Presentation that I gave at The Alliance for Community Conference on July 8, 2010, which introduces The Public Square Project's citizen journalism platform, The Pittsburgh Citizen.

1. An Introduction

2. Hyperlocal news platform specifically designed for citizen journalists. Alpha version of site launched in Fall 2009. Beta version to launch in Summer 2010. Published by The Public Square Project. Funded in part by a Seed Award from The Sprout Fund. What Is The Pittsburgh Citizen?

3. “When the people formerly known as the audienceemploy the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another, that’s citizen journalism.” --Jay Rosen Our (Adopted) Definition of Citizen Journalism

4. Journalism is essential to democracy. Traditional reporting models are endangered. See: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Rocky Mountain News, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe Experimentation with new journalism models is necessary to build the capacity of traditional media sources to cover the news. Too much data to digest without resorting to forms of crowdsourced reporting. Citizen Journalism Matters Because:

5. Original reporting by citizen journalists working with The Pittsburgh Citizen (e.g., G-20 Summit project) Content produced by partner organizations and individuals (other non-profits, blogs, tweets, etc.) Aggregated content focused on specific issues (e.g., our Marcellus Shale Issue Spotlight) Content Published on The Citizen

6. Editorial Support - You will work side-by-side with a trained journalist who will assist you in reporting and writing your story. You'll even be able to collaborate with your editor online through our Virtual Reporter’s Notebook™. Access to Sources - Need a particular government document or access to a source for an interview? The Pittsburgh Citizen team will help you track down that source. Publication - We will publish your work, including all associated audio, video, documents, and photographs, and promote your story so that it reaches a wide audience. How Do We Support Citizen Journalists?

7. Step #1: Visit The Citizen and Click “Join Us”

8. Step #2: Tell Us What You Want to Cover

9. Step #3: Create a Profile and We’ll Assign an Editor

10. Step #4: Use Our Virtual Reporter’s NotebookTM to Write Your Story and Communicate with Your Editor

11. Step #5: Publish Your Story to The Citizen and We’ll Promote It

12. Contribute a story idea to our Story Bank. Subscribe to our RSS Feed. Follow us on Twitter: @pghcitizen Become a fan of The Public Square Project on Facebook. E-mail suggestions to info@pittsburghcitizen.org Join The Public Square Project’s Mailing List at www.publicsquareproject.org Other Ways to Get Involved

13. Ryan Hopkins President & Founder The Public Square Project www.publicsquareproject.org www.pittsburghcitizen.org info@pittsburghcitizen.org Thank You!