CNN to embrace Citizen Journalism – and who said theres no value in blogs?
Someone at Startup Insiders#3 (Islamabad) said “Blogs can never be a business” to which my response was that blogs will create value in all of the places that bigger media giants cannot touch.
“The question you have to answer is: What can I do that CNN can never do?” I had said: “you’ll realize that blogs can help you break news faster, AND make news more localized and relevant, than any media giant”.
And it seems CNN is well aware of this – they have announced that they will be creating a news website that will host 100% user generated news. CNN has been testing the citizen journalism waters carefully — first with CNN iReport — and then with other activities such as the CNN / YouTube Presidential Debates.
They seem to have found a sweet-spot of user generated news coverage, where user submissions are merged with a professional editorial layer to filter out and display only the best content.
However the new website, ireport.com — according to MediaWeek — will be completely open to anything that users wish to upload.
This has been my key message at SI events – try to look outside of the local market and see how this wonderful world is evolving into something beautiful. In all evolutionary efforts, there are critics. In all places with nay-sayers, an entrepreneur has opportunities.
More at Read/Write/Web.
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10:36 pm
i totally agree with you
people can relate to the news if it is posted by there local bloggers and its a way to interact.