I, Reporter

Pictures Boost Your Story's Visibility

In my recent posting "Embrace Your Learning Curve," I described several tips to help new citizen journalists provide good coverage while even they're starting to learn the ropes of reporting and the nuances of the topic they've chosen to cover.

The last tip on that list, "Think Pictures" actually is pretty important. This one can make a huge difference in the "play" your story gets...

Embrace your learning curve

One thing that often holds people back from doing citizen journalism is that they don't feel like they know enough about an issue or event to cover it well.

I'll let you in on a secret of journalism: You don't have to be an expert to be a good reporter. In fact, it helps to embrace your learning curve and just be willing to start reporting from wherever you happen to be along that curve.

Here's how I did that this week...

Five CitJ Tips to Get You Out of the House

I'll admit it, I'm a geek. I spend way too much time in front of my computer and I don't get out nearly enough -- which is really a shame, since I live in such a wonderful town with lots to do (Boulder, CO).

Yes, I sometimes feel a bit too isolated and inactive. And yes, I know it's my own fault. Fortunately, citizen journalism offers a good solution to that problem. I can use it as both an excuse and a motivation to get out and about in my community. Whether I post coverage to one of my own blogs, to a discussion forum or message board, or to local news sites (such as the Rocky Mountain News site YourHub.com), there's always some easy and appropriate venue for my volunteer news coverage.

Here are five ways you can use citizen journalism to get your butt out of your house...

TIP: Quoting from a Conversation (Audio)

Learning how and when to "put on your journalist hat" can be very tricky, especially for people who are new to the practice of journalism.

Citizen journalists function as both ordinary people and as journalists. Sometime the line gets blurry. For instance, imagine you just had an ordinary conversation with someone who's involved in an issue you wish to cover. What if you forgot to tell them you were also acting as a reporter during that discussion -- or if you only realized after the conversation that you just heard something worth reporting?

That's a very common and potentially risky situation. Here's my take on how you can handle it...

LISTEN NOW! Click that link to listen to or download the MP3 audio file (podcast). It's about 1.1 MB and runs just under five minutes long.

Serendipity Strikes!

You never know where you'll find a news story -- especially if you keep your journalistic radar up and remember to focus on all six core questions of the journalistic mantra (who, what, when, where, why, and how) and choose creatively among them.

Serendipity is, I think, the unheralded goddess of journalism. Here's how she smiled upon me this week...