If We Didn't Build it, They Wouldn't Come: Citizen Journalism is Discovered - The Harsh Reality of the New World Media, By Robert Paisola

Over
the past two years, the way in which American's receive their news has
changed. No longer does the father come home, kick off his shoes, and
read the day’s events in the local newspaper such as THE NEWARK ADVOCATE,  A Gannett Publication, based in Newark, Ohio.

As a matter of fact, Forbes Magazine did a story late last year that received national attention that was entitled:

Timber! Newspaper Circulation Falls Again

Forbes Magazine states that "The slide in U.S. newspaper circulation is picking up speed"

"Daily
circulation fell 3.57% from the same period last year for 530 U.S.
newspapers reporting a Monday-through-Friday average for the six months
ended March 31, 2008 according to data released by the Audit Bureau of
Circulations. Among the 601 papers reporting Sunday circulation,
circulation dropped 4.59%. Those numbers compare to declines of 2.6%
for daily circulation and 3.5% for Sunday circulation during the six
months ended Sept. 30.

Bucking the trend: Gannett's (nyse: GCI -
news - people ) USA Today, the nation's largest-circulation daily, with
average daily circulation of 2,284,219, up 0.27% and The Wall Street
Journal, the second-largest daily, which said daily circulation inched
up 0.35% to 2,069,463. The Journal was acquired in December 2008 by
News Corp. (nyse: NWS - news - people ).

Among other top
papers, the numbers looked far worse. The New York Times, the
third-largest newspaper, which is facing stiffer competition from the
Journal, saw daily circulation slide 3.85% to 1,077,256, while Sunday
circulation tumbled 9.3% to 1,476,400.

The industry's most
pressing problem isn't the state of print circulation, which has been
in decline since the mid-1980s. Instead, it is figuring out how to
generate more advertising revenue from both its shrinking but still
lucrative print product and its growing online properties.

Still, nothing here should be seen as good news, says Forbes.

The
biggest loser in average daily circulation among the 25 largest
newspapers was A.H. Belo's (nyse: AHC - news - people ) Dallas Morning
News, which absorbed a 10.6% drop to 368,313. Other large newspapers
reporting sharp daily circulation declines included the New York Times
Co. (nyse: NYT - news - people )-owned Boston Globe (down 8.3%), The
Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. (down 7.4%), the Star Tribune of
Minneapolis (down 6.7%) and the Detroit Free Press (down 6.45%). Those
with smaller-than-average losses included the New York Daily News (down
2.1%), the New York Post (down 3.1%), the Houston Chronicle (down
1.8%), the St. Petersburg Times (down 2.1%) and the San Diego
Union-Tribune (down 2.6%).

So, what does this all mean to YOU, the American Public?

Well,
there is only one question that we must ask ourselves. With the advent
of the internet and the media statistical data clearly pointing to the
fact that we now live in a GOOGLE controlled world, further
demonstrated that more Americans are now turning to the web as the
first line of contact on all issues, including the ones that we report
on this site, such as The Harry Blausey Case in Newark, Ohio; The Rick
Koerber Case in Salt Lake City, Utah and the National Olympic Swimming
Hero Michael Phelps, who is being berated in North Carolina for his
"alleged" incident involving the smoking of an illegal substance, and
many others that you will read about on this site.

What is the
difference in the way that news is now gathered and how can you create
your own forum to simply state what you believe to a worldwide audience.

The
days of the daily editorial meeting and "pitch sessions" to Newspaper
and Television Editors and Producers are OVER. Why? Because, why they
are in their meetings discussing how things SHOULD LOOK in America,
there are those of us who are DOING. Do you see the difference?

The
issue of Citizen Journalism has become so big that for the first time
in history, Bloggers are now being credentialed as official media. They
are able to cover International Issues such as The National Democratic
and Republican Conventions. These Americans are now being granted full
access to organizations such as THE ASSOCIATED PRESS and UNITED PRESS
INTERNATIONAL. Many case studies have proven that Americans want
firsthand accounts on stories, detailed on site investigations that are
not biased and real honest factual data.... and they would rather get
it from their peers than from an "Executive Team" at a large news
organization.

Most all of the major news organizations around
the world now have entire units that deal with the acceptance and
deliverance of CITIZEN JOURNALISM to the masses. CNN established a site
located at www.ireport.com
where individual citizens can partner with the "Worlds News Leader" to
deliver content for broadcast to an international Audience. MSNBC has a
site located at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6639760/ that gives the VIEWER the chance to now BECOME the story and to PARTICIPATE.

Recently
we covered the Republican National Convention for CNN I REPORT. CNN had
a "Kick Off" party at the OMNI hotel in Atlanta, Georgia in February
where they passed out CNN Credentials and told the audience in
attendance that "the power is now in your hands"

According to
Turner Broadcasting, In 2008, CNN.com took a "bold step" with the
launch of iReport.com, CNN’s user-generated news community. From its
February launch through the end of 2008, the site registered more than
214,000 iReport.com contributors and received more than 188,000 photo
and video submissions (Source: CNN/iReport Internal Database).
According to Nielsen Online, iReport.com averaged 2.5 million unique
visitors, 9.6 million page views and 10.1 million total minutes per
month in 2008.

