Crowd-sourced independent news website

[asydhouse]

The crowd-sourced campaigning organisation Avaaz has started a website called The Daily Briefing (link below) which looks like being a refreshing opportunity to get a wider and more in-depth view of current affairs than can be had from the corporate sponsored mainstream news channels, (whether they be nominally "conservative" or "liberal", they are always limited in their reportage by their editorial filters).

This looks like being a useful source for skeptical minds looking for a more informed, broader look at what's going on in the world today, so I thought I'd post this to give a heads up to everyone looking for truth and intelligent engagement with the real world, which I trust is the majority of people frequenting JREF.

For instance, here's a different take on what was really happening over the last few weeks of so-called "Muslim rage".

It seems our media have been fueling the fire by concentrating on a tiny minority of reactionary extremists. Logical when you realise that 1.5 billion Muslims live on this planet, but only a few hundred/thousand violent demonstrators have monopolised the reportage. (It appears that apart from in Afghanistan and Libya, the only people killed in these demonstrations have been killed by riot police).

It's as if Tea Party demonstrations were taken to represent mainstream American thinking.

I'm ashamed to say that last week I posted in despair in the "Things not going well in Afghanistan" thread, despair evoked in my mind by our media's response and the distorted image of the behaviour of the "Muslim world" they portrayed. I feel ashamed of myself for falling so easily into a prejudiced and dismissive frame of mind as a result of their narrow and sensationalist slant on the state of the world's citizens.

Check out this rather more enlightening reportage from Avaaz:

http://en.avaaz.org/783/muslim-rage-protests-newsweek-salafists?utm_source=avaaz_newsletter&utm_medium=blast&utm_campaign=stop-the-clash

 

[asydhouse]

Excuse me, I have jumped the gun with saying the Daily Briefing is up and running... I received an email today saying they are working towards starting this up, with several world class journalists requesting to become part of it, and when I followed a link to the page I linked to above, I saw the words "Daily Briefing" and mistakenly thought it was up already.

The link above is to the website of Avaaz, where brief news stories are to be found... the in-depth reportage that will be a feature of the proper website is yet to commence.

Still, there are a lot of interesting perspectives and incidents etc to be found there, so it's worth checking out, while waiting for the real launch of the service.

For the record, here is part of the email I received, a sort of mission statement for the new journalism project:

"Staff up the tiny team currently running the Daily Briefing. Some of the world’s most experienced and talented journalists and media pros have approached us to come aboard because they are tired of corporate and conflict journalism and can see how a 16 million-member media machine can strengthen our democracies and help change our world.

"Build the world’s best technology so community and democracy rule. With cutting edge crowd-sourcing and citizen journalism tech builds, we’ll all get to produce content and vote things up and down so that stories are featured based on merit and relevance to us.

"Tell the good news. Instead of bombarding us solely with stories that portray the horrors of humanity and the destruction of our planet, the Daily Briefing will investigate and showcase inspiring stories of hope and courage.

"Give a voice to the untold stories. Avaaz members have funded critical citizen journalism to break media blackouts in hotspots of repression across the world. Now, the Daily Briefing will offer an avenue for voices and issues that are ignored by corporate-owned media.

"Provide world-class analysis and political entrepreneurship. Daily Briefing staff will cut through the language that alienates us, instead providing solid analysis and new paths to confront the biggest challenges of our time."

 

[dudalb]

Why do I get the feelling that AVAAZ is going to be no more objective,or even less so, then the Mainstream Media sites it despises so much?

 

[asydhouse]

"more objective" or not, it will at least tell more of the background to stories to counteract the narrow viewpoints we see from the currently existing news feeds we are limited to.

As in the link I supplied, I have seen none of that information put forward about the nonparticipation of the majority of muslims in the big story all the news establishment has been feeding us about the "muslim riots"... even the BBC has been pushing the idea that "the muslim world" is a monolithic reactionary force.... and I was getting pulled along with it to the point that I was in despair.

Citizen journalism needs an outlet to give us more than the 15 minutes of headlines repeated over and over that BBC 24 feeds us...

I just think it's worth checking in (keep checking all the others too, why not?) to broaden your awareness of alternative view points.

I don't think any news organisation is capable of complete objectivity... more information can only help you to make your own objectivity more possible.

It's really up to all of us to strive for a well-informed basis from which to form a better understanding... that's what democracy is all about, isn't it?