From covering the Academy Awards to suing for access to court records, TC Daily Planet citizen journalists are on the front lines. Citizen journalism is about covering news in our communities, but it’s also about offering people a space and assistance to report on what they find fascinating. That’s how writer Barb Teed and her photographer daughter Lindsey Teed got to the front row and red carpet at the Academy Awards Sunday night, and how their original reporting and up-close photos ended up on the front pages of the TC Daily Planet.
Of course, we can’t afford to send writers to the Academy Awards (or to Sundance or SXSW), but we are happy to provide press credentials and a place to publish the reports they send back – especially when they find local angles, such as Bloomington’s Pete Docter, who sent a shout out to the City of Bloomington and Kennedy High School after collecting his Oscar.
Sheila Regan’s tenacious pursuit of the story of two high school sweethearts pursued by federal authorities under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act led her to file a lawsuit to open court records, normally public, but sealed by the prosecutor in the case of now-20-year-old Carrie Feldman, now serving an indefinite jail sentence for refusing to testify before a grand jury.
Besides Teed and Regan, dozens of other citizen journalists report on everything from dog parks to demonstrations. Jeanette Fordyce, one of those writers, talked about what citizen journalism means to her.
We edit all of the stories that appear as TC Daily Planet stories. We also publish unedited articles in the Free Speech Zone. Planet Café now hosts our Assignment Desk, with requests for your input on specific stories that we are writing. And, of course, you can follow TC Daily Planet and Arts Orbit on Twitter and on Facebook.
We invite you to participate – by registering as a member of the TC Daily Planet, by sending us your writing, by posting your organization or community events, and by helping us to tell the stories of our community.
(photo from morguefile)
Comment