May 14, 2007 at 16:15District newspapers hire remote Hindu reporters
The chief editor of the city portal Pasadena Now hired two new reporters. They send articles about the life of the California town of Pasadena, but they never go to the office for one simple reason: reporters ... live in India.
In America, even the local media, which write almost exclusively about local events, are starting to attract remote journalists from India. This interesting trendmanifested itself recently and was characteristic mainly of the financial press. For example, Indians processed standard press releases on the quarterly financial results of corporations (later, people replaced special programs that do this faster and without errors). Now the trend is expanding to regional journalism. This case is the first of its kind, a kind of experiment.
Pasadena City Council weekly meetings are broadcast over the Internet, so Indians can do regular reporting as if they were in the room. Anyone of interest can call or write an e-mail, so a reporter in Mumbai is no worse than a reporter in Pasadena.
Of course, this experiment also has critics. They say that Indian citizens from the other hemisphere have no idea how the authorities in the California town are structured and who to take comments on from one issue or another. Professionals with sadness speak out about what American journalism can turn into.
New reporters were found through the Indian version of craigslist.org. The search for candidates took only a few days. One of the Indians holds a diploma from the University of California School of Journalism. For two, they were allocated a beggarly salary by American standards of $ 20,800 a year. The production rate for each is 15 articles per week.
via AP
In America, even the local media, which write almost exclusively about local events, are starting to attract remote journalists from India. This interesting trendmanifested itself recently and was characteristic mainly of the financial press. For example, Indians processed standard press releases on the quarterly financial results of corporations (later, people replaced special programs that do this faster and without errors). Now the trend is expanding to regional journalism. This case is the first of its kind, a kind of experiment.
Pasadena City Council weekly meetings are broadcast over the Internet, so Indians can do regular reporting as if they were in the room. Anyone of interest can call or write an e-mail, so a reporter in Mumbai is no worse than a reporter in Pasadena.
Of course, this experiment also has critics. They say that Indian citizens from the other hemisphere have no idea how the authorities in the California town are structured and who to take comments on from one issue or another. Professionals with sadness speak out about what American journalism can turn into.
New reporters were found through the Indian version of craigslist.org. The search for candidates took only a few days. One of the Indians holds a diploma from the University of California School of Journalism. For two, they were allocated a beggarly salary by American standards of $ 20,800 a year. The production rate for each is 15 articles per week.
via AP