France 24 pries into CitJ with ‘Observers’

Posted by Jean Yves Chainon on January 4, 2008 at 4:40 PM

The news channel France 24 is experimenting with a beta project dubbed The Observers, which lets the audience do the reporting but relies on experienced editors to supervise the content.

The Observer site aims to enrich coverage of international news by relying on observers, “people who are at the heart of events,” said the site’s statement.

Although none of the content is produced by professional journalists, professional staff from France 24 selects, verifies, translates and explains the content.

France 24 has also come up with its own hierarchy of contributors.

‘Observers’ are the “valued contacts of France 24” who do the reporting.

‘Friends’ have a profile page on the site and can be contacted by users. Some of their content can be published, but they’re not part of our privileged contacts (simply because we’ve only been in acquaintance for a short time!)”

Lastly, ‘regional editors’ are the most evolved form of contributors. They help to select, verify, translate and format the material published. They typically consist of young journalists and bloggers, usually bilingual.

The Oberver site is no doubt a big step in traditional media’s adoption of citizen journalism within its own content, although this type of content is still clearly set apart from material produced by France 24.

Source: Cyberjournalist.net