http://www.bakersfieldvoice.com/home/Blog/NATALIE/32171 With the first print issue of The Southwest Voice that I&nbsp;have had a chance to work on coming out tomorrow - Wednesday, August 20 - I thought I'd share a bit about what I've learned about citizen journalism. What is citizen journalism? While I've read through a ton of lecture notes and explanations on the subject (we're mentioned in Wikipedia's), I think in its most basic form, citizen journalism is anything written, posted, printed for others to see by a member of the community that does not get paid (monetarily) for their work. They write about local events, personal triumphs, their hobbies and reaction to events covered in traditional news and more. The web, coupled with traditional media's willingness to share the stage, have made citizen journalism both a feasible and popular way to get and share information. Who is a citizen journalist?&nbsp;This answer is easy because&nbsp;anyone and everyone&nbsp;can be a citizen journalist. You don't need a credential or degree - just an opinion and the willingness to share it!&nbsp; If you want to write, but you're not sure what to write about,&nbsp;check out this website&nbsp;I found&nbsp;called&nbsp;&nbsp;I, Reporter dedicated to citizen journalism. They have an excellent blog with 5 tips to get out of the house&nbsp;and write. If you're about to say or think to yourself 'but I'm not a good writer,' don't! It's not about sentence structure or&nbsp;whether you put too many commas in a sentence. Plus, here at The Southwest Voice we have a wonderful copy editor on staff who gets paid to make you sound good by taking out the small stuff like typos and misspelled words. And that's usually all that gets taken out, meaning your content is truly yours! Why Write? While I could name of a bunch of hypothetical reasons as to why people write. But, I think this can best be answered by some of you. Why do you write for The Southwest Voice? &nbsp; With the first print issue of The Southwest Voice that I&nbsp;have had a chance to work on coming out tomorrow - Wednesday, August 20 - I thought I'd share a bit about what I've learned about citizen journalism. What is citizen journalism? While I've read through a ton of lecture notes and explanations on the subject (we're mentioned in Wikipedia's), I think in its most basic form, citizen journalism is anything written, posted, printed for others to see by a member of the community that does not get paid (monetarily) for their work. They write about local events, personal triumphs, their hobbies and reaction to events covered in traditional news and more. The web, coupled with traditional media's willingness to share the stage, have made citizen journalism both a feasible and popular way to get and share information. Who is a citizen journalist?&nbsp;This answer is easy because&nbsp;anyone and everyone&nbsp;can be a citizen journalist. You don't need a credential or degree - just an opinion and the willingness to share it!&nbsp; If you want to write, but you're not sure what to write about,&nbsp;check out this website&nbsp;I found&nbsp;called&nbsp;&nbsp;I, Reporter dedicated to citizen journalism. They have an excellent blog with 5 tips to get out of the house&nbsp;and write. If you're about to say or think to yourself 'but I'm not a good writer,' don't! It's not about sentence structure or&nbsp;whether you put too many commas in a sentence. Plus, here at The Southwest Voice we have a wonderful copy editor on staff who gets paid to make you sound good by taking out the small stuff like typos and misspelled words. And that's usually all that gets taken out, meaning your content is truly yours! Why Write? While I could name of a bunch of hypothetical reasons as to why people write. But, I think this can best be answered by some of you. Why do you write for The Southwest Voice? &nbsp; en-us Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:16:02 PDT <p style="text-align: right;"><img src="http://sp1.yt-thm-a01.yimg.com/image/25/f11/226902345" alt="" /></p> <p>Your blog is so inspiring! I really enjoyed the 5 tips to get out and write &mdash; makes me want to go see a show at The Gaslight so I can write about it =) And maybe doing a camparison quest on shrimp tacos in the Southwest ... hmmmm ... I'm getting hungry!</p> http://www.bakersfieldvoice.com/home/Blog/NATALIE/32171/#c_295769 http://www.bakersfieldvoice.com/home/Blog/NATALIE/32171/#c_295769 <p style="text-align: right;"><img src="http://sp1.yt-thm-a01.yimg.com/image/25/f11/226902345" alt="" /></p> <p>Your blog is so inspiring! I really enjoyed the 5 tips to get out and write &mdash; makes me want to go see a show at The Gaslight so I can write about it =) And maybe doing a camparison quest on shrimp tacos in the Southwest ... hmmmm ... I'm getting hungry!</p>