France’s News 24 ‘Observers’ citizen media project
January 3, 2008 · Filed Under Social Media
France’s News 24 has an interesting project in beta called The Observers, in which the audience does the the reporting, but experienced editors manage the content.
Specifically, the site aims to:
• Enrich our coverage of international current affairs with eyewitness accounts from ‘observers’- that’s to say those people who are at the heart of events. Videos, texts, photos- none of the content is produced by professional journalists- but everything is selected, verified, translated and explained by our team.
• Give you the opportunity to discuss current affairs with ‘observers’ chosen by France 24, or with ‘friends’, sorted according to their expertise and interests.
More details on the News 24 model:
What’s an ‘
observer ’ ?
The observers are valued contacts of France 24. They’re not part of our editorial team, but they’re willing to be contacted by the site’s users. We don’t necessarily share their opinions. They could be young, old, doctors or miners, Chinese or Brazilian. These people make up ‘your eyes across the globe’.
What’s a ‘
friend ’ ?
Friends have a profile page on the site and you can contact them directly. We publish some of their texts, photos and videos, but they’re not part of our privileged contacts (simply because we’ve only been in acquaintance for a short time!) Soon anyone will be able to become a friend and create their own profile.
What’s a ‘
regional editor ’ ?
The regional editors help us to select, verify, translate and format the material put online. They’re young journalists or bloggers who find eyewitnesses and filter information. They’re bilingual (Arabic, French, Farsi, Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, Russian – English) and all over the world. Don’t hesitate to contact them about the contents their work.
In this audio clip, PRI’s The World anchor Marco Werman speaks with Julien Pain, who is heading up a project for the France 24 News channel.
And here is a video in which News 24 discusses its “Observer” project.
