“I want to be a reporter, but I don’t know what to write about!” was the comment from a young lady in an audience I spoke to recently. Her dilemma prompted me to start work on my next book tentatively titled, “1001 News Story Ideas for Citizen Journalists.”

Promoted by Roxy. Originally published 2010-05-21 09:15:38 -1000

Let’s take a different look at the fears surrounding an interview. When I wrote about overcoming the fear of conducting an interview in last week’s blog, I focused on citizen journalists’ concerns. Today, I want to look at interviewing fears from the other side – from the perspective of the person who is being interviewed. I’m not talking about high-profile individuals or politicians who are used to being questioned. I’m talking about average people who often avoid the spotlight. But they might be the subject of an interview because they are on the scene of an accident, are the victim of a crime, are participating in an event or have the expertise needed for a certain story.

One of the most powerful ways for citizen journalists to get information for a story is through personal interviews with people who have the information they need.

But many acting and aspiring citizen journalists talk about the apprehension they have about conducting interviews. They wonder how they will muster up the courage to approach strangers or high profile individuals and begin asking questions.

So how do you overcome that fear?

I'll use myself as an example. Because I am basically a very shy person, I learned to deal with this in a couple of ways.

bumped by roxy - cuz this is what we do!

National Association of Citizen Journalists’Co-founder Ron Ross and I took our training and concepts about citizen journalism on the road in late April.

We were inspired when we heard from others who understood and applauded the importance and mission of the NACJ, which is to educate, motivate and support citizen journalists.

Well, this is one way to get into a convention as a citizen journalist:

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Technology News: Video 2.0: MySpace, NBC Hold Citizen Journalist Cattle Call for Convention Gigs
by Keith Regan, TechNewsWorld, posted 06/26/08 1:56 PM PT

Already teaming up on Hulu.com, NBC and News Corp. are again partnering on another effort -- this time involving citizen journalism. NBC News, MSNBC and MySpace together launched the Decision '08 Convention contest, offering two MySpace members the chance to attend and cover the upcoming Democratic and Republican national conventions for them.

[...snip...]

Starting Thursday and until July 16, members of MySpace over the age of 18 will be able to submit short video clips to the Decision '08 Convention contest, answering questions such as why they feel voting is important, how they'd get convention "scoops" or why they're the right person for the citizen journalism role.

[...more information at the link in the title...]

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I wonder, tho, if this is simply a theft of the term "citizen journalism" for the purpose of a gimmicky self-interest play on the part of the web service providers...

Hmmmmm....

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