You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'Your Story Blog' category.
As the Your Story project is closing at the end of the month, read more on this here – I’d like to re-direct your submissions for citizen journalism ideas and also your photos and video footage to here.
The guy who sits next to me at work – James, uploaded this video I made again, after Jonathan commented on the Your Story vimeo site that the first attempt was squashed up for some reason.
Even though I am working to an end of June deadline on the many projects that are still going on in the field, it doesn’t feel like things are winding down as there are still many great and interesting stories that you want to tell. These include a call I got today from Ridwana in Leicester in the UK who has set up a group on Facebook called Muslims against Terrorism and who is campaigning against racism that she has come across on the site.
As I say in the video, if you have any ideas for citizen reports, then you can submit them on the Have Your Say page of bbcnews.com, I’ll also forward any that you send into me here.
more about “June deadline“, posted with vodpod
Click to watch the video on vimeo
We’ll be finishing the Your Story citizen journalism project at the end of June 2009. Funding priorities at the BBC World Service have changed, but there will still be citizen generated content included in the BBC World Service. Our news programmes will continue to incorporate citizen journalism perspectives. You will still be able to comment on the news stories through the World Have Your Say blog and also send in your photos and video to the Have Your Say page of bbcnews.com.
The Your Story citizen journalist reports that are still being worked on between now and June are drug gangs in Mexico, children of Sierra Leone, Jeff in Washington is recording his diary as a teenager who has not been able to go to school for the last two years, Robben Island’s small community in South Africa are recording a piece on the discovery of bones belonging to political prisoners of the 1960′s, Bangladeshi drug problems, and perhaps the attitudes of Ugandan farmers to GM crops and hopefully a piece from China to mark the 20 year anniversary of Tiananmen Square.
If you have a recorder from a piece you have already completed, I’ll be in touch with you all individually, to let you know where to send them onto. I’m still here until the end of June though!!
I’ve had quite a few ideas for reports from you, comments that have been made on this blog here and also that have been sent in using this webform on the Your Story homepage.
Here is a selection of what I have received – let me know if you are interested in finding out more on any of them …
Firstly, I received a terribly shocking and graphic photo of a burned child. The person who sent it into me said that they wanted to bring the world’s attention to what is happening in a certain part of the world. I cannot verify where that photo was taken and even if I did, I would have to consider fully whether to publish it as we follow strict guidelines on what we show under the BBC guidelines on reporting suffering and distress.
Teenagers who shoot up drugs in Bangladesh. This is one of the story ideas from two people ; Someta and Farzana- who wrote about the issue in regard to how people in Bangladeshi society are viewing the problem – this is a topic I have not heard about before and so might work for us. Here’s some more info on this I found.
Moldova protests. Mark has been sending photos and video from Moldova on the student protests there. I also got a message of support for what they are doing from a student in Bulgaria. I passed on his details to the Europe Today programme who were covering the issue extensively with our correspondent Oana Lungescu.
Citizen journalism from Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. Celestin contacted Your Story. As a resident of Goma, he wanted to find out about trying to send material to us from there. Safety is the key consideration here as we do not want to put anyone in any danger if they decide they want to contribute. I am calling him tonight to find out more about what we can do safely.
Racism on facebook? I had a message about racist groups operating on facebook so trying to find out more on this. If you have come across anything, let me know.
America and Cuba making music together. Dr Peter Rovit from the University of Alabama messaged to say that he’s travelling to Cuba to work with Cuban musicians on two chamber music concerts. A signal that relations between the two countries really are getting better?
This is just a short selection of what we’ve had, if yours is not included please don’t be offended – I’ll talk about more story ideas in the next post or you’ll get an email from me directly. thanks and keep them coming.
I have not written on this blog for a short time because there are some changes coming to the Your Story blog.
The blog is going to become more closely related to the World Have Your Say blog – and the global conversation that is broadcast every weekday on the BBC World Service.
This means that I will be talking to the community who already post on there to see if they might want to work with me on developing their stories so that we can get them on air or onto this blog.
That doesn’t mean that I will stop working with other citizen journalists who are already contributing or thinking about doing so – oh no! It would still be great to hear from you.
There have been a couple of people who have contacted Your Story who I am in the process of sending recording equipment to so that they can start talking to the world.
The first is an experience of sexual abuse and cover up within a strict Islamic family in Abu Dhabi.
The other is the issue of racism in Ukraine.
I am in touch with someone who brought the death of Nigerian Shefiu Salawudeen, to our attention. Although as yet, there is no proven motive for his death – see the facebook page set up in his memory here.
I am always interested in the issue of racism – having experienced it myself many times throughout my life. But especially now in 2009. At a time when the president of the United States – the man who has the most power in the world, is a man of colour, how does it feel to live somewhere where you are still being judged by the colour of your skin, not in a polite or politically correct way, but in an overt and scary way.
Now back in London I would just like to extend a huge thanks to all those citizen journalists, guests and friends who helped to make the radio and online material work so well over inauguration, in Detroit and Chicago.
I look forward to hearing from you all again and working with you on stories in the future. So please do keep in touch.
You may have heard me going on about trying to record a promo to explain what the Your Story project is about – well, finally, here it is!! Your thoughts – good and bad are welcome.
more about "What is Your Story? ", posted with vodpod
Courtesy Please
April 6, 2009 in Your Story Blog | Tags: comments, contributors charter, courtesy, guidelines, posts, rules, terms and conditions | by mario239303 | Leave a comment
It’s Nina Robinson here, I run this blog and I moderate the comments. This post comes after a few comments on Fatima’s Story and this post linked to that broadcast.
A few of you have been asking about why I have edited a comment or not published a comment. I ask you all to take the time to look at the BBC terms and conditions for the guidelines we use when doing this – scroll to point 14 on BBC communities.
One comment was edited down by me. In future I will not do this, I will either post the comment in full or delete any comments that are considered offensive, abusive or threatening in any way.
We do not tolerate this behaviour on the Your Story blog.
If you need any more information on how and why we do this, have a look at our contributor’s charter; Your Story is part of World Have Your Say.
The key word when posting on this blog and which I ask for you all to consider is courtesy. If you want to be discourteous please go elsewhere.
The number of comments and the depth of feeling that Fatima’s story has received just confirms to me how important a story and subject matter this is – to broadcast and talk about. I worked with Fatima on this, it was not easy for her to record her experiences and I think she deserves our support for talking about her experiences and being so open about her personal feelings. It is indeed a rare testimony to hear.
We perform the same thorough checks and research on all the stories that are broadcast on the BBC.