Community Reporting and Citizen Journalism – A discussion paper from the Institute of Community Reporters

The Institute of Community Reporters was launched in April 2012 at MediaCity in Salford and since then it has launched a new Community Reporter membership scheme.  The aim of the Institute is to achieve positive impact for communities by bringing community voices together to influence change from the ground up. It will do this by aggregating content from across the UK and Europe, raising the profile of member activity at a national level, generating policy papers and research data and bringing in funding opportunities for partners.  Members can enjoy a quality standard, reward, opportunity, clear progression routes and a sense of belonging to encourage on-going participation.

I am  pleased to announce that the Institute has now written its first discussion paper for dissemination:
Community Reporting vs Citizen Journalism

The paper, written by Teresa Wilson, Partnership Manager at People’s Voice Media, explores the terms Community Reporters and  Citizen Journalism. She says, “The ability of the ‘ordinary person on the street’ to create and distribute their own content has increased exponentially over the last decade. [...] The result of this production is certainly a lot of footage of sneezing animals and laughing babies but there is also more depth and heart to the application of these social media tools, and this is the ground held by citizen journalists and community reporters.”

In the paper, Teresa explores what the terms mean, their interchangeability and the subtle but important differences that distinguish  where in the Venn diagram these terms don’t cross.

Download the full article Community Reporting vs Citizen Journalism.  Comments welcome.

For more information on the Institute of Community Reporters or our innovative Social Licence Scheme please contact gary@peoplesvoicemedia.co.uk