About

We are a collection of amateur writers, citizen journalists and people who know how to use a keyboard and are all passionate about the rise in citizen journalism. We come from different backgrounds and perspectives and do not discriminate against other journalists who would like to participate unless they see violence as a means to solve social problems.

If you would like to contribute to this site, please contact us.

Mission

Citizen Eye News aims be one of the major hubs of information on citizen journalism. Our major goal is to contribute to the rise in citizen journalism and independent media. We want to do this by spreading information about citizen journalism through the creation of information that will assist any individual in becoming a journalist.

Secondary goals include connecting people who are interested in citizen journalism, distributing information about any live events being broadcast by citizen journalists and being a site free of corporate or government control.

Road Rich

I am @RoadRich and founded this site because I am passionate about what the information age has to offer my generation. I have a degree in business and a day job in the web industry but my main passion is Internet media, particularly citizen journalism. I have no formal training in journalism but I have been participating on the Internet since I had my first dial up connection in 1995.

The idea for this site was inspired by the Occupy movement and the citizen journalism I have seen emerge from it. I wanted to do what I could to be a citizen journalist and help others become citizen journalists. Although I own and maintain this website, I am not planning on being an almighty dictator of how it is run. I want this to be a collaborative project and for it to evolve through consensus and voluntary participation. My motivation for this site is to pursue something I love and hopefully grow it into something I can do full time.

As far as my citizen journalism street cred goes, I am very new to this, just as everyone else is. I started to cover the Occupy Atlanta protests but found that I was more interested in the citizen journalism than I was with the protests. So as I educate myself and find out where I fit in as a citizen journalist, I am sharing the knowledge I have found.

I have been blogging for as long as blogs have existed, and I would like to think that was my earliest introduction into citizen journalism. I like drawing people in and having them participate, so for now that remains my best skill set. I look forward to meeting other citizen journalists through this venture and helping to make this world a more safe place to live by documenting and reporting on those who do not think everyone should have the power to be a journalist.

Our Logo

Our logo is the simplest representation of how citizen journalism helps humanity. It keeps those with power (and the guns behind that power) thinking twice about using their power against the larger populace.

The logo originates from @RoadRich’s original street art piece “Socialism”. This piece was hijacked by the right and conspiracy theorists and can be seen on many right wing and wing nut bumper stickers today. @RoadRich does not hold the same political views as he did when he created the piece. Creating a new version of this was also a small gesture to make up for the propaganda that he helped to originate.

Different variations of this logo, along with printable versions of it, are available at redguyblueguy.com

Disclaimers

We are not part of any particular movement. Although the owner of the site (@RoadRich) was inspired by the citizen journalism of the Arab Spring and Occupy protests, this site is not directly associated with any one movement.

We’re not a fan of copyrights here, so feel free to distribute any information from this site. We just ask you link the content back to this site in exchange for its use.

Any links to Amazon products have our associate tag in them. We use any revenue generated by these referrals to pay for the hosting and upkeep of this site.

Special Thanks

Thanks to my friends on Facebook for the initial encouragement and brainstorming on this idea.  I would have never moved forward without your enthusiasm.

Special thanks to @maurcs for encouraging me to go out and film an Occupy protest and for staying up late chatting with me online while we watched @TimCast reporting on the Occupy NY protests.  Thanks also to my friend Cristian who was the first to fire me back up about the media when we were watching the Egyptian protests on Al Jazeera.  He also has been advising on the graphic design for this site.

Also thanks to my dad for suggesting the name of the site.  Ultimately it is the name that all of my friends liked the most!