CNN, one of the most watched cable news networks in the US, is not shy about incorporating never-before-used technology into its coverage. Whether its the now iconic "Magic Wall" or the questionably useful live holograms, CNN is using technology today that may be the standard for newsrooms everywhere in the future.

iReport

CNN was one of the first major news networks to actively encourage its users to not just send in tips, but to become the reporters themselves, when it launched iReport in 2008. The site encourages citizen journalists to submit photos, video, and stories, some of which appear on-air and many more appear online. iReport is still going strong and to date has received hundreds of thousands of submissions from around the world.

YouTube Debates

CNN really kicked off its use of innovative technologies during the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Instead of a traditional debate with a news anchor fielding the quesions, the YouTube debates encouraged users of the video-sharing site to submit their own questions for the candidates. While the questions themselves were pre-screened and selected, it did mark an important shift toward the incorporation of user-generated content into a traditional media framework.

The Magic Wall

Likely the most hyped touch screen device since the iPhone, CNN debuted the "Magic Wall" during its 2008 political coverage and used it to display zoomable maps, county-by-county statistics, and the locations of its field reporters. Watching CNN anchors use the Magic Wall was a little like watching other kids playing with a cool toy and while its usefulness was questionable (the technology was parodied by Saturday Night Live), it did bring life to otherwise boring data.

Live Holograms

Reporter Jessica Yellin and Black Eyed Peas frontman/Obama supporter will.i.am were given the Star Wars treatment and beamed into CNN's New York studio to chat live with CNN anchors — even though they were miles away in Chicago. While it technically wasn't a hologram, it did make many jaws drop and helped CNN stand out from an already crowded political news market.

"Balance of Power"

CNN used the holographic technology again earlier that night with a 3D representation of the US Capitol to illustrate how key Senate races could affect the balance of power. Cable news networks often use infographics to synthesize complex data, but not may of them have done so in 3D.

"The Moment"

During the 2009 presidential inauguration of Barack Obama, CNN asked users to send in their photos from the event as Obama was sworn in. More than 600 submissions were combined to create one high-resolution, interactive photo dubbed "The Moment." The incredible photograph was powered by Microsoft's relatively new Photosynth technology and illustrated how crowdsourcing and citizen journalism could be mixed with innovative technology to create a unique and outstanding result.

The Race to 1 Million

When television celebrity Ashton Kutcher challenged CNN to see who could be the first to reach 1 million followers on Twitter, the internet was abuzz, placing bets on both sides. Who would win old media or young upstart? The competition became more intriguing when it was revealed that CNN didn't actually own @cnnbrk, the username that was amassing the large number of followers. In the end, Kutcher won the bet and CNN now has one of the most followed Twitter accounts dedicated to breaking news.

#CNNfail

Twitter users turned the tables on CNN and called out the network for its lack of coverage of the recent Iran voting protests. Using the hashtag #cnnfail, a seemingly endless stream of tweets admonished the network to dedicate more airtime to the story. In the end CNN complied, ironically using Twitter itself as a source for news reports from the country.

Live Webcasts

Many news networks offer online clips of previous broadcasts arranged neatly in video channels. CNN takes the idea a step further by offering live online simulcast of its television broadcast as well as live streaming video during special events such as the funeral for pop star Michael Jackson and the hearings for US Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. The online video strategy proved to be popular during the 2009 inauguration when an estimated 7.7 million viewers watched the event online. To add another layer of technical wizardry, a list of related Facebook status updates were streamed in a sidebar adjacent to the video.




And here is a timeline of these landmark moments, created by Kevin Sablan at Almighty Link using Dipity. Many thanks to Kevin for creating this visual example.




Also on 10,000 Words:

• CNN headlines themselves making news
• 7 Eye-popping interactive timelines (and 3 ways to create one)
• 10 Inspirational New York Times multimedia and interactive features

Labels: citizen journalism, social networking, video

News meetings suck.

