mydigimedia by Amy L. Webb

The Knight Citizen News Network launched yesterday. The project is a free web portal to help cit-journalists and professionals create and populate local news sites.

From the press release:

KCNN.org was created to help citizens use digital media in ways that enrich community, enhance public discourse and enliven democracy, said Jan Schaffer, director of J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism, which manages development of the site. It also seeks to open doors for traditional news organizations seeking to embrace user-generated content.

"Above all, the site seeks to impart an understanding of the qualities that make for responsible and credible community news and information," said Schaffer.

KCNN.org so far offers:

• a database of U.S. citizen media sites, searchable by keyword, town or state and displayed on a Google map.
• a "Things We Like" feature, starting with more than 20 cool ideas from sites around the country.
• an interactive overview of the "Principles of Citizen Journalism," with more than 40 audio and video interviews and scores of resources.
• the latest citizen media research.
• mini case studies on how to train citizen journalists and resources to start reporting.

The project was developed by Amy Gahran and Adam Glenn of I, Reporter and by Dan Gillmore from the Center for Citizen Media and was funded by the Knight Foundation.

There are still some components coming -- the site isn't quite finished yet. But I encourage you to have a look through what's there. KCNN isn't just meant for stay-at-home bloggers. The way in which we gather and disseminate information has changed because our expectations for content delivery are being shaped by YouTube and digg. I think that every reporter in the U.S. should visit this site regularly.

Seed Newsvine