:: LNR Journalism ::

Reddit as journalism: Crowdsourcing an interview with the President

GigaOM :: Reddit landed a personal appearance by the President of the United States on Wednesday when Barack Obama stopped by for one of the site’s “Ask Me Anything” interviews — an event that further adds to the web community’s reputation as an alternative source of journalism.

Hi, I’m Barack Obama, President of the United States. Ask me anything. I’ll be taking your questions for half an hour starting at about 4:30 ET.

Proof it's me: https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/240903767350968320

Hey, everyone: I'll be taking your questions online today. Ask yours here: OFA.BO/gBof44 -bo

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 29, 2012

A report by Mathew Ingram, gigaom.com

Erik Martin: Reddit and citizen journalism, no it's not new

No, it is not new and it is not a cause for traffic spikes.

AdWeek :: Adweek: Has this type of painstakingly curated and investigative citizen journalism been going on for a while and people are just getting wise to it on a national level, or is this something new to Reddit?

Erik Martin: ... on a much lighter note in some of our sports communities are pulling in real-time data from FIFA or the NBA or whatever league, and they'll pull those in to create informative threads. For the Euro 2012, users used the data from the games to find a different way to cover these live events. This has been going on since the beginning ... .

Interview with Erik Martin, Reddit - A piece by Charlie Warzel, www.adweek.com

Reddit responds to shootings in a way most media organizations can’t

It was Morgan Jones, a 18-year old Denver citizen, who turned to Reddit to cover the Aurora theater shooting. What role does Reddit play in the news ecosystem today?

Techland TIME :: Reddit won’t replace traditional media. For the time being, there is still a need for paid professionals who — with their reputations and jobs at risk if they’re caught lying — track down and interview witnesses and officials during tragedies like this one. But no news organization or social media site currently offers an experience that’s concurrently as immediate, engaging and thorough as the one offered by Reddit.

Reddit and breaking news - A report by Keith Wagstaff, techland.time.com

HT: Cecilia Snyder via a Newslab/Facebook post

A citizen journalist on Reddit 'told the world about the Aurora shooting'

Buzzfeed :: In the early morning, as professional media scrambled to cover the movie theater shooting in Aurora, CO, the most comprehensive and up-to-date source of information wasn't a news site or a TV station. It was a series of posts on Reddit, the social news site, written by a user named "integ3r."

Morgan Jones posted a link to the story on Reddit — he was the first — and began posting updates, pulling in new information, correcting old information, and addressing questions from other users. By virtue of speed, his familiarity with the area, and the promotion other users, he fast became the go-to source in the story.

A report by John Herrman, www.buzzfeed.com

Commented by Alan Stamm, Poynter (added my comment as well)

The lessons for Facebook, Twitter and Reddit in Digg's demise

Forbes :: If one virtual community can go from being worth almost $164 million to getting sold for parts in just a few years, why not another one? The good news for Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and everyone else is that Digg’s fate was avoidable. The precipitous drop in usage that saw its audience slide from 30 million to 8 million in a little more than a year wasn’t due to fickle consumer tastes, or to competitive pressure from a hotter rival, whatever some might say. It was self-inflicted, the result of discreet and obvious missteps.

In talks with Digg's power users - A report by Jeff Bercovici, www.forbes.com

Reddit lifts its ban: The Atlantic has returned

Daily Dot :: A month after the social news site kicked out the news magazine and dozens of other sites —including Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and Discovery News—for spam, Reddit has welcomed many back into the warm embrace of its monster traffic, with little fanfare.

Continue to read Kevin Morris, www.dailydot.com

Did you know how big Reddit is?

The Next Web :: Yes, Reddit is big, but did you know how big? As it turns out, the social links and news site is likely larger than you imagined. Released today is a pile of traffic data from several of the sites largest ‘subreddits,’ or subsections. The numbers are eye-popping.

[Alex Wilhelm:] Reddit’s largest subsections command more than 100 million monthly impressions

Reddit and the figures - Continue to read Alex Wilhelm, thenextweb.com

Growing Reddit: A fake beginning

Venture Beat :: Creating a community from scratch is a pretty tough thing to do, as Reddit co-found Steve Huffman explained in a recent video lesson for online university startup Udacity. When Huffman and co-founder Alexis Ohanian first launched Reddit in 2005, it was relatively quiet and devoid of users. Obviously, something had to jump-start interest in the site, which now generates over 2 billion monthly page views. Apparently there was another secret ingredient.

Continue to read Tom Cheredar, venturebeat.com

WordPress, Reddit, others join new 'Internet Defense League'

AllThingsD :: The Internet Defense League already has onboard sites that can motivate the online masses: WordPress, Imgur, Reddit, Cheezburger Network, Public Knowledge, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Craigslist founder Craig Newmark have signed up.

HT: Anthony De Rosa via Jeff Jarvis, here

RT @AntDeRosa: WordPress, Reddit, Cheezburger and others join new Internet Defense League dthin.gs/KUWhKv

— Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) May 27, 2012

Continue to read Liz Gannes, allthingsd.com

Reddit writes a law: first draft of the Free Internet Act emerges

TechDirt :: As we noted last month, the community at Reddit responded to the whole SOPA mess by deciding that they should collaborate to write their own piece of legislation that protects internet freedoms. The first draft of the Free Internet Act is now available as an open Google doc, where there are additional edits and comments going on as we speak.

Continue to read Mike Masnick, www.techdirt.com