Not because they are long, boring and often don't have enough snacks (actually that may be the problem), but because they are a group of journalists sitting in a room trying to decide what news they think readers will want to read. Editors and reporters have a good eye for news and are trained to know what makes a good story, but the problem with the system is that there really is no accurate way to gauge what stories thousands or millions of readers will care about. Sure there are site analytics which gauge the popularity of individual online news articles, but as any editor can tell you these stories often skew to the offbeat stories and celebrity news.

That's where sites like Windy Citizen and NYC.is come in. The sites aggregate local news for Chicago and New York, respectively, and follow a Digg-like formula where users submit the stories they find interesting and others vote the stories up or down. Both sites play to the wisdom of the crowd: local readers know what's important to them and those that are unsure of what they want to read can rely on their peers for suggestions.


 
Windy Citizen (left), NYC.is

Yes Windy Citizen and NYC.is mostly depend on mainstream news sources to fuel their sites, but the key difference is readers don't have to rely on mainstream news sites — or a handful of journalists — to tell them what they should be reading.

Such sites are like perpetual news meetings where people around the world communicate and identify the stories they are interested in. Online news headlines often appear separate from the actual news site, meaning many readers will have read the story without seeing the news site it came from or the landing pages that advocated its existence.

Some traditional journalists will argue that we need editors to make the key news decisions, but do we really? It is understandable why editors are needed in print and broadcast journalism to select stories to be printed or aired, but in the digital age where readers flock to social networks and, to a lesser extent, RSS readers to get the news they care about, the power of the news editor is diminished.

While sites like Windy Citizen and NYC.is should be praised for letting readers determine what is newsworthy, such modern approaches to the curation of news won't be adopted overnight... meaning the news editor position is safe for now. However, journalists should get ready for people-powered journalism where the reader is best served by serving themselves.


Also on 10,000 Words:

• 6 Sites that are changing the way you follow the news
• Beyond Twitterfeed: Innovative uses of Twitter in the newsroom
• 5 Interactive maps that connect communities
• How the internet is changing how natural disasters are covered
• Why aren't all journalists "citizen" journalists?

Labels: citizen journalism, news on the news

Depending on whom you ask, citizen journalism is either pushing journalism forward or is unaccountable vigilantism. Either way, it is shaping the way we consume our news.

Surely ordinary citizens were documenting and discussing news events before the advent of the internet but what separates citizen journalism from pure observation is the use of the net as an avenue to either aid or circumvent traditional media outlets and spread the news independently. Average Joes can take their own photos, record their own video and recount a story through blogs or other social media, often more quickly than a media organization can begin to report and in a more organic way than is usually presented by mainstream media.

The following is a timeline of events in which ordinary citizens shaped the news, followed by an analog description of each landmark moment.

Rathergate, September 8, 2004

A common complaint about mainstream media is that readers/viewers are expected to believe everything they are told without verifying information for themselves. After Dan Rather presented supposedly authenticated documents on 60 Minutes that impugned President George W. Bush's service in the Air National Guard, many bloggers weren't buying it. Average Joes pointed out that the purportedly circa 1973 typewritten memos that were presented on CBS were likely written in a modern, computer-based font. The claims of authenticity were later retracted and several of those involved with the story were fired.

Indian Ocean tsunami, December 26, 2004

The coverage of the deadly tsunami that rocked Southeast Asia was remarkable not only for its images of the devastation captured by those in affected areas, but also for social media's role in providing relief during the aftermath. Tourists who otherwise would have been capturing the beauty of area beaches instead captured the tsunami as it landed, providing firsthand accounts that were circulated around the globe. Blogs and groups on social networks like Facebook were also quickly established to provide information to both victims and the rest of the world.

London 7/7 Tube bombings, July 7, 2005

News of the bombing that killed 52 people and injured more than 770 was heightened by videos and photos taken with cell phones by passengers aboard the train during the attacks. Usually traditional news stories are shot from behind the police tape, often with a wide shot that doesn't reveal the telling details of the situation. But the user submitted photos and video that appeared shortly after the explosions were vividly real and told the story of the crime in a way traditional media never could.

