An Introduction

What Is The Pittsburgh Citizen?

 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.

 Our (Adopted) Definition of
Citizen Journalism

“When the people formerly known as

the audience employ the press tools
they have in their possession to
inform one another, that’s citizen
journalism.”
--Jay Rosen
Citizen Journalism Matters Because:
 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.
 Content Published on The Citizen
 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)
How Do We Support Citizen Journalists?
 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.
Step #1: Visit The Citizen and Click “Join Us”
Step #2: Tell Us What You Want to Cover
Step #3: Create a Profile and We’ll
Assign an Editor
Step #4: Use Our Virtual Reporter’s NotebookTM to
Write Your Story and Communicate with Your Editor
Step #5: Publish Your Story to The Citizen
and We’ll Promote It
 Other Ways to Get Involved
 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
 Thank You!

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