Citizenside blog

There's a section of most news sites ostensibly built specifically for readers that's usually just called reader photos.

Yet these sections aren't always designed for today's online reader: they aren't social enough, they aren't fun enough, and there's virtually zero lock-in effect.

When designed correctly, however, the resulting reader involvement can offer huge benefits to news organisations: more engagement, more loyalty, as well as more page views.

Last month I gave a presentation at a journalism conference in Hong Kong about how news sites can actually succeed in creating reader photo initiatives that offer compelling, rewarding experiences for their audiences.

It's a problem of commitment

There is a general reluctance in traditional media outlets to admit that the crowd knows more collectively on any given subject than even an expert journalist. However, if you have any doubts about the power of crowdsourcing, let Paul Lewis of the Guardian put them to rest by watching this Ted Talk.



Given that allowing the crowd to help report or break a story can do so much to improve its accuracy and impact, why is the experience of contributing to a news site so much more tedious and less enticing than posting the same photos to Flickr, Twitter, or Facebook?

I'll give you three ways the traditional reader photo programme falls short, in terms of user experience.

1) Interaction in a silo

The majority of reader photo programmes don't cater to the habits of today's internaut (this French term needs to be used more widely!). That is, the act of contributing is not social and shareable, but rather occurs in a silo of back and forth email exchanges.

We internauts are social beings, we love to get constant feedback from our friends about what we've posted and crave that (whether we admit it or not) as recognition of how cool we are because we share cool things. We also interact to feel a sense of belonging, and like to associate ourselves with a particular community that shares our interests (both central themes of Clay Shirky's work).


As a typical reader, if I send in a story, I might be lucky to get an auto-response thanking me for my email. Given that editors are stretched thin as it is, rarely will I get an actual personal response or my picture published unless my contribution is outstanding.

If I feel like I'm sending an email to a black hole, what's going to compel me to even send the email, let alone come back a second time?

If, at the very least, I'm provided an experience where my pic goes up in a reader gallery section, where my friends and other readers can leave comments and share it, well then, now I'm getting some interaction. Now I'm starting to have a social experience that could be more rewarding.

The recently revamped reader photo section on Sky News' site is a good example of a more social iteration of the standard "email us your news" user proposition.

2) Lack of identity

For those intrepid news sites that have opened up their online operations to user generated content (UGC) by showing reader galleries, an unfortunate majority lack the essential ingredient to building communities: the member profile as a unit of identity.

Earning recognition and gaining a reputation are social dynamics that can transform a section of slideshows into an enriching content sharing community. Plus, they make it fun. The internal dynamics that emerge from well-designed interactive communities can lead to user motivation through competition with other members, and loyalty through their sense of belonging to the community.

But when a reader photo program is designed for citing contributors in slideshow captions (such as the BBC's) instead of providing clickable user profiles that showcase their progress and performance, the advantages to social status and building reputation are necessarily diminished.

The profile page of a user should look like this (full disclosure: Archant is a client of the startup for which I work). It should show what a member has accomplished, the things they've contributed, and provide them a space to distinguish themselves from the crowd. It should allow them to display their identity.

3) No camera, no dice

Participation in reader photo programmes is at its highest during contests, when the incentive to participate is clear, and there is special recognition, or a prize such as a new camera. This leads to spikes and lulls in audience engagement, and doesn't adequately reward regular contributions between the contests. It doesn't lock readers in.

This engagement issue can be overcome if the silo and identity issues are dealt with correctly, by providing readers with a social experience in which they can build their reputation in a community. Having a sense of steady progress and skill mastery can be incredibly motivating, and encourage a strong commitment to a reader photo programme.

This sense of progress and accomplishment doesn't require contests to work either (although they can certainly help). What a user needs is a way to see how far they've come (i.e. points), and a means to compare themselves with the other members of the community (i.e. levels). When a progress bar is used to show how many points are needed to go up a level, it encourages activity between contests. And when a ranking ladder is used to show who's leading the community, it encourages competition and regular participation.

3) Game or Die

News organisations trying to foster engagement on their site through a reader photo section need to put the user first, and design for today's internaut.