Virginia Tech massacre, April 16, 2007

The cell phone video shot by Virginia Tech student Jamal Albarghouti was not only an alarming encapsulation of the shooting that left 32 dead and 23 wounded, it was also viewed by millions of people on CNN and on YouTube. News of the shooting was disseminated first through text messages and blogs to those who were unaware about what was happening on campus. Some questioned whether the student-shot video was actually journalism, but as we've seen from previous examples, despite its amateurish nature it no doubt contributed to how others received the story.

Protests in Burma, Fall 2007

In the face of the government's violent reaction to anti-government protests, many Burmese turned to the internet to alert the world to the violence occurring in the remote country. Grainy video and photos shot on mobile phones were circulated around the world and the country's bloggers posted first and second hand accounts of the bloody struggle. The Burmese government worked quickly to shut down internet access, but not before the world was exposed to the tragic events.

Mumbai attacks, November 26-29, 2008

The terrorist attacks on Mumbai and the subsequent reports on Twitter, Flickr and elsewhere raised ethical questions: do such immediate reports actually endanger the lives of others? Some of the thought confirmed attack sites were later revealed to be unconfirmed rumors and TV networks were condemned for revealing the possible location of those refugees still in harm's way.

California fires, 2007

Local and national TV stations and newspapers did an adequate job of covering the destructive fires that blackened much of California, but it was the citizen journalists who uploaded video to YouTube, posted Twitter updates and submitted amateur media to news stations that really provided the up-to-the-minute coverage many fire victims were so desperately seeking.

Mayhill Fowler, 2008

Two of the biggest gotcha quotes of the 2008 U.S. presidential election season — Obama's reference to "bitter" small-town Americans who "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them" and Bill Clinton's reaction to Vanity Fair writer Todd Purdum, calling him "slimy" and "dishonest" were documented by an online journalist with no ties to a mainstream news organization. Mayhill Fowler, a citizen journalist reporting for the Huffington Post's Off the Bus news project, captured the off-the-cuff moments with a handheld recorder and a little persistence.

Daily Kos polling, 2008

Every election season there are a number of polls that aim predict the outcome of every imaginable political race. Superblogger Markos Moulitsas Zúniga decided he wanted his own. Kos set out to create nonpartisan polls powered by the polling firm Research 2000, inherently shirking mainstream media. In an ironic twist, the mainstream media many times made reference to the Daily Kos alongside long established polls.

Oscar Grant, January 1, 2009

News of the New Years Day shooting of 22-year-old Oscar Grant by a BART police officer ignited a community after the dramatic video captured by witnesses was posted to YouTube. Soon thereafter local news stations were using the amateur footage when no other video was available. Subsequent protests — some peaceful, some violent — were photographed and posted to Flickr, giving the world insight on what otherwise may have been a local story.

Hudson River plane crash, January 15, 2009

When U.S. Airways Flight 1549 crash-landed in the Hudson River it was for some news organizations the first mention of Twitter, or more specifically Janis Kruns' tweet and photo of the 155 passengers being rescued from the downed aircraft. While traditional news orgs quickly picked up the story, they still lagged behind those citizens empowered by social media who broke the story first.


A big thank you to the Twitterverse for helping craft this post. For more on the history of citizen journalism, check out this collection of Nieman Lab reports. Timeline created with Dipity; find out more about the timeline creator here.


Also on 10,000 Words:

• Screw the system. Publish your own content!
• Why aren't all journalists "citizen" journalists?
• Citizen Journalism: Speak up and get paid for it

Labels: citizen journalism, social networking

The wiki may be the most flexible, yet underrated tool in modern newsrooms. A collaborative system for sharing news and information has an infinite number of uses, yet many fail to use wikis in a journalism context. No more excuses. Here are a few reasons you should create a wiki right now:


1. Share contacts

Gone are the days of the bulky Rolodex or the dusty clip files. The best way to keep track of sources is to create a wiki that anyone in the newsroom can access. The wiki can store simple information such as phone numbers or email addresses, but also can be a place to collect notes on each individual: what they know, who interviewed them before, what time they are usually available, etc. It's either that or continue to get calls at 4 a.m. asking for your source's telephone number.


