Citizen portal for western Aarhus
- The training of the citizen journalists takes place in a classroom, but the students must also do field work. Here the mayor of Aarhus, Nicolai Wammen, is interviewed by Lene Christensen (left) and Pearl Andersen.
- This poster will draw attention to the citizens’ new speaking tube.
”We know that there are lots of things happening in western Aarhus, but where can we read about them?” This question has been asked many times. With the new citizen portal www.aarhusvest.dk, there is finally an answer to the question.
30,000 people live in western Aarhus, and some of them have been trained as citizen journalists. Concurrently, they have attended to their studies and jobs. After finishing their training, some of them are still working as citizen journalists on the citizen portal. The citizen journalists are responsible for writing news items and personality profiles on the citizen portal.
Presumably, this is the first time that training of citizen journalists has taken place in Denmark. Citizen journalism exists in a number of other countries, but apparently, there has never before been a thorough training of them.
Closer to realities
The portal has not only been set up to improve the image of western Aarhus. The citizen journalists will also help give an overview of the various activities in the district. Therefore, the citizen journalists will keep a database of organizations, houses and resource persons, so that all users can find precisely the activities that are relevant for them.
The citizen journalists hope that many people will contribute to the portal by sending in pictures or maybe a tip for a story. It is also possible to have discussions on the portal and there is even a market place where people can sell and buy items and make inquiries. It is intended that the communication should be two-sided rather than only coming FROM the portal TO the citizens.
Contact: ada@aabnet.dk or perwied@frydenlund-beboerhus.dk