By borrowing some proven dynamics from the most successful interactive medium, video games, and adding them as a social gaming layer to the experience of participating in a reader photo programme, news organisations can design compelling interactive communities that are rewarding for users to be a part of.

CNN has done just that with its ireport community. And its traffic alone is an indication of how well this approach works, it receives over 2.5 Million unique visitors every month.

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The concepts shared above are based largely on Citizenside's approach to networked news, which was distilled into this White Paper by our former editor in chief, Philip Trippenbach.

Twenty-eleven seems to have finished in a blur of citizen journalists’ photographs and videos from protests all around the world. What started in Tunisia, with the toppling of the regime, continued at Egypt’s Tahrir Square and springing with the Arab Spring, grew in Madrid with the Indignados in the summer, blossomed in autumn at Wall Street and spread the warmth across the world in the winter.

Photo: Adrian Kinloch

As we jot down our shortly-to-be-broken New Year's resolutions and look back at the last year, these events seem fresh in our minds. We can still see Gaddafi’s blood-stained face in Tripoli. We can’t get the pepper-spray incident in New York out of our minds. Our minds collectively and figuratively drift back to Tahrir Square, bathing in the radiance of a successful Egyptian revolution in the surprisingly warm clime of February.

Yet, as we hum the last bar of ‘Twelve days of Christmas’ and look forlornly at the fir tree in the living room, it seems only fair to wonder whether the Time’s “Personality of the Year 2011”, the protester, will keep his foot on the peddle and keep driving for change.

I contacted a few of our contributors at Citizenside who have covered protests all over the world and asked them what they thought lay in store for protests in 2012. I have tried to carefully weave their opinions into the soft fabric of this potentially presaging post.

Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt

It seems appropriate to begin our 2012 world tour with the nation that has been protesting for the longest time. What started on January 25, 2011, looked to have culminated in a victory in February, but we now know that nothing could have been further from the truth.

Tahrir Square is still the scene of massive protests against the people in charge of protecting the people. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) have, in retaliation to a perfectly peaceful protest, battered, bruised and even allegedly killed protesters in Cairo.

Kevin Hani, a photographer from the scene of the protests, believes the biggest mistake the Egyptians made after Hosni Mubarak’s fall was to trust the SCAF.

Photo: Kevin Hani

“From my observations in Tahrir Square, I found that the protesters are highly organized. Each person knows his role: doctors to help the injured, engineers who made bathrooms in the Square with a compact sanitary system design. Artists painted graffiti, others chanted as if a live concert were taking place, amateur photographers like me tried to document every single second and still others spread the news using Twitter and Facebook.

“The biggest strength of the movement is that nobody is afraid of dying or suffering permanent injuries.”

He also believes that the protests will continue through 2012, especially since there were massive protests happening while he wrote this mail. Some, he says, even think a new revolution is coming.

“Every time I enter a protest the first feeling I have is freedom, as if I am flying all over the streets without any obstacles! What they say about problems between Muslims and Christians in Egypt, they all vanish and the people unite, with Christians guarding Muslims while they pray and vice versa.”

Puerta del Sol Square, Madrid, Spain

The M15 Indignado movement seems to have caught on across Europe and even reached a day of immense impact on October 15. The movement, though, seems to have lost its steam and very little is reported about it in recent times.

Photo: soulseekers

Andres Villena Oliver, an M15 activist and blogger who was called to speak about the movement at the 7th UNESCO Youth Conference earlier this year, attributes the lack of coverage to the fact that “[the media] seem pretty bored of a non-violent M15 movement and they prefer to put up sensational news - murders, weather disasters, etc.”

Andres does admit that there’s been a slight lull in the movement, but he attributes it to the recent change in power in the nation: “We are giving it a short pause with the new government, but we´re pretty sure we will continue working in this and, of course, participating in all demonstrations. Perhaps over the next few months there´ll be more people, because before right wing came to power a month ago most of the people were with the social-democrats. Now it´s the Popular Party against the street. I don´t really know what can happen.”

Zuccotti Park, New York City, USA

Occupy Wall Street’s website is the first result that comes up when you google the simple and regular 6-lettered word O-C-C-U-P-Y. Its impact has been immense with occupations happening as far away as Hong Kong and Paris and London, but fears abound that the movement may achieve very little more than delivering the so-called 1% a rather annoying kick up their Louis Vuitton clothed backsides.