2. Gather information from your audience

Because a reporter never knows everything about a subject, chances are there is a reader or viewer who knows something that could greatly enhance a story. Public wikis are a great way to aggregate information from the people who know the subject matter best and is perhaps the best use of a wiki in today's modern era of journalism.

For example, The Globe and Mail uses its Public Policy Wiki to get suggestions from readers about public policy issues. Citizens of North East England can use Wiki North East, hosted by ncjMedia, to share news on the area.

Wikis don't have to solely serve the newsgathering process either. Entertainment Weekly has its own Harry Potter and Heroes wikis where users can share details about the entertainment franchises.




3. Keep track of important dates

Never miss an important city council meeting or press conference when you add the event to a newsroom-wide wiki. A calendar wiki can also be used to remember recurring events such as festivals and holidays or to catalog awareness months such as Breast Cancer Awareness Month or International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Of course, a wiki isn't the only way to keep track of upcoming events. Consider using collaborative calendar tools like Google Calendar.


4. Share multimedia tools and tutorials

Many news organizations are training their staff in the latest multimedia techniques, but it's usually a one-shot deal. Reporters are then left to fend for themselves armed only with their notes. A wiki is a great one-stop destination for sharing notes on multimedia tutorials as well as general reporting tips.

If your newsroom doesn't have such a collaborative resource, try the Digital Research Tools Wiki, The Society for News Design's Tools for News and the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies' Directory of Learning Tools. All of the aforementioned wikis are publicly available and list tools that journalists can use to enhance the presentation of news online.


5. Build the big story

You know the story: the one that requires months of research and several staff reporters to create. Make life easier by sharing notes and details in one place that those involved can access at any time. A wiki can cut down on overlap and show everyone what has been done and what is left to do.


Now that you know why you should create a wiki, here's how to create one. Like most online technologies there are a number of free services for creating wikis. Some of the popular online solutions include PBWiki, WetPaint and Wikispaces. Those who wish to host a wiki on their own server should try MediaWiki (a comprehensive tutorial can be found here).

For more ways to create your own wiki, check out Mashable's list of wiki solutions. If you're still debating whether to create a wiki for your newsroom, read this post by Paul Bradshaw that weighs the pros and cons of creating a wiki.


Thanks to @robroc, @jenconnic, @StevenWalling and @starshine_diva for their help in creating this post.

Labels: citizen journalism, wiki

Photography

By now you've probably already seen CNN's mind-numbingly detailed photograph created from thousands of user-submitted photos and blended using Photosynth technology. But have you seen the following interactive image created by photographer David Bergman?



Bergman created the high-resolution image by combining over 200 images using Gigapan's stitching software (more on Gigapan here). The Associated Press also has an interactive, high-res image for users to play around with.

Leave it to the New York Times to take an already incredible technology one step further. In its interactive inauguration photo, users can click a name or hover over a person in the photo to identify who they are. The usual suspects, including senators and dignitaries, can be easily spotted.



The Washington Post takes a different approach by composing a mosaic created from thousands of photos shot by citizen journalists and staff photographers from both the Post and the Associated Press.



Sometimes a good photo is just a photo, no interactive whizbang required. The Big Picture has a great collection of inauguration day photos, including the now instantly recognizable satellite photo of crowds gathered to hear Barack Obama's inauguration speech (Click here for an explanation of how the estimated 1 million people in attendance were counted).

Speech/Word Analysis

After the inauguration, 50 million word clouds emerged, most created using Wordle, that analyzed Barack Obama's now historic speech. Once again, the New York Times took the word analysis concept to another level with "Inaugural Words: 1789 to the Present," a historical analysis of commonly recurring words used in presidential speeches, beginning with George Washington.



The real innovation, however, came from sites like ManyEyes, which visualized the speech as an interactive word tree, and Delve Networks which applied its audio search technology to extract not only the words that were spoken, but where they can be found in the address. Give the technology a spin by searching the video below for words like "America" or "hope."

Citizen Journalism

The Washington Post made use of its TimeSpace technology (previously covered here) to create a mapped record of inauguration photos and video. TimeSpace: Inauguration allows anyone to search through the geotagged coverage in a multi-layered interactive environment.



