The whole idea of citizen journalism seems really interesting. Even though citizen journalism is not a new thing, the uptake’s idea of training a group of citizen video-journalists and user community driving events and other story coverage is certainly a fresh idea. I believe a lot of mainstream media is experimenting on citizen journalism like I-Report (CNN) and Citizen Reporter (MSNBC).

I viewed couple of videos posted by citizen reporters and they were pretty interesting. The video “We need god in our governments” was especially interesting! The uptake team members are a group of very experienced individuals and they’re the kind of people necessary to make uptake a success. In my view, the main thing here would be whether uptake can be independent or not. If uptake can be independent, there would be a source where people can go see the news as it happens and in the long run, it would be golden. The other crucial factor for me is whether uptake can remain non-profitable and maintain growth at the same time.

I follow politics in Nepal (Where I come from) through different blogs and Medias. Each and every one of them has their own agenda and affiliation with some sort of organizations/parties. Therefore, I never get to read the actual things that are happening there. I have to ask my father to know what actually happened. Before I came here, there were lot of things going on in Nepal (politically) and my relatives those were here in US were all worried about as the news they were getting were highly exaggerated. For those here in the US, Nepal was in a big ball of fire but living in Nepal, I never felt that way. Therefore I feel that there is a dire need for independent and unbiased reporters, who can collect, report, analyze and disseminate news and information as it happens. Uptake certainly seems to be working in that direction and I wish them good luck.

will journalism be done to you? not sure what this means, but it is there montra in their headline.