Web Sites That Dig for News Rise as Watchdogs

by Sanjay Jha | November 20, 2008 at 03:07 am

42 views | 0 Recommendations | 0 comments

With the incessent proliferation of social media, citizens are becoming more empowered and bringing many stories which in normal course would have never got covered. Just as blogs and podcasts have empowered individuals to express themselves, Many website are empowering cities and towns to develop a collective voice and, by extension, better govern themselves.

As America’s newspapers shrink and shed staff, and broadcast news outlets sink in the ratings, a new kind of Web-based news operation has arisen in several cities, forcing the papers to follow the stories they uncover.

Here it is VoiceofSanDiego.org, offering a brand of serious, original reporting by professional journalists — the province of the traditional media, but at a much lower cost of doing business. Since it began in 2005, similar operations have cropped up in New Haven, the Twin Cities, Seattle, St. Louis and Chicago. More are on the way.