It doesn’t help that winter has pounced on the protesters at the same time as Mayor Bloomberg and his trusted squad of badge-less NYPD police-men, forcing an evacuation and banning any sort of encampment.

Photo: David Stam

David Stam, who has been actively involved in covering the OWS movement in NY, feels the movement is growing rather than tailing off: “Here in New York City the organizing has been expanding like ripples in a pond after a stone has been thrown into it. There does not seem to be a crescendo in sight or ending. New people continue to add their voices and energy into the movement everyday.”

He also believes greater coordination amongst the protest sites in the country will lead for stronger overall efforts. “We have formed a national Occupation network. On the ground people from all over the country are visiting different occupations.

“The occupations are loosely connected across the country for anyone that wants to participate. The connections between people as a result of the physical occupation is immensely important and serves as the foundation of the National Movement.”

Another contributor, from Indianapolis, feels the movement has remained on the coasts and hasn’t really caught on in other places, refuting the claim that this is a truly national protest.

“Here in Indiana, the OWS movements have failed miserably. Plagued with weaknesses such as lack of leadership, paltry attendance, infighting, and a lack of clearly defined goals, the movements' attempt to spread throughout the state never really took off, much less survive as a means of significant influence through the winter months.”

La Défense, Paris, France to St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, UK

The occupy movement spread like Nutella on a warm and delicious crêpe in a road-side stall in Paris, with the world for batter. Two of the major protest cities are also two of the major European cities - London and Paris.

A professional photojournalist and a regular Citizenside contributor who has been covering the Occupy LSX protests since they began says the movement is losing steam in the English capital as well.

“As I see it the bulk of the people taking part in the movement are either students or unemployed. In the beginning, there was a lot of interest in what was going on. But slowly the members of this movement, especially the people camping, began to leave because of many issues such as drugs and alcohol.”

Photo: Bimalg

Meanwhile, in Paris, things haven’t quite escalated to the level of New York or even London. A humble camp-site at the financial hub, La Défense, is a nudge-like reminder to the 1% that people aren’t happy. There hasn’t been any violence or massive protests yet, but the movement could well grow in 2012.

NicolasM, a regular Citizenside contributor, says that the movement may well become more active in the new year because of the impending Presidential elections in France.

“The Indignés and their anti-capitalist approach has gathered the public's support. Everybody has seen the damages caused by the crash on the stock market; everything is crumbling. The states, though, come to the rescue of the banks and ask tax payers to foot the bill through austerity plans and budget cuts, which are unbearable for some countries.”

He adds with flair: “I don't think the movement is a solution to the current problems in itself, but it lays a foundation to the future world we want to see for us and our children.”

And the rest of the world

Greece has been one of those countries constantly protesting against the enforced austerity measures. Joseph Galanakis, a photographer who has contributed material from the protests, says:

“I noticed that, as in all previous forms of protests and fights in Modern Greek history, [the current protests] have serious organizational and implementational problems. I believe that even if the movement continues, it will only happen because of the ever-increasing pressure on incomes and the psychological pressure on most of the Greek people.

“I'm not, though, sure about the purity of the cause and of course what will be the result of a new cycle of violent demonstrations in the country.”

Photo: Alexandros_M

The student protests in Chile and Colombia have ended in favour of the students, with educational reforms out of the way. A photojournalist from Colombia, though, says that Latin American activism will still run strong in 2012.

“The FARC is still a presence here and many object to the harsh methods that both the FARC and the military and paramilitaries use to resolve this social conflict. I think that other protests will come up which, unlike in the US and Europe, here includes even working professionals and not just academics and the unemployed.”

Rapture - 2012

Some protests that took centre stage in late 2011 seem to be petering out, while others, like in Russia, are only just beginning. Demonstrations have focused on various issues: Egypt demanding democracy, Russia demanding fair elections, democracies like the US and the UK demanding financial stability, Spain and the Indignados demanding employment and opportunities, India demanding an end to massive political corruption.

Photo: vladsukh

Twenty eleven may have been a year where it all began and took centre stage, but this leap year promises to be a major year for the protests to leap to a new sphere. People want themselves to be heard with impending major elections in France and the US, countries that are pivotal in making decisions that shape policies around the world.

