Agenda Set for Citizen Journalism Training Workshops
Our first citizen journalism training workshop is just three days away, and so we thought it was a good time to share the agenda for each of the four workshops. Here it is:
Workshop #1: Thursday, March 5, 2009
- Introduction to The Public Square Project and PittPoint
- What is Citizen Journalism and Why is it Important?
- Overview of PittPoint Citizen Journalism Training Workshops
- Building the Story Idea Bank
- The Basics of Interviewing
Workshop #2: Thursday, March 12, 2009
- Citizen Journalism and the Changing Media Landscape
- The Basics of News Reporting
- How to Structure a News Story
- Introduction to Media Law and Journalism Best Practices
- Using Public Documents in News Reporting
Workshop #3: Thursday, March 19, 2009
- The Goal of Good News Writing
- Effective News Writing Techniques
- The Importance of News Editing
- Writing a News Story
- Outlining a PittPoint News Story
Workshop #4: Thursday, March 26, 2009
- Recap of Effective Reporting and News Writing Techniques
- First Look at PittPoint and How to Use It
- Open Writing Session with PittPoint Editors
Each workshop will be held at The Union Project (801 North Negley Ave., Pittsburgh) from 6-8 p.m. on Thursdays in March. The workshops will be presented by a number of professional journalists and citizen journalists. You can RSVP for the workshops by sending a message to info@thepublicsquareproject.org. We hope to see you there!
More information about why The Public Square Project is hosting the citizen journalism training workshops can be found here.
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The Public Square Posterous
In order to provide the latest and greatest in blogging technology, The Public Square Project is now going to be blogging at our new Posterous blog - The Public Square Posterous, which you can check out that this link, or at publicsquare.posterous.com. Come on over and join the conversation about government transparency, Government 2.0 technology, and citizen journalism.
Public=Online
On Thursday of this week, I was in Washington, D.C. to participate in a panel discussion on the importance of transparency at all levels of government. The panel was hosted by the Sunlight Foundation and Google and held at Google's D.C. office. I'll share my thoughts on the panel in the next post, but I wanted to first explain why I was there.
Year One of The Public Square Project: Where We've Been, Where We're Headed.
It's hard to believe that it has been one year since we kicked off the work of The Public Square Project with a series of citizen journalism training workshops held at The Union Project in East Liberty. Since that time, we have registered some key successes, dealt with many challenges, and made our share of mistakes.
Report the News. Make Money!
The Public Square Project is now offering a one-time $75.00 stipend to the first 10 citizen journalists who publish a news story in the upcoming edition of The Pittsburgh Citizen, formerly PittPoint, the new citizen-driven news site and publishing platform developed by The Public Square Project (read more below). It's that simple: Report the News. Make Money.*
News
Public Square Project is quietly tapping the power of local citizen journalists
A grassroots project is quietly emerging as a profound voice for citizen activists in the region.
PMweekend Features Citizen Journalism Workshops
Belated thank you to Pittsburgh Magazine for featuring The Public Square Project's Citizen Journalism Workshops in PMweekend.
Blog Role
BY CHRIS YOUNG, Pittsburgh City Paper
Old-media journalists are losing jobs everywhere, while new-media journalists often lack the resources and expertise to fill in the gaps. But Ryan Hopkins hopes his effort to combine old and new media will improve local news reporting and create greater government transparency.