OP/ED: ATSNN Leads the Way!

The question of bias in news reporting has often been hotly debated by ATS members, & this debate continues to the resent day. "Community-based" news journalism seems to offer a better, more unbiased, method, & ATSNN certainly offers much scope for this. I would even suggest that ATS has focused its efforts towards this end, especially in the last few months. It matters not whether ATSNN has or has not led the way in this, because the fact is that a new age of community-based news reporting is taking hold.


"Blogs" [weblogs] have not been the passing fad predicted for them, and news-type blogs by private citizens have often provided information unavailable elsewhere. It was inevitable that this idea would flow on into community news reporting, and in my opinion, ATSNN has surely led the way in this field.

Now this type of journalism is taking off in other areas, and one of these ventures has now been featured in a news article at Wired.com. This article recounts the successful efforts of a small town in Southern California in its Web publication of The Northwest Voice.

The residents of Bakersfield have almost total control over the community news they report & comment on. Articles are submitted to the editor, much as ATS members submit news to ATSNN. After being approved by The Northwest Voice editor for accuracy & at least minimum standards, the news is immediately published in ther online version, & the best submissions are included in the print edition.

As the editor, Mary Lou Fulton says,

"What's different about the Northwest Voice is that we're taking the explicit approach of asking people in the community to be the writers and photographers," said the Voice's publisher, Mary Lou Fulton. The people say what's important to them "rather than having a handful of journalists make those judgments on behalf of the community."

Very much in the footsteps of ATSNN to me!

Related News Links:
www.wired.com
www.northwestvoice.com
journalism.berkeley.edu

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
POLITICS: Is FoxNewsChannel Fair and Balanced? I don't think so.
The Evolving Political Polarity

[edit on 7-22-2004 by Valhall]