The Guardian has now launched GuardianWitness, (www.witness.guardian.co.uk), a new site part of their continuing open media campaign which adds the element of engagement to a whole new level. Readers are now able to submit stories videos and pictures. The new site was built in partnership with up and coming brand EE. The move also increases chances of The Guardian being the first to feature breaking news, as passersby often hit social media before journalists can make it to a story. It will also give The Guardian a heads up of what is going on at lightning speed, potentially blowing competitors out of the water.
“GuardianWitness is designed to be the home of user-generated content on The Guardian and highlights increasingly how user-generated content is playing a vital role in reporting news.
The most recent example was the fatal London helicopter crash in January, where news broke first on Twitter beating traditional news outlets to the story.
Passers-by on the scene tweeted eyewitness accounts, took pictures and shot videos on their phones, much of which was later used by the media.
Most prominent in all of that was how the London Evening Standard used a picture taken by Craig Jenner, (@craiglet) who captured blazing debris across a South London street, as its front page splash.
As the story developed in the minutes after the crash, more and more pictures streamed onto social networks and it is this kind of development in part that The Guardian is hoping to capitalise on.” http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/1178494/Guardian-launches-citizen-journalism-platform-GuardianWitness/
Not all contributions will be displayed; obviously there will be a level of selection involved whether it is down to suitability. Journalists will be able to flag live blogs in and in addition readers can suggest topics to include.
“The development of the project picks up on a trend where Guardian readers have been involved in some of the biggest news stories of the last decade, such as helping review MPs’ expense claims; providing eyewitness accounts of the Arab Spring, and understanding the UK riots.
Some high-profile examples include the death of newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson. While the police said it was not suspicious, a reader sent the paper a video clearly showing a police officer knocking Tomlinson to the ground.” http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/1178494/Guardian-launches-citizen-journalism-platform-GuardianWitness/
“The GuardianWitness platform, and supporting iPhone and Android apps, will help us to carry on this tradition. It will allow you to tell your story – by desktop or mobile – by submitting pictures, videos and text to journalists directly from an assignment”, Joanna Geary, digital development editor for The Guardian.
You have to sign up or download the app in order to be able to contribute to the various assignments featured on the GuardianWitness page. The campaign mirrors the iReport facility offered by CNN and gives clues to a potential movement in online digital media.