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Demotix: The News by You

June 21, 2009 This past week's uprising in Tehran confirmed the role and the power the citizen reporter.  But Twitter and YouTube are not the only players.



Demotix, is a news-only voice for hearing the unheard, as well as a alternate channel for aspiring photo- and video-journalists.  

The About page describes the site's dual purpose:

Demotix is a citizen-journalism website and photo agency. It takes user-generated content (UGC) and photographs from freelance journalists and amateurs, and markets them to the mainstream media.

Demotix was founded with two principles at its heart - the freedom of speech and the freedom to know. Its objective is nothing if not ambitious - to rescue journalism and promote free expression by connecting independent journalists with the traditional media.

Demotix now has over 5000 members, in 110 countries around the world from Afghanistan to Zambia.

The site may be searched by region or by theme, making it especially useful for classroom discussion in the content areas.  Impressive site supporters include Amnesty International, the Institure of War and Peace Reporting.

More on that dual purpose:
1. The site notes the growing importance of citizen journalism:

Demotix can provide a megaphone to the man and woman in the street anywhere in the world. Demotix takes absolutely no political stance except the right to freedom of speech. And in many countries around the world, we make freedom of speech available.

2. And it notes sad statistics surrounding the main stream press.  Among them:

• Only four US newspapers maintain a foreign desk. They are the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the LA Times (which is going through a huge restructure and may not be long for this list). That is four newspapers with reporters dedicated to covering the rest of the world in a country of over 300 million people. That's 4, four, 2+2.
• Reuters and the Associated Press - who have replaced the foreign correspondent everywhere - provide a wire/agency service to almost all of the world's serious news media. They are for most newspapers and broadcasters the only source of international news. And - amazingly - they don't have a single staffer in 40 per cent of the world's countries.

Demotix is not just a photo-sharing site.  It is a for-profit site, acting as a broker between photo- and video-journalists and traditional newspapers, magazines, TV channels and websites. Content creators retain copyright of their work and split the fee 50% with the site. See the Terms of Use for further information.

And the classroom value?
The photo slide shows alone are incredibly valuable to create highly timely global awareness in the classroom.  At the high school level, I can see using Demotix to inspire discussion about evaluating news,  its credibility and timeliness. 

And I suspect it will inspire my own budding journalists and photographers to understand that they may not need an actual desk to contribute to the conversation. They have new professional models for sharing and for having for their talents discovered.

Posted by Joyce Valenza Ph.D on June 21, 2009 | Comments (3)