Twitter was a hotbed of exchanges about the excitement surrounding the inauguration and no one knows this better than FlowingData. To visualize the Twitter buzz surrounding the event, the site tracked positive responses to the inauguration all over the world in what, as it progresses, looks like fireworks. (Click image to view project)



To make sure now President Obama sticks to his more than 500 campaign promises, PolitiFact will be keeping tabs on his administration with the Obameter, a digital counter that lists each and every one and whether it has been fulfilled or not. So far Obama has kept seven and 14 more are still in the works.

And finally, proof that print ain't dead (yet). Click the image below to view the hundreds of newspapers around the world on which the inauguration of President Obama is front page news.




Also on 10,000 Words:
• 15 Ways to follow the 2008 election online
• Essential resources for panoramic photography
• 7 Eye-popping interactive timelines (and 3 ways to create one)
• Word cloud analysis of 2008 DNC Speeches

Labels: citizen journalism, database, maps, photos, social networking

Obama's Team

Sure you could read the in-depth reports or watch the tiresome press conferences to find out more about Barack Obama's cabinet team members. Or you can just use the interactive infographic from Spiegel Online that uses a carousel menu to illustrate the President-elect's political circle (learn how to create a similar effect here). The text is in German, but you don't have to speak the language to understand how engaging this project is.

Going to the End of the Line

Anyone who was ever lived or visited New York will recognize areas like Canarsie and Far Rockaway as a sort of a mythical no man's land, the end of the line where many subway riders rarely venture. The New York Times brought these and several other train stops to life through a compelling photo project that functions as an multi-level slideshow.

wordia

The dictionary has been around for centuries, but even its current digital form not much has changed since they were first being printed. Wordia is giving the lexicon a Web 2.0 makeover by providing a forum for anyone to upload what particular words mean to them. "Refuge" is commonly defined as "shelter or protection," but the user in the screenshot below describes refuge as "jumping into a hot shower after being trapped outside in the cold for hours." You won't find that in Webster's.

Breathing Earth

Because we can't physically see CO² emissions, it's hard to imagine the possible destruction the gas is causing the planet. The Breathing Earth simulation attempts to visualize the effects of greenhouse gases and blends an interactive infographic with changing statistics.

Obama's "Whistle Stop" Train Tour

CNN again makes use of its iReport feature to let citizen journalists be the ones to capture Obama's ride on the rails as he made his way to Washington, D.C. User-generated video is blended with CNN reports and mapped to give the user an interactive feel for the journey.

AfricaMap

There are likely hundreds of thousands of maps that document the African continent, but internet users can find all the map they'll need at this Harvard-created interactive project. The simple map can become more and more complex as various levels of data are layered on top of each other. Below, a 2007 index of Africa's power plants rests atop a 1770 historical map.

Perspectives

Imagine talking heads who don't talk at all. The video series from BaseMotion asks several people for their opinion on an issue and instead of showing their answers, shows only the pauses, breaks, ums and aahs. The stripped-down interview is a demonstration of human idiosyncrasies and reactions, rather than an attempt to gather opinions.

Whack-A-Bone

It's a human anatomy lesson cleverly disguised as a game! Players attempt to drag and drop bones in their correct locations while facing a timer. After playing the game, you'll not only know where the phalanges and humerus bones are, but you'll be able to identify them in record time.



Also on 10,000 Words:

• Exploring the human body through multimedia
• Create brilliant multimedia projects from the mundane
• Online news games are fun (and informative!)

Labels: citizen journalism, database, flash, photos, video

The internet is full of photojournalists that are capturing the world in new and innovative ways. The following sites are showcasing the best of the medium and are an inspiration to professional and aspiring news photographers everywhere:

WeSay

WeSay does something rarely seen on the internet: news photos from mainstream media are shown off side by side with the work of amateur photographers. The result is a site that is as visually arresting as the photography it showcases.

Photos that Changed the World

Remember Kevin Carter's 1994 photo of the African child and the vulture? Or the 1945 photo of the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima? This site does and aggregates the photos that have made an undeniable impact on the world.