Twenty twelve has been earmarked by conspiracy theorists and those with strange crystal orbs as the year the world comes to an end. I believe they may not be that far off, ludicrous as that sounds. The world, as we know it, may well come to an end this year. Protests may well be the tool to do that, paving the way for a new, improved world; an Earth 2.0 perhaps, occupied, aptly enough, by citizens of the world who yearn to make it a better and fairer place; the 99%.

Twenty-twelve promises to be a year of many events: the Olympics, US presidential elections, and the Rapture, which could end life, the universe, and everything. But doomsday is scheduled to be as far away as December 21, 2012, and that means we can look forward to another regular year of iPhone 5 rumours, mega-money Manchester City transfers and protests around the world. Or can we?

Photo: Bimal Gautam

Twenty-eleven may well be best remembered as the year of protests and demonstrations that sprung up across the globe, from Hong Kong to Tahrir Square to St Paul’s Cathedral to Wall Street. It’s no wonder therefore that the “protester” was announced Time magazine’s “Personality of the Year”.

But now that the year’s coming to a screeching end and 2012 looms its mysterious, Guy-Fawkes-mask-wearing, anonymous head, it may well be in order to see the growth of protests over the past year, to better understand just what made the “protester” reach the gloss-edged pages of The Times magazine.

Photo: Mosa'ab Elshamy

Time Personality of the Year 2011

It all began on Jan 25, 2011, in a 21st century movement fittingly organised via a Facebook event by an employee at Google, Wael Ghonim, who, called for a protest against the inhuman treatment dished out by the Egyptian government (although there may be some disagreement on who really started and ran the Facebook page). Wael had been inspired by a similar movement in Tunisia that began in late 2010 and concluded with the regime being overthrown on January 14, 2011.

The protests in Tahrir Square, Cairo, similarly, led to Hosni Mubarak stepping down from power after almost 30 years of Presidency. And the success of these two revolutions, sparked off many more.

Yemen, Bahrain, Libya and Syria jumped in at once, with whispers of an “Arab Spring” making the rounds of social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. As protesters laboured through the actual spring, dragging through the summer, and ploughing into ethereal autumn, they had gathered more supporters than any other movement over the last two decades.

Photo: David Stam

Occupy Everywhere

Events these days seem to carry more weight when they happen in the west, or the “first-world” countries. There’s a journalistic tendency to aggrandize a tragedy in the States, for instance, and take the ones in the Middle East as a routine part of life.

The protests, though, had quite the reverse effect on the media. While the Arab Spring protests kept hitting headlines, its western counterpart, Occupy Wall Street, took quite some time before it was even acknowledged.

A Canadian activist group called Adbusters called for another Tahrir moment, this time in Wall Street, protesting against perceived imbalance in the financial structure of society. On September 17 a considerable group of people gathered in Zuccotti Park, camping there for a cause.

Three months later, the word “Occupy” has probably been used more often in the past few months than in the entire century preceding it. Or shall we say millennium!

With the backing of the activist group behind the Wikileaks hackings, Anonymous Ops, the Occupy Wall Street movement saw unprecedented reach. #OWS keeps trending ceaselessly on Twitter and the Global Day of Action on October 15 saw events being organised in places far and away.

Hissez-haut, Indignado

Watch our interview of Andres Villena Oliver, member of the Spanish Indignado movement:

October 15 may have been the Occupiers’ global day of action, but it also marked a major day in the growth of another movement. The Spanish M15 Indignado movement began on the 15th of May, with people flooding the public square in protest against the rising rates of unemployment in the country.

Five months in, with the protests still raging, the Indignado movement which had spread to other countries in Europe joined in with the Global Day of Action, generally protesting in an intriguingly non-violent way.

Photo: Nicolas Messyasz

We are the 99%

October 15 saw similar protests take place in many countries simultaneously, in one of the biggest world-wide protests in years. Demonstrations took place in Hong Kong, Melbourne, Berlin, Madrid, Rome, Brussels, Thessaloniki (Greece), Paris, London, Toronto (Canada), Indianapolis, Guadalajara (Mexico), New York City among others.

