We create the stories of the connected society

PitchIt! Challenge winner fine-tunes the details of their next-generation crowd journalism platform.

Dan Kennedy wrote for The Guardian
a flattering profile of SeeClickFix, one of the 2009 winners of our PitchIt investment challenge. Congratulations CEO Ben Berkowitz and crew – and stay tuned for more PitchIt later this summer.

We haven’t recorded a podcast in a while — life gets in the way, you know — but we are back on track, effective immediately. WeMedia conducts regular regular podcasts that feature in-depth interviews with prominent media, technology, and social change figures, as well as distinguished experts on current affairs and news. Our goal is [...]

Digital natives: Who teaches whom? Moderator: Sam Grogg, Dean, UM School of Communication. Panelists: Greg Linch, multi media reporter and senior journalism major at UM. Sanjeev Chatterjee, professor of broadcasting and executive director of the Knight Center for International Media at UM. Jody Brannon, National Director News 21, Arizona State University. Krista Van Tassel, Net [...]

UPDATE: Clarifications have been made to this post in the comments section Three recent J school grads bemoan that they work for newspaper web sites where most of what they do is click buttons to paste news stories and photos on the site. This is their first job in the “new” news media. As “web [...]

Project:Report, You Tube’s partnership with the Pulitzer Center, is one of the most promising expressions of We Media to emerge between traditional and everyday journalists. Essentially a journalism contest funded in part by Sony and Intel, Project:Report was created for non-professional, everyday citizens to tell stories that might not otherwise be told. The simple and [...]

As Barack Obama took to the floor at the Democratic National Convention, it became utterly apparent to me that this is the year that will change everything.  You see, I was perched on my couch in Boston in a familiar position; cross-legged, with my MacBook on my lap, ears perked up, attentive to every word.  [...]

This spring we noted the launch and alpha testing of SocialMedian, a new link aggregator that five months ago looked something like a more social version of delicious or Diigo. It has been undergoing continuous development since then – and the newest release should be especially noteworthy for bloggers, researchers, journalists, marketers and activists. If [...]

The news media is taking heat for reporting on politicians who lead or want to lead the country. The president doesn’t like it. John McCain, who ought to be grateful for the vetting, doesn’t like it. Bill O’Reilly doesn’t care for it. But Sarah Palin shows she can take it. The GOP has found its [...]

Steering into the iceberg, the Troubled Tribune company rearranges the deck chairs on the Titanic. The redesign of Trib’s Baltimore Sun and prototypes of the new Chicago Tribune are distress calls. This is what we get from the new captains, former shlock-radio execs: talk-radio on newsprint, passed off as innovation. The ghosts of Mencken and [...]

Last night was “a night for history.” USAToday said so this morning. I guess the Nation’s Newspaper thought I missed it, marginalized as it was. The editors probably thought I was too busy switching between the convenient coverage by the networks (musn’t pre-empt America’s Got Talent). Or shouting at the mind-numbing graphics and prolific pundits [...]

What’s the purpose of journalism, media, art – or communication of any sort? Your goal may be to build a business, or to prevent one from crumbling. Both are tough and worthy goals. But are they a purpose? Here’s a purpose: help an anorexic woman tell her friends about her disease; or raise $500,000 for [...]

Much of the world will form opinions about China from the legions of mainstream broadcasters and journalists descending on Beijing for the Olympics. A lot of it is an exercise in first impressions, Western perspective and cultural context. Thirty years ago I toured China as a young reporter covering the first U.S. trade mission to [...]

Two related announcements today from a U.S. journalism institute reflect the changing nature of how journalism is produced, distributed and experienced globally – and also the expanding role for non-profits and philanthropy in paying for U.S. journalism.

In an open letter to craigslist, Steve Outing asks its founders and operators to help save the newspaper industry from itself. My response: Steve, It takes real chutzpah to ask Craig Newmark and Jim Buckmaster of craigslist to help newspapers salvage their classifieds businesses and thus save democracy, or at least the part of it [...]