Vanity Fair: The 25 Best News Photographs

If you prefer your world-changing photographs in slide show form, Vanity Fair has brought together the famous snapshots of news subjects like Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Hindenburg.

The Digital Journalist

Billed as "the monthly online magazine for visual journalism," The Digital Journalist brings together the best and latest in photojournalism, including the touching behind-the-scenes gallery of President-elect Obama by Time photographer Callie Shell.

Google: LIFE Photo Archive

Search through LIFE Magazine's famous photos and unreleased gems with Google's newly-released archive.

The 37th Frame

The 37th Frame is a source for the best photojournalism from around the web and encourages readers to submit their own.

MediaStorm

Traditional news photography is given a multimedia kick. Stunning photographs are paired with audio to give the viewer a more detailed depiction of each news subject.

Flickr: Photojournalism 2.0

Citizen journalists are running the show at one of many Flickr groups dedicated to photojournalism. The collected works are not surprisingly just as good, if not better, than the pros.

The Big Picture

The Big Picture, a blog-style site with amazing photos from around the world, has been around since May, but made a big splash during the Olympics with beautiful photos of the opening ceremony. The tradition continues with photos of subjects ranging from the California wildfires to the Red Bull Air Race.




Digital Photography has a great list of mainstream media sites illustrating the news through photos. For those photojournalists struggling with ethics in the digital age, this article is a must-read.

Labels: citizen journalism, photos

The power of the net to provide more innovative political coverage than what is possible in traditional forms of media has never been more evidenced than in this political season. Major news organizations and citizen journalists alike have harnessed the power of the web to provide the most comprehensive coverage of the US presidential election than has ever been possible. Here are some of the best ways to follow the political landscape online:

1. perspctv

If there weren't 14 other sites on this list then perspctv would be the one stop for any election news seeker. The site culls the latest news, blog posts and tweets and provides insightful charts and maps as well as an embeddable widget for keeping track of it all.

2. Patchwork Nation

We know the candidates are campaigning all over the country, but who are they campaigning in front of? The Christian Science Monitor has the answer. The site's analysis shows both Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama spent a good chunk of their time in wealthy suburbs and big cities.

3. Election '08 Twitter Chatter

Everyone knows Twitter is abuzz with political views, skews and insights, including the observations of Twitter stars FakeSarahPalin and CNN's Rick Sanchez. Twitter Chatter is one way to wrangle these conversations as well as to see on a map where they are coming from.

4. FiveThirtyEight.com

FiveThirtyEight.com is the dream of any political statistics hound. The site has the latest polls, the latest news, the latest charts, graphs, statistics, hypotheticals...the latest everything. It's like a political rabbit hole...check it out only if you have time to spare.

5. Map of 2008 Presidential Contributions

"Show me the money!" Okay it's 2008, not 1996, but if you're curious to know where the campaign money is coming from, Political Base has you covered with a well-designed Google map as well as a list of big name contributors and a handy search form.

6. Tube the Vote!

Tube the Vote strives to provide a balanced view of issues that are affecting this year's presidential election by scouring the web for video, blog posts, Flickr photos and more that celebrate or repudiate either side.

7. Candidates' life journeys

Get to know the presidential and vice presidential candidates a little better by following the milestones of their lives on a Google Map. Anyone can follow the journey of John McCain, Barack Obama, Sarah Palin or Joe Biden.

8. PolitiFact's The Attack Files

Voters tired of the spin and searching for the truth will appreciate PolitiFact's analysis of recent campaign assertions. Was Sen. Obama referring to Sarah Palin when he mentioned "lipstick on a pig?" No way, says PolitiFact. Does Sen. McCain support tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas? Not that simple, according to the site.

9. Election 08

iPhone users will be glad to know that they don't have to be at a computer to track the latest on the 2008 presidential race. The iPhone application is a great source for tracking the latest polls as long as you don't check to often — Election 08 is sometimes behind in its updates.

10. McCainPedia/Obamapedia

To say these two wikis are unbiased would be a big misstatement — the former is run by the DNC, the other is populated by Obama fans. Still, using modern technology to encourage citizen participation is never a bad thing.

