MGP2006: Democracy & Independence -- Sharing News & Politics in a Connected World

Bowen sends along link to Schiffrin essay on non-profit ownership

Wally Bowen (MGP2006) at the Mountain Area Information Network in Asheville, N.C., sends along a link to an essay by the founder of New York City's non-profit The New Press, Andre Schiffrin. Schiffrin argues that newspapers can be owned by non-profit foundations, citing successful models in England, Germany and Denmark. Here's the link:

http://mondediplo.com/2007/10/13publishing

The topic of fresh ideas for ownership of news organization is the topic of a March 28 day-long seminar which is being organized by Geneva Olverholser (MGP2006 / JTM2007) of the University of Missouri. The Washington, D.C., event is still in the planning stages, but Overholser says it will inclde speakers from Great Britain, Canada, Sweden and elsewhere. (Info: overholserg@missouri.edu)

MGP alum George White sees watchdog-muckracking in Africa

MGP2006 alum George White – assistant director and editor at the UCLA-based Center for Communications and Community www.C3.ucla.edu – spent three weeks in Ghana and Benin exploring ways to help support journalism institutions and community media in West Africa. Among others, White met with the following: Alfred Opubor of the West African Newsmedia and Development agency (WANAD), Kwawme Karikari, director of the Media Foundation for West Africa and Alex and Wilna Quarmyne, founders and co-directors of the Ghana Community Radio Network. White hopes to encourage and assist an emerging watchdog-muckraking movement in African media. He expects to work on press freedom issues and coverage matters relating to human rights with the Media Foundation for West Africa. Also, he anticipates working with WANAD on techniques for improving coverage of development. In addition, he plans to help provide technical and content assistance to community radio stations in the region. Says White, who has a M.A. in African history: “A vigorous, unfettered news media is an important building block for development.”

MGP2006 alum Conor Kenny launches "wiki the vote" at Congresspedia

Conor Kenny, (MGP2006) managing editor of the "Congresspedia Project" says they've launched "Wiki the Vote," a citizen-driven effort to cover the 2008 congressional electoins. Using wikis, citizens will post detailed information about the pre-primary record of each candidate. Washington, D.C.-based Congresspedia was started by the Center for Media and Democracy in Madison, Wis., and is funded in part by the Sunlight Foundation (Ellen Miller, JTM2007). It is part of CMD's SourceWatch.org project (www.SourceWatch.org) -- an on-line collaborative encyclopedia of the people, organizations, and issues shaping the public agenda. More than 280 basic profiles of confirmed 2008 congressional candidates have been created. In true open-source fashion, candidates and campaign volunteers are free to contribute documented information about both challengers and incumbents. They are asked, however, to identify themselves when making such edits. "Contributions to Congresspedia are judged by !
their accuracy and sourcing - not who made them," Kenny says in an emailed news release. The Congresspedia project contains nearly 2,000 citizen-authored articles on legislation, lawmakers, committees and congressional procedure to give a comprehensive picture of how -- and why -- Congress operates as it does. The articles benefit from being part of the more than 30,000 articles that make up SourceWatch. Kenny is at conor@sourcewatch.org / 202-277-6427.

mgp2006: Mark Briggs' excellent reference book for "Web 2.0" journalism -- PDF download

MGP2006 advisor Jan Shaffer is editor and MGP2006 alum Steve Fox is a collaborator on a new 132-page all-you-need-to-know guide to multimedia reporting.  (READ COMPLETE REVIEW) "Journalism 2.0: How to Survive and Thrive -- A digital literacy guide for the the information age," is by Mark Briggs, of the Tacoma News Tribune. Its a falling-off-a-log-easy-to-read guide to how to be a Web 2.0 reporter. And its available as a free download under the Creative Commons license:

DOWNLOAD LINK: http://www.j-lab.org/Journalism_20.pdf