. ... Podcasting is a way of publishing sound files to the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a feed and receive new audio files automatically. ... Digital Storytelling reflects both a broad reference to the emergent new forms of digital narratives (web-based stories, interactive stories, hypertexts, and narrative computer games) as well as the specific approach of creating short digital films developed by the Center for Digital Storytelling. ... E-mail, or email, is short for electronic mail and is a method of composing, sending, and receiving messages over electronic communication systems. ... Public access television is a cable television service that allows members of the public to use a cable companys facilities and equipment to create and broadcast their own content. ... A community technology center or CTC offers resources to help bridge the digital divide, primarily through public access to computers and the internet. ...

Citizen media bloomed at the birth of the Internet and into the 1990's as a response ^[1] to traditional mass media's neglect of public interest and partisan portrayal of news and world events. Media produced by private citizens may be as factual, satirical, neutral or biased as any other form of media but has no political, social or corporate affiliation. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Public interest is a term used to denote political movements and organizations that are in the public interest—supporting general public and civic causes, in opposition of private and corporate ones (particularistic goals). ... Look up Partisan in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

By 2007, the success of small, independent, private journalists began to rival corporate mass media in terms of audience and distribution. Citizen produced media has earned higher status and public credability since the 2004 US Presidential elections and has since been widely replicated by corporate marketing and political campaigning. Traditional news outlets and commercial media giants have experienced declines in profit and revenue which can be directly attributed to the wider acceptance of citizen produced media as an official source of information.^[2]

Modes of Citizen Media

Radio

The "Public Broadcasting Service" in the United States initiated by the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 sets aside some public funding for producing electronic programming. Traditionally, PBS radio affiliates have not made concessions for private citizen programming or production. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is a non-profit public broadcasting television service with 354 member TV stations in the United States, with some member stations available by cable in Canada. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

• Stations like WBAI, KPFK, KPFK and Pacifica Radio Network have program models which allow citizen participation in aspects of the station, including production.

• Many low power FCC non-commerical/educational license holders are considered community radio stations (including college radio stations), with various levels of participation by the public.

WBAI, a part of the Pacifica Radio Network, is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station, broadcasting at 99. ... KPFK (90. ... KPFK (90. ... Pacifica Radio is a network of five independent, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations in the United States that is known for its leftist and pacifist political views. ... Community radio is a type of radio service that caters to the interests of a certain area, broadcasting material that is popular to a local audience but is overlooked by more powerful broadcast groups. ... College radio (also known as university radio, campus radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college or university. ...

Television

With the birth of Cable television in the 1950's came public interest movements to democratize this new booming industry. Many countries around the world developed legislated means for private citizens to access and use the local cable systems for their own community-initiated purposes. Coaxial cable is often used to transmit cable television into the house. ...

• Public Access Television in the United States is a government mandated model that provides citizens within a cable franchised municipality to get access to the local cable channels to produce and distribute their own television programming. Public access programming is community initiated and serves as a platform to meet local programming needs.

• The Community channel in Canada also provides access for citizens to distribute their own programming content, as well as Community television in Australia.

• Community Technology Centers are private non-profit organizations found in the US that serve to increase access and training in technology for social applications.

Look up public access television in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Community Channel Community Channel broadcasts across the UK on digital cable (NTL and Telewest) and digital terrestrial television (Freeview), and also both the UK and Republic of Ireland on digital satellite television (Sky). ... The phrase community television has been used somewhat differently around the world. ...

Internet

Affordable consumer technology and broader access to the internet has created new electronic distribution methods. While the corporate media market enjoyed a long period of monopoly on media distribution, the internet gave birth to countless independent media producers and new avenues for delivering content to viewers.

• The technological development of Content Management Systems (CMS) in the late 1990's, which allowed non-technical people to author and publish articles to the internet, spawned the birth of weblogs or blogs, Podcasting (audio blogs), Vlogs (video blogs), collaborative wikis, and web-based bulletin boards and "forums" ^[3].

• The social development of Independent Media Centers (IMCs) introduced collaborative Citizen media with concepts of consensus decision making, mandatory inclusion of women and minorties, non-corporate control, the anonymous accreditation. IMCs have been founded in over 200 cities all over the world.^[4]

• Commercial models that use these new methods are being born and acquired by media corporations on a daily basis.

A content management system (CMS) is a a computer software system used to assist its users in the process of content management. ... It has been suggested that Online diary be merged into this article or section. ... Podcasting is the method of distributing multimedia files, such as audio or video programs, over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers. ... Videoblog, a portmanteau combining video, web, and log, (usually shortened to vlog) is a blog that includes video. ... A Wiki or wiki (pronounced wicky, weekee, or veekee; see pronunciation section below) is a website (or other hypertext document collection) that allows users to add content, as on an Internet forum, but also allows anyone to edit the content. ... Indymedia Logo The Independent Media Center (a/k/a Indymedia or IMC) is a global network of independent journalists and alternative media, which takes a generally left-wing perspective on political and social issues. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

References

1. ^ citation needed
2. ^ Peter Leyden, New Politic Institute [[1]]
3. ^ The more proper "fora" is rarely used in this context.
4. ^ citation needed

See also

• Alternative views
• myMaineToday.com offers citizen generated news for all of Maine
• Community Media Association
• Independent World Television
• Independent Media Center
• Center for Citizen Media
• Media democracy
• Media Democracy Day
• Media Democracy Project
• Center for Media and Democracy
• Demosphere Project — The wiki & global project to develop a community based media framework using open source and interactive software. (Wikinews article)
• McChesney, Robert, Making Media Democratic, Boston Review, Summer 1998