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While doing an incredible amount of editing lately, I’ve noticed that writers and citizen journalists are making some of the same mistakes.

In an effort to cut down on my editing marks, I thought I’d outline how citizen journalist can avoid three errors I keep seeing over and over again.

1) Start your story with the newest information available. Your lead – or first paragraph – should include the news that just happened. That news can – and should – be followed by background information about previous events or developments related to the most recent news.

Let’s take a fictitious example of a new statewide campaign to protect the elderly that was announced April 28. The campaign was launched because of a February 2011 report that noted a spike in assaults on the elderly. Your story should lead with the new campaign – not the old news about February’s report on abuse. But your story should include a paragraph further down about that February report.

2) Put quotes in separate paragraphs. When you use paraphrases and direct quotes from a source, give the direct quotes their own paragraph. Always put quotes from different sources in their own paragraph. Do not combine quotes from separate individuals in one paragraph.

3) Comma use when dealing with a list of items is often confusing. Use commas to separate the individual items in the list – except before the conjunction “and” or “or.” It would be: The class included students from the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades.

There is an exception. You would put a comma before the conjunction if the list of items contains one item that also has a conjunction, such as: Freelancers, bloggers, unpaid student interns, and citizen and professional journalists are covering the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on April 29.

These are the types of tips that are included in the “Handbook for Citizen Journalists,” which can be purchased online at http://www.citizenjournalistnow.com/.

Susan Cormier is the head coach in charge of training at the National Association of Citizen Journalists (http://www.nacj.us/) and co-author of the “Handbook for Citizen Journalists” (http://www.citizenjournalistnow.com/).

The debate rages on over whether citizen journalists and bloggers should get paid for their work.

The most recent salvos come amidst AOL’s $315 million purchase of The Huffington Post and a class-action suit filed by a former HuffPost contributor and activist.

Jonathan Tasini believes bloggers who have contributed to the HuffPost for years should receive back pay – to the tune of $105 million, according to the suit he filed April 12 against AOL, TheHuffingtonPost.com, and Arianna Huffington and Kenneth Lerer, the news website’s founders.

“In my view, the Huffington Post’s bloggers have essentially been turned into modern-day slaves on Arianna Huffington’s plantation,” Tasini was reported to have said in a telephone press conference. “This lawsuit is about establishing justice for the bloggers of the Huffington Post and establishing a standard going forward.”

He also said is he urging other bloggers to stop contributing to the HuffPo.

“Anybody blogging for the Huffington Post now is a scab,” he said. “They’re a strike breaker. They’re producing content for somebody who is attacking workers.”

He’s not the only one suggesting that contributors stop writing for free. On March 16, the Newspaper Guild of America joined the Visual Arts Source in urging unpaid writers to stop contributing to the website.

“We are asking that our members and all supporters of fair and equitable compensation for journalists join us in shining a light on the unprofessional and unethical practices of this company,” the Guild said in its press release.

Of course, Huffington sees things differently, reportedly saying the lawsuit is “utterly without merit.”

The UK Telegraph reported that she accused Tasini and other bloggers of changing their tune after AOL purchased the site.

“Without a shadow of a doubt, Tasini understood and appreciated the value of having a post on HuffPost – and was only too happy to use our platform’s ability to get his work seen by a wider audience and raise his profile when he was running for office,” she reportedly said.

“Until years later, when he suddenly decided that he’d changed his mind… and that instead of providing a boost to his career and political aspirations, posting on our site was actually just like being a slave on a plantation.”

As the verbal attacks fly, I have to say I can see both sides. Sure, there are some citizen journalists and bloggers who work very hard at their craft and should be paid. At the same time, there also are those who call themselves citizen journalists, but they are only out there writing to promote a cause or issue.

I have to admit that I’ve contributed both ways. I’ve been paid to contribute to a community publication when it needed help. I’ve also blogged for free about citizen journalism. Why? Because I want to promote the National Association of Citizen Journalists. Like I said, I understand both sides.

