J-Topics

While YouTube has accepted various news-style reports and information from contributors, it has created a separate page to highlight reports and to teach people how to become citizen journalists.

"Ever captured a natural disaster or a crime on your cell-phone camera? Filmed a political rally or protest, and then interviewed the participants afterward? Produced a story about a local issue in your community? If you've done any of these things or aspire to, then you're part of the enormous community of citizen reporters on YouTube , and this channel is for you.

The YouTube Reporters' Center is a new resource to help you learn more about how to report the news. It features some of the nation's top journalists and news organizations sharing instructional videos with tips and advice for better reporting."

From his hospital bed, Mark Glaser, of PBS MediaShift, had time to think about 10 fundamental ways newspapers can change to save themselves.

"If newspapers are to rise from the obituary page, the people in charge better learn how to sell them as an important advertising vehicle and an irreplaceable voice in their communities. That means they need to embrace new media to avoid getting eaten by it. Reporters must get out from behind their desks and do meet-and-greets in their communities, promote themselves through social media outlets and enter into a dialogue with their readers."

More local content is the key to saving newspapers in the SunMedia chain, according to a study done by Communications Workers of America released on June 25.

“Publishers and newspaper companies complain that the financial model for the media industry is broken and papers are endangered because of competition from the Internet. This poll shows that providing quality local coverage and properly serving and representing their readers may be the real remedy for newspapers, particularly those in medium-sized cities such as those that were surveyed,” says Arnold Amber, the Director of CWA Canada, the union that represents thousands of media workers in the country."