Launch of Demotix.com, which links citizen journalists with mainstream media

Posted by Alisa Zykova on September 3, 2008 at 9:45 AM

Demotix, a website that tries to link citizen reporters with mainstream media and their "professional" equivalents, was launched yesterday, reports the European Journalism Centre. The site will allow mainstream news outlets to buy content like video clips and images created by both professional and amateur worldwide correspondents.

The project was created in order to counterbalance the "mass shrinkage" of foreign news coverage, according to Turi Munthe, the site's CEO. Content could be bought for exclusive or non-exclusive use and the author of the work would get 70% of the fee.

Mainstream media companies will have access to regions that have heavy censorship and pose a threat to journalists reporting "from the ground". Meanwhile "street" reporters will have an opportunity to "get their voices back intro the mainstream" and in case the user is at risk, then metadata revealing his or her identity will be removed.

Munthe states that Demotix won't be "death" to professional media. He said, "They [professional journalists] can't disappear, on the contrary they're the ones with the opinions and with the particular points of view. What we want to do is supply them with raw and original data from places they can't reach."

Freelance journalists will also have the chance to exhibit their material and to establish links with professional media, writes Journalism.co.uk.

Source: European Journalism Centre, Journalism.co.uk