Link of the Week: Dec. 16 - Jan. 5, '04
2003 Batten Awards
For our last links of 2003, we highlight The Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism. These awards were created "to spotlight news that is more than multimedia journalism." They reward journalism "that uses new technologies in innovative ways to involve people very actively in public choices by showing as well as telling, by providing access to news and information that stirs their imagination and invites participation." The awards honor novel approaches that spur non-traditional interactions and impact communities. What better way to finish off the year than to view the winners? Think of it as our holiday gift to you.

The top winner this year was MSNBC.com's The Big Picture. "We tried to do a lot of merging of media, where we combined slide shows and videos and interactive sidebars and votes and feedback all in the same seamless place," said Ashley Wells, senior interactive producer for MSNBC.com. "It's kind of the dream, the holy grail of convergence."

That site, and other award winners, are profiled on J-Lab's site. The winners included The Chicago Tribune's When Evil Struck America CD, Minnesota Public Radio's Budget Balancer, The San Francisco Chronicle's The Two Cents Project, and Maine's VillageSoup.com. Also, you can check out other nominated projects. We hope this will keep you happy until we return on January 6! Peace and a very Happy New Year to you all.

Media Forum Links
The handouts that were distributed by journalists at our media forum are online. Journalist contact information is posted also, if you want to follow up with any of the people you met at the forum (or if you live in the Asheville area and want to see what you missed!).

Link/Article of the Week Archives
For your convenience, we've begun archiving past weeks' featured links and articles.

The Missing Link
Have any suggestions for us regarding next week’s link? Or is there information you seek, but you can’t find a helpful link? Let us know! If others would benefit from the information, we just may track down a link for you, or use your suggestion as Link of the Week.

Contribute Online!
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Welcome to FIRE, a non-profit organization which provides community media resources to the Appalachian region. You can use the search box on this page to search our online archive of media outlets throughout the area. If you are a local journalist (or want to be), visit the "Resources for Journalists" section. You'll find resources that will improve your community reporting skills and will enable area residents to easily locate your published articles online.

FIRE's purpose is to promote citizen participation and community-based media. Please contact us if you would like to participate in our programs or if you have any feedback that will improve this Web site.