GroundReport Awards $1,000 to Italian Citizen Journalist
International citizen journalism website GroundReport.com announced that Desi Zavatta Musolino, a shop keeper in Italy, won its first monthly $1,000 competition. GroundReport is a social news site that allows anyone to post reports, earn a share of advertising revenues and compete for a $1,000 prize.
(PRWEB) May 20, 2007 -- International news website GroundReport.com announced today the winner of its first monthly $1,000 citizen journalism competition. The grand prize went to Desi Zavatta Musolino of Italy, whose report garnered the most unique views in April. Reacting to the award, Ms. Musolino said, "it was simply amazing."
For Ms. Musolino, a shop assistant who writes in her spare time, the award came as a shock. "I didn't imagine I could win, maybe also because I'm Italian," said Ms. Musolino, who lives in Bologna, "but what a prize!"
Her article, titled "Naked tourist bathes into the Fountain of Trevi in Rome," recounts how a Milanese woman disrobed and waded into the world-famous Trevi Fountain last month. Dozens of observers captured the scene.
Commenting on the article, GroundReport founder and CEO Rachel Sterne said "The story was a true example of citizen journalism--eyewitnesses documented a surprise event and spread the news. Even big news outlets can't plan for the unexpected, and that's where citizen journalists come in."
GroundReport.com enables anyone to instantly publish original news reports to a global audience. On GroundReport's user-powered platform, community members can rate reports, build a personalized newsfeed, create a press portfolio and earn a share of the website's advertising revenues.
In GroundReport's monthly $1,000 competition, the report with the greatest unique traffic wins. There is no limit to the number of submissions, and entrants can improve their chances by using social networking and bookmarking tools detailed here: http://groundreport.com/tips. To enter, contributors must create a GroundReport account: http://groundreport.com/signup.php.
With the contest, GroundReport encourages civil participation in the news-gathering process. "We hope this sends the message to people everywhere," said Rachel Sterne, "that if you see something newsworthy, publish it on GroundReport. You have the power to influence the media."
GroundReport launched officially in March and is already home to a passionate, sophisticated community. "I'm proud of being part of the community of Ground Report," said Desi Musolino, "I really trust in citizen journalism as the new way of [sharing global information." Ms. Musolino, who hopes to one day support herself as a freelance writer, added that the prize "money is a hand from heaven for me."
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