Recent developments in grassroots journalism have been good. Doubts that the movement might be shortlived are firmly eradicated now that companies are beginning to attract funding and partnerships with media outlets. At this moment, more than 45% of US newspaper editors are relying in part on people’s reporting projects for their news coverage and the number is growing. As is the scope of the topics covered. So what are winning strategies for newsroom editors in dealing with the citizen platforms? And more importantly: where do you fit in?
The relationship grassroots reporter – editor involves a few crucial issues which we aim to clarify, including:
- Why should editors be interested in international grassroots reporting?
- What are the main problems and how are they tackled at the moment?
- Who is out there, offering what?
- What’s your role?
Why should editors be interested?
The interest of other newspaper editors for citizen projects is vast. Some 45% of editors in the US use citizen journalism tools and techniques, according to a recent study on behalf of the Pew Center and the Associated Press Managing Editors. Editors considering using citizen journalism amount to 66% of the survey’s respondents. Technology combined with real people’s input, helps editors to make more valuable news judgements based on in depth knowledge. And it’s available against very low cost, so why not use it?
What are the challenges?
Headaches that editors are faced with include participant input is overwhelming. So far, newspapers themselves have come up with only a few solutions. Databases appear to be the answer for both problems. They are extensions of a reporter’s contact book though and don’t necessarily easily match a person wishing to participate in covering the news with an editor. People with more money to spend use other technologies that match issues with people and come up with relevant rankings including crowd sourcing tallies. A good example is CNN and YouTube’s collaboration hosting a presidential debate in which citizens used YouTube to ask questions.
What kind of news items are being produced?
Many newspapers have some commitment to taking note of what the people on the street are saying but the landscape of who’s dealing with who is hardly decided yet. Reporters are not proactively seeking out platforms but tend to get approached by platforms’ marketers selling stories. And these platforms themselves are still experimenting with ideas and formats.
So What’s on offer?
Independent grassroots reporting platforms thrive on initiatives from ordinary people, reporting their experiences. They can be divided into those that generate income from the traffic that their news generates and those that generate revenue through sales to established media.
Some citizen reporting platforms thrive because they operate featherlight concepts: click some cool mobile telephone footage, editors attach it to global wire stories and bingo. Others use cumbersome laborious processes to arrive at a similar level of credibility of written reports. Success stories have one thing in common; credibility is achieved.
Where do you fit in?
Wouldn’t it be great if you could assign stories to people that happen to be close to the action in a foreign country? Perhaps soon you can! Later this month, we are launching a new reporting concept altogether. Reportwitters use www.twitter.com technology to inform their friends and the people they prospect as reporters of the news of their activities AS THEY ARE GOING ON.
The platform is being tested right now and we will launch in the next two weeks. For the time being we would be very keen to hear your comments on our venture. We’re interested in finding out what kind of news stories you are interested in and what your ideal arrangement with reporters is. All comments are welcome.
We will be in contact soon with details of our launch!
Regards,
Angelique van Engelen
Martin Kamara