[Mb-civic] Do-It-Yourself Journalism Spreads - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

<>Do-It-Yourself Journalism Spreads
Web Sites Let People Take News Into Their Own Hands

By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 17, 2005; Page A01

DAVENPORT, Iowa -- "Check out Your Mom." "Your Mom is hot." "Your Mom 
has issues."

Those are the messages Evan Chiappinelli is trying to get across as he 
haphazardly drives around the area with two of his buddies, flinging 
promotional T-shirts, pens and fliers out the car windows. Chiappinelli, 
18, is a writer-photographer-marketer for Your Mom, a Web site and 
weekly newspaper for teenagers launched last year by the Quad-City 
Times, a Lee Enterprises Inc. subsidiary.

<>Although the endeavor began as a way for a traditional newspaper to 
reach a younger, Internet-savvy audience and increase profits, it has 
become an experiment in "citizen journalism," in which people who live 
in a community get involved in reporting on it. Only one of Your Mom's 
staffers -- its editor -- is a professional journalist. The other 40 or 
so people who help put the publication together are all teenagers and 
all, except for two interns who are paid just above minimum wage, work 
without pay.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/16/AR2005071601359.html 

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