Susan Cormier is the head coach in charge of training at the National Association of Citizen Journalists (http://nacj.us/) and co-author of the “Handbook for Citizen Journalists” (http://www.citizenjournalistnow.com/).

An Egyptian blogger was sentenced to three years in prison this week. The Human Rights Watch issued a statement that can be read here. Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said this in response to the sentencing:

“Maikel Nabil’s three-year sentence may be the worst strike against free expression in Egypt since the Mubarak government jailed the first blogger for four years in 2007. The sentence is not only severe, but it was imposed by a military tribunal after an unfair trial.”

The words that are used to describe a crime scene, a car accident, a public incident, or the reactions of individuals and their behaviors can make a big difference in the way a story is told and understood.

While citizen journalists should try to capture the details of the moment for their readers, they also should be careful in choosing the words they use to describe an event or scene.

A website – AmericanRhetoric.com – provides a great example of two ways a story was told by two different individuals.

Both individuals believed they were telling the “truth.” But what they were telling was the true story as they saw it through their eyes.

They used phrases such as “dangerous tirade,” “in typical fashion,” “wild and theatrical behavior” and “consistent with past heroics” as they described an incident involving former Chicago Bulls forward Dennis Rodman.

Just for fun, go to http://www.americanrhetoric.com/rodmanphase1.htm and do the exercise. Read both versions of the story. Pick out some of the words that you think are a bit slanted. Think of some words you might have used instead.

If nothing else, do as AmericanRhetoric.com asks you to do: “Consider the effect that each version is likely to have on audiences who did not actually witness the event(s), and, who experienced only a single written version.”

Interesting lesson, don’t you think?

Susan Cormier is the head coach in charge of training at the National Association of Citizen Journalists (http://nacj.us/) and co-author of the “Handbook for Citizen Journalists” (http://www.citizenjournalistnow.com/).

Arianna Huffington, her website and AOL were on the receiving end of a $105m (?64.5m) lawsuit by a group of angry bloggers unhappy that she sold the Huffington Post for $315m without them being paid a penny.

The class action is led by Jonathan Tasini, a writer and trade unionist, who wrote more than 250 posts for Huffington Post on an unpaid basis until he dropped out shortly after the news and comment site was sold to AOL earlier this year.

Read the full story here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/apr/12/arianna-huffington-post-sale

Mashable has posted a piece on how people are more likely to share hard news over fluff pieces. It also points out how people are getting more involved with the journalistic process itself. Give it a read.

Due to recent news reports and discussions among citizen journalists, it appears time to take a look at the different types of so-called citizen journalists.

At the National Association of Citizen Journalists, co-founder Ron Ross and I find there are different categories of writers with different goals and intentions.

In our “Handbook for Citizen Journalists,” Ross takes it a step further and describes accidental journalists, advocacy citizen journalists and citizen journalists.

“Just because someone uses a cell phone camera to photograph an incident and then uploads it to Flickr or Facebook, it does not make that person a citizen journalist,” Ross writes in Chapter 5.

Ross and I believe these accidental journalists are among those contributing to the news coverage of large news events, such as those happening in Libya and Japan. They also are sought out by local TV stations to help provide coverage for fires, extraordinary weather and some other news items.

According to our handbook: “Accidental journalists are people who are caught unexpectedly in the middle of an event and take photos or videos and upload them to either social networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace or Twitter, or news websites such as CNN’s iReport or Fox News’ uReport.’’

We appreciate their willingness to take the time and contribute eyewitness reports of the events that are surrounding them.

Then, there are the advocacy journalists. These folks have a bias and tend to report only the side of the story they want you to hear.

“Advocacy journalism is a genre of journalism that adopts a viewpoint for the sake of advocating on behalf of a social, political, business or religious purpose. It is journalism with an intentional and transparent bias,” Ross writes in our handbook.

Neither of these types of journalists is what we consider a true citizen journalist, or as one blogger wrote recently – an enthusiastic citizen journalist.

True – or enthusiastic – citizen journalists work hard at their craft. They are trained. They strive to tell all sides of the story in an accurate manner.

