BBC World Service cuts funding for 'Your Story'

Posted by Christie Silk on May 29, 2009 at 8:50 AM

The BBC World Service's citizen journalism project, 'Your Story' has been axed due to lack of funding, reports journalism.co.uk.

"It's sad, but funding priorities make it so," said Nina Robinson, a senior broadcast journalist who headed the service.

'Your Story', in operation since June 2008, asked amateur contributors from around the world to put forward their ideas for news stories and features, as well as send in their own personal testimonies, photos, video and audio clips. Without funding, the programme could not continue to function in its role as a teacher in the citizen journalism trend, as individuals following their own research ideas were provided with equipment and training. Their work was then broadcasted on the World Service or put on to its online site.

Whilst circumstances have forced the closure of this one venture, the door has not been closed permanently to aspiring amateur journalists. Robinson plans to meet with the World Service commissioner, Anne Koch, "to discuss how we move forward with citizen content", in recognition that "most content is still coming in through the Have Your Say page on the BBC News site".

Yet there are doubts over citizen journalism and photojournalism as a viable provider of news, and the excitement of several years ago surrounding such initiatives appears to be waning. In March, Getty Image's citizen photojournalism site Scoopt folded. Kyle MacRae, who founded the site in 2005 said in an article for Journalism.co.uk that "fundamentally, the Scoopt model doesn't work", as the chances that a bystander of an event with a camera being a participator in such projects were slim.

Source: Journalism.co.uk