Welcome to New Media: How to go about doing Citizen Journalism itself

We are inviting you all to India’s First Complete Citizens’ Portal http://www.mynews.in. Our second one is in Hindi: www.merikhabar.com. Since its inception in October 2006, MyNews Interactive has been focusing on how to persuade more citizen reporters/broadcasters. Now we believe its time for us to think about how to go about doing Citizen Journalism itself. There have been significant attempts to implement citizen journalism on a global scale by many Citizen Journalism Initiatives, but http://www.mynews.in is striving for on a more local level. Until now, http://www.mynews.in has been one of the few successful sites of its kind. Within one year, we are getting 20 to 30 news stories a day. We are Bi-lingual (English & Hindi, however submissions in Hindi are lesser than in English. We update the portals through the day. Rather than remaining content with around 32000 hits (as of now) and 20 to 30 news stories a day, we continue to persuade those minds who have enough investigative & expressive mettle within themselves and eager to unravel their minds towards the things around them. This is the time for Citizen Journalists to attract those readers who are fed-up with the commercialization of newspapers and eager to embrace the new real time news reporting with real-time analysis. We are also striving to know the obstacles that have hindered the spread of Citizen Journalism around the world. The http://www.mynews.in strongly believes that Citizen Journalism can find roots anywhere, not just in South Korea, United States, Japan or Europe. For it is better to have citizens’ voice with their own perspective and interests than to let the media represent them on their behalf. The position of Internet is improving around the world. As more people get online, a public square is being broadened and leveled for everyone to join in as active participant. Traditional means of newsgathering and information dissemination are quickly falling behind the new model of media. The problem with old media is the changing scenario of the news itself. We believe news is something that affects the people most, not only the things those affects Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh or George W. Bush. The news is that is created by people who are all allowed to think together. The news is a form of collective thinking. It is the ideas and minds of the people that are changing the world, when they are heard. And to be heard, we should utilize the very tool of Citizen Journalism. The concept of Citizen Journalism itself is not hard to appreciate; but its execution really is hard enough. That is why there are few successful Citizen Journalism websites. And for that reason http://www.mynews.in has opted for a bi-lingual model. We'''d like to share what we have experienced and learned from our operation. We believe that freedom of expression is fundamental to citizens' progress, peace, and prosperity. We hope http://www.mynews.in will not be merely a kind of coffeehouse for citizens to gather and freely discuss the matters that affect them, but a strong tool to reach out the authorities and be taken seriously by them. MyNews would like to serve as a kind of mediator between public and authorities. Please let us know how can we improve Citizen Journalism and better serve citizens' interests. Your coming forward to http://www.mynews.in and report the news stories/commentary in your own words with your own perspective will be greatly appreciated. These stories/comments will be published with by-line (address also if desired) of the sender Citizen Journalist. You can send/upload photographs and video also with full details.