11. What Would You Say to the President?

This genius bit of citizen participation encourages everyone to not only speak their mind to President Bush, but to presidential hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama as well. Recent responses — which are themselves wholly interesting and telling — are displayed on each page.

12. Google Maps (campaign trail)

This Google map knows where the candidates will be and when and makes that information at the click of a button. Campaign appearances for both candidates are listed in reverse chronological order as well as marked on a map.

13. Google Maps (video)

Video of campaign speeches from both Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain are tracked and mapped on these map mashups that incorporate video from YouTube.

14. Everymoment Now

Everymoment Now uses a unique graph to chart the number of times a candidate was mentioned on any particular day since August of this year. Clicking on a bar in the chart reveals news stories that were published that day as well as more detailed charts and graphs.

15. ABC News' Match-o-Matic

If you plan on voting in the upcoming US election, but still don't know which candidate to vote for, the Match-o-Matic is sure to help. The humorous, interactive quiz gives the user two quotes — one from Sen. Obama and one from Sen. McCain — and the user selects which one they agree with most without knowing who said it. The final tally reveals which presidential candidate's platform the user is more likely to side with.

Labels: citizen journalism, database, maps, mobile, photos, social networking, video, widgets, wiki

As recently as a year or two ago, coverage of a natural disaster simply meant a reporter in a wet slicker being whipped around by gale-force winds.

Today's news audience demands immediate and hyperlocal coverage and the internet is here to give it to them. A recent study shows that people are more likely to turn to social networks like Twitter and Facebook than traditional news sources in the event of an emergency.

There have already been a number of blogs created exclusively for coverage of Hurricane Gustav, which was only on the radar a little over a week ago. These include the Hurricane Gustav Online Newsroom created by the Red Cross and Hurricane Gustav Resources maintained by OneStorm.

However, we are now living in a digital world where even blogs can't beat the immediacy of Twitter. There already a number of feeds on the microblogging service dedicated to Gustav, including news from the Red Cross, the SunHerald based in Mississippi's Gulf Coast, and the Chicago Tribune's GustavReporter.

Because of the fast breaking news happening on Twitter, major news media have already started to reference incoming tweets on their broadcasts, as evidenced in this story by Mike Elgan. You can follow updates about the hurricane by searching Twitter for "gustav" or joining the conversation by including the hastag #gustav in your tweets.

As recently as a year ago, many news outlets were reluctant to add their content to public video sharing sites like YouTube, but now those mainstream organizations are often ahead of the pack. The Associated Press has already posted a number of video clips to YouTube, which fit right in with the citizen journalist-created videos that exist on the site.

 

The way to show the path of a hurricane on a news broadcast used to be a relatively simple graphic that highlighted a large swirling cloud on a colorful map. The net has extended the possibility of what this map can be. MSNBC's Hurricane Tracker is a user-friendly interactive map that not only shows where Gustav is headed, but a host of other data to accompany it. The Palm Beach Post also has a Gustav tracking map, this one showing the hurricane as it relates to the southeast portion of the US.





CNN's iReport has also made use of maps, but in a different way. Photos and video from "iReporters," or citizen journalists who are in the middle of the storm, are geotagged and posted on the map where others can view by area and leave comments.



The South Florida Sun-Sentinel has gone all out and provided every type of news coverage imaginable, including video, a variety of maps, constantly updated blogs, archival footage and more, in addition to its traditional print stories.

Other useful online tools that likely wouldn't have existed a few years ago include a Google Maps mashup of evacuation destinations and the HurriCam, a live streaming webcam stationed in southernmost Louisiana. And because average Joes are no longer content to sit around and wait for mainstream media to report on the news that matters to them, the Ning-based social network Gustav Information Center has been setup to provide a forum for Hurricane Gustav-related news. Credentialed reporters and citizen journalists alike will also find the social network Storm Tools for Journalists incredibly useful.

Finally, there has been a recent trend in newsrooms to provide links to organizations that provide aid to those devastated by natural disasters. After the recent cyclone in Myanmar, many online news sites like the New York Times streamlined the donation process.

Labels: citizen journalism, maps, news on the news, photos, social networking, video