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''We are uncomfortable with the term 'citizen journalism,' '' said Todd Wolfson, 35, a doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the organizers of the Media Mobilizing Project in Philadelphia. ''We prefer the term 'community journalism.' '' Citizen journalism has become the faddish name for the effort to encourage regular folk to use the Internet to report the news directly, but Mr. Wolfson had a point: many of the people whom his organization and an immigrant rights group, Juntos, are teaching to make video reports for streaming on the Internet are not citizens. Many are not even legal residents. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reports on the use of the social media Twitter by Tommy Vietor, former spokesman for the National Security Council in the U.S., in defending President Barack Obama from criticisms against his handling with the military relations of the country with other nations.

WHEN bloggers emerged from the Web's primordial ooze in 1999, many simply posted articles of the type that had long been inkjetted onto paper, quill-penned on parchment or chiseled in stone. Suburban bloggers, though, spawned a subgenre of narratives about diaper changing, neighbor trouble, temporary traffic snags and other subjects rarely considered worthy of publication in previous eras. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While amateur writers push the margins of the suburban blogosphere, professional journalists are blogging right back. Many of the region's daily newspapers have begun publishing blogs on their Web sites, featuring items that might otherwise be lost on the cutting room floor, but which can provide good fodder for reader dialogue. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An online citizen-journalist project that sought innovative approaches to journalism celebrates its anniversary this month, having already had some effect on the presidential campaign. Of all the new political, noncandidate Web sites to spring up in the last year, OffTheBus.net is now probably the biggest, with 7,500 citizen correspondents. Despite its growing pains, the project, an arm of The Huffington Post, continues to develop the technological and organizational know-how to become a media force as it challenges the standard notions of traditional journalism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Anonymity is a privilege in journalism extended to sources and sometimes even to award winners. Last week, a George Polk Award was given for an image of the violent death of an Iranian woman during protests last year. The man who first uploaded the video is anonymous, as are the man who captured the footage on a camera phone and the doctor who sent the video clip by e-mail with the message ''please let the world know.'' The uploader learned only last week that he had played a role in one of the highest honors in journalism, by reading an article about it on the Internet. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

One problem with managing a bunch of print journalists is that when you fire them -- or cut their budget, or the size of their newspaper -- they are still journalists, prone to grumbling about whatever they consider unfair. At the Tribune Company, the grumblers have found an outlet in a blog, Tell Zell, that lets them rip into Sam Zell, the Chicago real estate mogul who took Tribune private last year for $8.2 billion. The blog, set up in May, is mainly an encyclopedia of gripes about cutbacks at The Los Angeles Times, though other Tribune papers, like The Chicago Tribune, The Orlando Sentinel and The Baltimore Sun, get their turns. One scoop last week was an unconfirmed list of about 100 people leaving The Times, either through buyouts or layoffs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Dot Earth From Andrew C. Revkin's blog, nytimes.com/dotearth. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the role of footage filmed by home movie hobbyist Abraham Zapruder in examining the assassination of late U.S. President John F. Kennedy, noting the 50th anniversary of his death. It addresses Zapruder as the first citizen journalist, digital analysis of the film footage, and the social implications of Kennedy's assassination.