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May 15, 2008New Voices Invests in a New Regional News Model, Community and Niche Web Sites |
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From Ascribe Newsfeed: Ten innovative citizen media projects have been selected as this year's New Voices grant winners and will each receive up to $17,000 in start-up funding. One grantee will create a new model for regional news coverage in Ohio and Indiana. With this year's projects, a total of 40 community news start-ups have been funded from 845 entries since 2005. "These winners want to build new avenues producing local news and new ways to invite citizens to share particular expertise," said Jan Schaffer, director of J-Lab, which administers the New Voices program. "The number of applicants signals the growing interest in the power of citizen media to create a sense of place for all kinds of communities," said Gary Kebbel, Knight's journalism program officer. Citizen journalists and students at Miami University and Earlham College will produce stories for an interactive Web site and content will be shared with local mainstream media. A Philadelphia Web entrepreneur will spearhead a new Web site and quarterly publication to cover "green" jobs, grants, and economic initiatives by local businesses, universities and nonprofits. Civic group will create a bi-weekly online newspaper community for the rural community around Frostburg, Maryland, modeled on the National League of Cities' Inclusive Community Program. One-to-three minute segments will be broadcast monthly on KNBA-FM and National Native News. They will also be available online as podcasts and offered to the Alaska Public Radio network. Follow other citizen media developments at the Knight Citizen News Network (http://www.kcnn.org).
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