New Model for News Agencies

Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse in its previous incarnation as Agence Havas, the world's first international news agency, have been around since the middle of the 19th century, selling international news to subscribers. But here's a new spin on the old idea: ARA or Associated Reporters Abroad. ARA's slogan is "We cover Europe for you," but not in the same old way.

"Now more than ever, readers are hungry to understand the world better and they deserve more than just the news wires. With our network of journalists, ARA fills in where a traditional model of foreign-based, salaried correspondents no longer applies," according to AFA's website.

Here's how it works:

Associated Reporters Abroad (ARA) is a Berlin-based agency whose mission is to increase and deepen foreign news coverage by connecting freelance reporters throughout Europe with editors and news directors across the English-speaking world. Each week, we will offer story ideas from our foreign correspondents via our website and electronic bulletin. Editors decide which stories they want to assign – or come up with their own proposals – then work directly with our correspondents to complete the projects. Alternatively, editors can choose from our selection of completed stories. ARA works in all the major formats: print, audio, video and photography. Providing high-quality features and breaking stories, investigative reports, analyses, profiles and reviews, our goal is to be a reliable, affordable, one-stop shop for original content from around Europe and later, the Middle East and North Africa.

The Knight Foundation in the U.S. found the concept of a network of freelance correspondents so innovative that it awarded AFA a $100,000 grant. Read more in the grant proposal .

"Ordinary Citizens With a Gadget"

The World News Prism sees a media world in which "ordinary citizens with a gadget" will be writing "the first draft of history," a job professional journalists have always claimed. But that doesn't mean an "ordinary" citizen can't be a fine reporter with only a little bit of training. CNN's "unedited"and "unfiltered" iReport is a user-generated news site. CNN offers an iReport Toolkit to help citizens with a gadget to tell their stories like a pro. No matter who's telling the story -- pro or ordinary joe -- it needs news basics, connects to the reader and involves the "hard work" of writing and editing.

More about Burma VJ

Click here to see what Richard Gere says about Burma VJ -- Reporting from a Closed Society. The actor is a practicing Buddhist and actively supports the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Independence Movement.

Googlezon EPIC2014

Is this the future of journalism? How close to this vision of the future are we?

Goggle's "Moral Responsibility" to Save Newspapers?

Or just good business?

"We need these content partners to survive. We need their content. We are not in the content business," Goggle CEO Eric Schmidt tells Search Engine Land, "a news and information site covering search engine marketing, searching issues and the search engine industry. Yep, search engines have become an industry.

And Schmidt is out to save old-fashion news organizations, not just newspapers. "Well-funded, targeted professionally managed investigative journalism is a necessary precondition in my view to a functioning democracy," he believes.

Who but trained journalists working for established media have the resources to dig out what's happening?

"Let's talk about Afghanistan," Schmidt says. "How many free bloggers are there that are in a safe-house in Afghanistan with the necessary support structure to do the kind of deep investigative reporting on what's really going on in the world? I'm not talking about the ones that are embedded in the government."

Long interview with lots of food for thought -- and discussion.

Is Rio's Win Chicago's Gain?

That's what The Wall Street Journal is asking today after Rio won the bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. International sports events -- particularly the Olympics - are really exercises in public diplomacy or public relations as practiced by nation states. Why do you think Obama did that overnighter to Copenhagen to pitch Chicago to the committee?

All eyes will be on Rio come Summer 2016, a great opportunity to show off Copacabana to the world. But it will cost plenty, and there's no guarantee that a positive image will result.

Julie V.Iovine, executive editor of the Architect's Newspaper, writes in the Journal:

Asking whether the Olympics is good for a city is like asking if speed dating will lead to a long, solid marriage. The answer to both: It depends. When it comes to the long-term impact of the Olympics on urban well-being, the historical record is surprisingly mixed. Nor do past Olympic hosts provide reliable guidelines for how to guarantee the best outcome. Winning the bid is definitely more like shooting a class V rapid in an untested kayak than like lining up a foul shot in basketball. Both could involve sinking.

Burma VJ TRAILER

Here's the preview. Movie plays in Abu Dhabi at 4 p.m., Thursday, 15 October, at the Marina Mall Cinestar 3. I'll be there. Will you?

In 2007, Buddhist monks in Rangoon led a peaceful anti-government uprising against the military dictatorship of Burma. A group of video journalists armed only with cell phones and digital cameras secretly filmed the demonstrations, at the risk of torture and imprisonment. This tension-filled documentary about oppression and censorship illustrates the power of independent media in struggles against totalitarian regimes.

Where Bilingual Emiratis Get Their News?

This just out: UAE Nationals far and away prefer The National over the Khaleej Times and Gulf News, according to a study commissioned by the Abu Dhabi Media Company, which publishes The National.

"The biggest surprise of the survey is that The National is now, by a pretty significant margin, the number one English newspaper among UAE nationals. This is great news for our reporters and editors, but I can imagine that the advertising people upstairs are also fairly happy out it," writes The National's own "Beep Beep" technology blogger.

Why do you think Emirati nationals are so taken with the newspaper, which debuted only 18 months ago? Anybody in your family read it online or in print?

Where's the Line Between Blog and Newspaper?

The Christian Science Monitor, a well-respected international newspaper that recently stopped publishing anywhere but online, says the line gets more blurred all the time. "As traditional media gets 'bloggier,' blogs begin to look more like their traditional forebears," according to the Monitor. What blogs do you follow? What newspapers?