February 12, 2010

Black News Junkie


Do you want to raise awareness and drive traffic to bloggers in the afrosphere? If so, you'll be interested to learn that BlackNewsJunkie.com came online 2 years ago.

One of the features of the BlackNewsJunkie.com is to get Black news stories a wider circulation. BlackNewsJunkie.com has been redesigned to provide similar features as Digg, however instead of "digging" a news story; if a user likes a news article, they can give it the proverbial "Black fist" that became iconic during the Black power movement of the 60s.

Imani Mance, owner of BlackNewsJunkie.com notes, "... the Black power fist is universal in the African American community. We thought it was not only appropriate for ranking the top Black news stories of the day, but it also was chosen as our icon because of the historical significance of us launching the site during Black history month."

While African Americans have built a tradition of integration since the 70s of working, playing, shopping and even educating their community with resources provided by mainstream America, they also have a long tradition of creating their own when the mainstream neglects to serve their needs. BlackNewsJunkie.com is an example of this phenomenon of creating something by the people and for the people.

If you are a so called "news junkie" who can’t start your daily Internet browsing activities without getting a dose of the latest news to hit the web, then you can help build something for our people by joining the BlackNewsJunkie.com community today and putting your virtual Black power fist to work.

I encourage all villagers to signup online for Black News Junkie.

18 comments:

Deidra said...

I signed up for it this morning. It does look like Digg - I hope they don't get sued for it lol. It's different to me anyways.

Unknown said...

Deidra - Had you heard of Black News Junkie prior to reading it here? I'm trying to figure out how they are advertising their new service...

Francis Holland said...

In the afrosphere, Blacks have finally started producing, distributing and "selling" on of the important commodities our community has: news!

Our international network for the preparation and distribution of news and information for Black people is a wonder and a joy to behold, even at this early date.

Deidra said...

I have actually Villager. I had them as a favorite a while back but something happened. They didn't look like that though - I actually like the layout before when they had the feeds up like a newsapaper format.

I just checked the site again and it said they RELAUNCHED. So no wonder I was confused when you said they just opened up because I swear I heard of them before lol. I guess since he wasn't getting enough traffic he thought the Digg format would work better for him.

I can understand his mission - to make sure that we get our news out but I'm just a lil worried about his format.

Unknown said...

Purple Zoe - Thanx for the link-love!

Francis - I agree with you. At some point we'll need to see if there is a way to get an RSS feed of AfroSpear blogs into the Black News Junkie...

Deidra - Thank you for the background. I didn't see the other format. I'm still trying to understand how this tool will be helpful to my blog. Time will tell...

Unknown said...

Thanks for the link. I signed up and already saw some traffic hit my blog.

Unknown said...

Janet - No problem. You may also want to share information about the service with your blog readers...

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link Wayne. I'm going to have to share this with my blog readers as well.

Unknown said...

BHC - Asante sana. It should be interesting to see how this thing plays out over time. I wrote them and asked them to add my blog as an RSS feed. They agreed to do so ... although I wonder what category my posts will flow into? Anyhow, we'll need to watch and see if they survive...

Anonymous said...

Outstanding! I will sign up. I'd never heard of them before. Every 1st Thursday of the month, I spotlight a person in the community doing good work. These folks might just be candidates.

Anonymous said...

I just signed up myself. Great Idea, and hope it stays on the net. So were they shut down before, or did they stop for a while for other reasons before they relaunched?

Unknown said...

Danielle - I need to check out your person of the month feature...

K Owusu - My understanding is that they simply were not getting much traffic using their other model. That is what caused them to change up...

Martin Lindsey said...

I'm checking them out now. Do they have a widget or feed chicklet that we can paste into our sites? I haven't found one so far.

Unknown said...

Martin - I haven't seen such a widget. I imagine that you can get their RSS feed and post it in some manner. For now, I'm going with this post to share the information with my blog readers...

Mes Deux Cents said...

Hi Villager,

Wow, this is the first I've heard of this site. Thanks for letting us know about it. I'll be sure to check it out.

Unknown said...

MDC - It is WONDERFUL to see you back in cyberspace! I'm glad I was able to point out a new Black-owned site for you & other villagers to check out...

SjP said...

Much obliged for the reminder about Black News Junkie. Use to use it all of the time. Great to know that the Brother is still "doing it and doing it well!"

Unknown said...

SjP - Oddly enough, I don't use it all that much. I find that I haven't been using many of the blog tools (eg. Blog Catalog, etc.)...