“Reader-writers” fight for the front page
From a site called Springwise comes news of a new “open-source media” effort in Denmark. A free paper called Nyhedsavisen has given bloggers and other “citizen journalists” the ability to make it onto the front page of the paper’s website at Avisen.dk, where their stories appear beside articles written by the newspaper’s regular staff.
As the Springwise story puts it, “pros and amateurs compete for top positions in the most read and most debated sections.” If they want to become “Læserskribenter” (which translates as “reader-writers”), users create a profile and set up a blog, then write about whatever they choose. The pieces that make it to the front page are chosen on the basis of popularity.
So far no plans to compensate any of the “citizen journalists” for their efforts, according to Springwise — which points to a list at Trendspotting of the open-source media projects that do compensate their contributors, including several that specialize in photos (such as Scoopt.com), as well as the South African Reporter site, run by one of the country’s largest media conglomerates, which is a wholly user-produced site that pays “reporters” whose stories make it to the front page.
Related posts:
