RonRoss's blog

Journalism BA - 'most worthless degree'

The Daily Beast posted an article recently titled, “20 Most Useless College Majors.” The journalists who wrote the story concluded that a B.A. in journalism is the most useless degree of all.

According to the report, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics was reviewed to come up with the list, including starting- and mid-career salary levels, the expected change in the total number of jobs from 2008 to 2018 and the expected percentage change in available jobs from 2008 to 2018.

Citizen journalists’ success honoured by CNN

CNN.com recently announced the winners of its inaugural iReport Awards at the 2011 South by Southwest Conference and Festivals.

The winners were selected from more than 150,000 iReports submitted to the cable news station in 2010 and represented citizen journalists from around the world.

Energised about citizen journalism

This Pakistani journalist is a role model for citizen journalists around the world

Sonya Rehman. Ever heard of her? Many in Pakistan have. 

Rehman is a graduate from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, a journalist from Lahore, Pakistan and a blogger with over 157,000 hits at this writing.

CNN’s ratings boosted by CJs

Lately CNN’s ratings have been in the ditch – often in last place against its cable news rivals. But the ratings shot up when CNN used on-the-scene citizen reporters during the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, according to The New York Times. 

Reports of mainstream journalism’s death overstated?

Google “demise of journalism” or some variation of the idea and those clever little spiders the Google guru’s generate will find nearly a million websites for you to check out. You’ll read about J-schools closing, newspapers struggling and media departments fretting. You’ll get opinions from pundits, professionals, pinheads and prophets.   

There are many opinions but no one really knows what will happen.
 

Lessons learned from reporting of Japanese disaster

You can get a citizen-eye-view of Japan’s March 10, 2011, 8.9 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami by visiting CitizenTube, YouTube’s news and politics blog. 
 
Videos were posted by citizens and many have been rebroadcast on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and on major broadcast networks. Social websites such as Facebook and Twitter also were places where pictures, videos and moment-by-moment reports were made by thousands and seen by millions around the world.
 

Writing advice from a success story

You may not have heard of writer Lynn Vincent, but it’s possible you’ve read one or more of her New York Times bestsellers. Millions of people have seen her name on the cover of several bestsellers but probably did not notice.

This local website makes money

If you’ve been looking for a profitable model for a hyper-local website, visit www.seefreenews.com, an online news source that serves Freeport and Cedarville, two communities with a total population of fewer than 30,000 located in northeastern Illinois - USA.

Citizen journalist’s car bombed

Ron Ross

A citizen journalist who writes for an American weekly newspaper said her car was torched and now she has been asked to move out of her home.

Call for a million citizen journalists

The following is an excerpt from the introduction of the only book written FOR aspiring and active citizen journalists, “Handbook for Citizen Journalists.” My co-author, Susan Carson Cormier, and I believe that as the world changes the need for well-trained, active citizen journalists increases.

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