These are the citizens who would deserve to get paid for their efforts. Not the one-time citizen at the scene of an earthquake or the biased advocate who is trying to sway you to his or her side of the debate.

Susan Cormier is the head coach in charge of training at the National Association of Citizen Journalists (http://nacj.us/) and co-author of the “Handbook for Citizen Journalists” (http://www.citizenjournalistnow.com/).

Immigration is a hot button issue, especially in  Chicago where 26% of the population is Hispanic, and 21% were born outside the U.S. Even if legislators aren’t taking any action, questions about immgration resonate with the public.

On March 20th, young, undocumented, students from all over the Chicago area emerged from the gray area where undocumented individuals exist in the U.S., to speak out in public.  Immigrant Youth Justice League (IYJL)  a “Chicago-based organization led by undocumented youth, working for immigrant rights through education, resource-gathering, and youth mobilization,” sponsored a rally called  “Coming Out of the Shadows.”

The video produced by citizen reporters, as well as stories and audio on the IYJL website, are the only detailed coverage of this unresolved but critical issue in local media. The mainstream media failed to cover the event with more than a mention, perhaps because there was no action pending in the legislature. Chicago is a sanctuary city, and as such, is at odds with federal authorities on questions of how to pursue undocumented individuals.

For citizen journalists the question is, isn’t there an audience who is interested in this story? The youth video and stories on the IYJL site demonstrate the importance of citizen media as a method of expression for young people today.

I see a  “wet blanket” effect on news coverage in the U.S. exerted by the large Baby Boom generation. There are so many boomers and they control a large share of wealth, and thus corporate media and mainstream media that still rely on advertising, pushes coverage of stories from the point of view of folks who are 50 +years old and reflects the world from the boomers’ point of view.

Younger people whose social connections  via MySpace, Orkut, and now Facebook, have led them to  political ideas and ideas about how society should be democratically organized are speaking out. Citizen journalists in Chicago and across the U.S. provide a way for  the faces of the young and their voices and ideas to reach the public, even if mainstream media misses the story.

Related articles

• Undocumented, Unafraid, and Unapologetic (pinkbananaworld.com)
• Undocumented, Unafraid, and Unapologetic (bilerico.com)
• Undocumented Students at Northwestern University (chicagonow.com)

With well-respected wire journalists expelled by the authorities in Damascus the only on-the-ground reports that are emerging are via mobile phones and YouTube. There’s much room for speculation and rumour according to Syria News Wire.

Read the full story: Citizen Journalists Provide Main Reporting On Syria.

CNN is expanding its use of citizen journalists.

The new collaboration – Open Stories – was announced at the annual South by Southwest this month and has been used for CNN’s coverage of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

It is hoped that Open Stories will create multifaceted reports about a single story with contributors posting videos, photos, updates and comments.

I am excited to watch professional journalist as they become more accepting of citizen reports, but I’m also a little bit concerned about what CNN accepts in the way of contributors’ comments.

I urge CNN to refrain from including opinions from every Tom, Dick and Harry. I encourage them to make sure that the comments that are included are actual reports of news from people who are watching news as it is happening.

Then, there’s the issue of pay. Some practicing citizen journalists think CNN should pay citizens for their reporting.

In the case of Open Stories, I think many of these citizens will be what we refer to at the National Association of Citizen Journalists as accidental journalists. They just happen to be on the scene of a news event and have a recording or video device handy to cover what is happening.

Logistically, how do you pay what could be hundreds of journalists who may contribute a fact or two, or a video scene or two? People just don’t pay for eyewitness accounts, which is what is often provided by accidental citizen journalists.

I feel differently about working citizen journalists, however. If they work hard at their craft and go out of their way to be on the scene of a news event and produce quality, reliable reports that news entities are unable or unwilling to cover, they should be paid.

Nevertheless, the CNN project advances the concept of citizens reporting news. As this concept evolves, especially in the United States, I hope the pay will somehow follow.

Susan Cormier is the head coach in charge of training at the National Association of Citizen Journalists (http://nacj.us/) and co-author of the “Handbook for Citizen Journalists” (http://www.citizenjournalistnow.com/).