/UCWE/ - RushPRnews is looking for citizen journalists to publish articles and press releases for the RushPRnews Daily Gazette . Articles of interest to small and minority-owned businesses and press releases will be posted for free once facts checking is completed and distributed to Google, Yahoo and MSN News. Also, artists, social activists and environmental groups are welcome to submit announcements. There are no geographical limitations. French and English material will be accepted.

"We are hoping to give a forum for small business-owners, artists and activists to get easily published and as a result increase their visibility," says Anne Howard, President of RushPRnews. "We have a firm commitment to small businesses and are focusing on this market-segment by offering them a publication to express their views and opinions and share news and latest trends." Citizen journalism, also known as "participatory journalism," is the act of citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information," according to the seminal report We Media: How Audiences are Shaping the Future of News and Information, by Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis. They say, "The intent of this participation is to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires."

Anne Howard, a public relations veteran who has worked for the past 15 years in New York, San Francisco and Montreal has firmly embraced this concept. She is currently working with several firms to expand RushPRnews’ web presence and to form strategic partnership, such as the two recently announced with AskCommunications, Alberta and Rampell Software, Florida. For more information about The Daily Gazette and RushPRnews services visit www.rushprnews.com.