6/23/07

Citizen Journalism HuffPo Style

Any takers from Connecticut's Blogoshere in helping in this Citizen Journalism project to provide coverage of the election campaigns?
OffTheBus:
HuffPost's Citizen Journalism Project Gets A Name, and Gets Rolling Here's an update on the exciting new citizen journalism project Huffington Post is launching. Read More
Just a quick explanation of what they are hoping to accomplish from Arianna Huffington:
At the end of March, I told you about the exciting new citizen journalism project Huffington Post is launching in partnership with NYU professor Jay Rosen and his experimental site, NewAssignment.Net. (If you missed it, read about it here and here).

It's time for an update. For starters, the project now has a name and an expected birth date.

We're calling it Off The Bus (OffTheBus.Net), a name that captures the essence of what we're looking to accomplish. Our disparate mix of citizen reporters won't be part of the mainstream pack covering the campaigns -- and will come at it from a wide range of different angles and perspectives, adding a new dimension to campaign journalism. Click here to sign up to become one of them.

In my travels, I've heard so many people express dissatisfaction with the way campaigns are covered -- especially with the obsession with the horse-race aspect of modern politics. Instead of looking at which candidate has made the most interesting national security proposal or who the candidates surround themselves with as advisers, we get endless discussions of who's up, who's down, who's gaining traction, and who's losing it. In short, the majority of today's political coverage has become a dissection of the latest polls. Reporters have become every bit as poll-driven as candidates.


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