This gave many Americans a worldwide forum, and
established the framework for what would soon become the norm.
Reporters such as myself, Robert Paisola
and my Company Western Capital Multimedia, immediately saw this as an
opportunity to reach a worldwide audience, however we had to quickly
make the decision of whether we would simply provide basic "camera
phone reporting" or would we simply "Go for it" and dedicate ourselves
to creating the best caliber content possible. We choose to invest over
$100,000.00 in High Definition Video, Sound, Lighting, Editing and
Software to give us the opportunity to submit instant and live news
reports to CNN, but many other news organizations around the world. Has
this investment paid off? Absolutely!

Because of this decision,
we have now created an entire unit of our company that deals with
international media issues. We have a press officer that deals with the
media who are swarming to seek our assistance in covering stories. We
have hired programmers, editors and writers. Why? Because it makes
financial sense.

We deal with organizations around the world
that are in desperate need of content. We follow the Requests posted by
the sites of what kind of stories they want. CNN has an entire section on News that they are requesting coverage on.

At
the end of the day, the investment we make in our broadcasting
facilities pays off. Our company ends up with VERY VALUABLE NEWS
FOOTAGE that we own outright. We create the content, the media around
the world reviews the data, and in many cases, SUBSTANTIAL money can be made from the video, digital data, digital photographs and news stories that are provided.
AND we still own the content. In case you are interested, our agent is
Maxton Sparks in Australia, and they do the heavy lifting in dealing
with the media around the world that want our product.

Do you NOW SEE My Friends HOW THE WORLD IS CHANGING!

Wikipedia
states that "According to Jay Rosen, citizen journalists "the people
formerly known as the audience," who "were on the receiving end of a
media system that ran one way, in a broadcasting pattern, with high
entry fees and a few firms competing to speak very loudly while the
rest of the population listened in isolation from one another— and who
today are not in a situation like that at all. ... The people formerly
known as the audience are simply the public made realer, less
fictional, more able, less predictable."

"Doing citizen
journalism right means crafting a crew of correspondents who are
typically excluded from or misrepresented by local television news:
low-income women, minorities and youth -- the very demographic and
lifestyle groups who have little access to the media and that
advertisers don't want," says Robert Huesca, an associate professor of
communication at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

Public Journalism is now being explored via new media such as the use of mobile phones.
Mobile phones have the potential to transform reporting and places the
power of reporting in the hands of the public. Mobile telephony
provides low-cost options for people to set up news operations. One
small organization providing mobile news and exploring public
journalism is Jasmine News in Sri Lanka.

In 2004, when the
9.1-magnitude underwater earthquake caused a huge tsunami in Banda Aceh
Indonesia, news footage from many people who experienced the tsunami
was widely broadcast.

Dan Gillmor, former technology columnist
with the San Jose Mercury News, is one of the foremost proponents of
citizen journalism, and founded a nonprofit, the Center for Citizen
Media, to help promote it. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's
French-language television network has also organized a weekly public
affairs program called, "5 sur 5", which has been organizing and
promoting citizen-based journalism since 2001. On the program, viewers
submit questions on a wide variety of topics, and they, accompanied by
staff journalists, get to interview experts to obtain answers to their
questions.

Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York
University, was one of public journalism's earliest proponents. From
1993 to 1997, he directed the Project on Public Life and the Press,
funded by the Knight Foundation and housed at NYU. He also currently
runs the PressThink weblog.

So, now ask yourself if YOU CAN SEE the power that you have inside you. Do you see the power of YOUR VOICE in America?

Do
you notice the RESULTS of the cases that we cover? Do you notice how
quickly our stories are broadcast around the globe? This is no
accident. This is how it is. There is no turning back, and you can rest
assured that our organization, with its strong international media
alliances will continue to do what others have FAILED or REFUSED to do,
and that is to provide you with REAL DATA, REAL RECORDED CONVERSATIONS,
REAL VIDEO FEEDS and DIRECT ACCESS to the policy makers in America, as
we cover cases of injustice such as the HARRY BLAUSEY case in Newark,
Ohio. We do not need, nor seek the enforcement of Russ Zimmer, the
reporter at the Gannet Owned Newark Advocate who covered the Harry
Blausey trial; who when asked for comment on his 63 stories he had
written on the topic, simply said "please refer to my stories, I have
no comment"

Interesting. We will bring you more on that later.

This is our commitment to you... No matter what the cost.

Reporting from Salt Lake City, Utah
This is Robert Paisola for The Western Capital Multimedia Network and Fast Company Magazine
Copyright 2009 - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED