Indymedia was the revolutionary source for causing upraise of independent voices. Was founded on November 24, 1999 in Seattle when they reported on the WTO protests in Seattle, Washington. Creators wanted to create a website where they can post accurate news stories that were different than mainstream media sources. This lead to the creation of independent media website of Indymeida. Focuses on violence, protesters and riots demonstrators, gives an authentic voice.
Focuses on grassroots and non-corporate news coverage. Grassroots refers to the work of non-professional journalists. The website is funded purely by donations. Independent coverage gives room for opinion and a wider range of news coverage. New stories are submitted to the website, all articles that they find very compelling are displayed on the front page and they rest are available on different pages and side bars. The side bars gives you options to look at media in different countries.
There are more than 150 media networks worldwide. 60 in the United States and 15 in Italy and are now published in many languages. The variety of languages includes, English, Spanish, German, Italian, French, Russia, Arabic and more, this creates a form of globalization.
When the website first started during the battle of Seattle there were five million hits a day. More recently there has been a decrease due to blogs and other media sources where the topics and be discussed on specific topics. Now there is about two million hits a day on a busy day.
Indymedia impacted and started citizen journalism. Journalists started to feel like they had agency over what they say and wrote. This gave independent writers the option of posting their work anywhere with full opinion. Also Indymedia has also had an impact on activism. The gathering of a variety of news sources for Indymedia led to global access to knowledge. Known that was provided was up to date; some are even updated minute-by-minute and reliable. This independent news gives a different view than mainstream media and causes extra awareness and transnational activism.
Indymeida claims to be unbiased. They still do background checks and see if the story is reliable. Comparatively to Drudge admits to being openly bias.
Live IMC coverage radio is available on their website and accessed from the home page. Also gives the opions of entering your emails for updates that are sent directly to your personal email. Even if you would like to post your own story, there is a link for that on their homepage that leads you to a screen that allows you to type up and submit what you would like. At their “About” link they describe themselves as “network of collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings.”
Other Independent media websites that promote citizen journalism are RINF, a daily source of under published news. Slashdot, are user submitted news. and OhmyNews, that promotes that “Every Citizen is a Reporter.”
By Kaitlyn Wamsteeker