Live Citizen, a citizen journalism site currently in beta testing, is offering $20 an article, according to its ad on JournalismJobs.com. The Los Angeles-based company wants journalists to sign up for 3-month contracts, which require 2 to 6 stories each week AND a video broadcast lasting from 5 to 15 minutes each. Stories are expected to be more than 350 words.
It’s easy to see why Live Citizen is looking for more journalists. The newest story on Business & Tech was almost two weeks old at the time I wrote this post. The World and U.S. sections seem more current, but do not have a lot of depth.
Last month we took a look at AllVoices, a website that allows citizen journalists to post written and video news stories. Another player is Associated Content, which claims to have published almost 1.4 million entries since it began in 2005. This site seems to focus less on breaking news and more on in-depth articles.
Still another player is CNN- run iReport, which proclaims: “Unedited. Unfiltered. News.” While most of the news is not vetted, video clips marked “on CNN” are apparently picked up by the network and verified.
Associated Content claims to pay its writers, but like AllVoices, it’s unclear from the site how much. Both seem to reward individual writers who reach the highest page views. iReport doesn’t seem to pay citizen journalists; I suppose it’s payment enough to see your video shown on the news network.
If you see any more citizen journalism sites, please let WriteThru know!
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