While people’s points of view may differ on the point of the movement, its legitimacy and its values, it seems undeniable that there are lots of people who are very angry, indignado, with the way they’ve been treated.

Some are disappointed with the employment situation, others are angry with banking policies, still others like Chile and Colombia are upset with the privatisation of education, and there’s also financial austerity measures that winds up another faction of the public like in Greece, England and France.

Photo: Martyn Wheatley

The salient point, though, is that protests are going on around the world. They may not be particularly streamlined or aimed at overthrowing governments or even have a specific list of demands, but it is a sign that people are angry, unhappy and not willing to stand by and watch anymore.

Some movements, though, are only beginning to have their voices heard. The Chilean students may have won their mini-battle, but Occupiers are only getting started. It doesn’t help that winter’s already here and camping ceaselessly will be that much tougher. It doesn’t help, either, that governments are cracking down on protests and trying to get it all dismantled before 2012. It doesn’t help, furthermore, that people are easily distracted and bored and few have the tenacity to fight on, clinging forever to their ideals.

But whatever the new year may hold, be it the end of the world or the iPhone 5, twenty-eleven will indeed be best remembered for the impact the protesters have had and the movement that has captured the world’s attention.

The year that leads up to any major presidential election is long and complicated, what with all the campaigning and speeches. Then there’s the countless polls, with candidates’ ratings rising and dropping like an over-excited sine wave, albeit with a more complicated reason behind it.

The Occupy Wall Street movement, despite its insistence on distancing itself from one party or the other, can’t but play a role in the next presidential elections in the US, a year from now.

Photo: Kinloch

Everybody look to the left...

A recent poll suggests a rise in popularity for President Obama, ‘coincidentally’ a few days after Obama spoke the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) language, talking about the wealth of the 1% and the necessity for the 99% to have a fair opportunity to get their hands on some of that as well.

At first glance, the protests at Zuccotti Park seem to suggest a dissatisfaction with the current system and, by extension, the current government. The protesters, therefore, should, in theory, prefer removing Obama from the White House.

Reality, though, suggests a very different scene. A citizen journalist and photographer, who has covered various Occupy protests for Citizenside in Los Angeles, feels the protesters could still give the current president a second term:

"My impression of the Occupy Wall Street protests, based on my conversations with the protesters, is that the individuals participating are primarily left-leaning, politically.  However, they are disenchanted with the Democratic party as well as the Republican one. Not too many people I spoke to felt favorably about our current President, but nobody felt they would vote for an opposing candidate in 2012, largely because they believe that our current President is the least-worst option."

This would suggest the leftist inclination of the protesters could lead to a lease of life for Obama. Another Citizenside member who’s been at Zuccotti Park feels that this could actually only benefit the democrats:

"Previously, the entire discussion was about how the deficit was too large and how the Republicans would save the country by never raising taxes on rich people. Now, people are actually talking about runaway corporate greed and how rich corporations are buying elections. We are now seeing a lot more older people holding up signs on Broadway. I think this can only help the Democrats."

The movement, though, is a lot more fluid and can’t be defined as either purely left-wing or Republican-backing. There seem to be people from all factions and that just makes it tougher to steer the movements effort any which way. One of our contributors from Indiana feels the delay in forming a cohesive one-pointed movement could cost the movement its goal:

"If the Occupy movement would have had great leadership and clearly defined goals, it would have been a gold mine of opportunity for the Democratic party and President Obama. It would have come at a time when so many people are completely fed up with the status quo of current government, and the belief that the "1%" and government have, together, created the US version of "royalty" or "a privileged class" off the sweat and blood of the working class 99%."

Photo: David Stam

Everybody look to the right...

Quite how the same thing could be seen as beneficial to either opposing party is one of those strange mysteries that only the political world can provide in such abundance. While the movement seems to be liberal and left-oriented, and possible, by extension, pro-Democrats, the criticisms against the movement could well play into the Republicans’ hands.

The very fact that the movement seems to be leftist could be the bane of the Obama campaign. There are a good number of recent criticisms of the OWS movement, one of which is their alleged violence and anarchist-like behaviour. In a year’s time, with fading memories, the violence could be unduly highlighted by the detractors.

The Democrats, led by Obama’s recent speeches, seem to be slowly and subtly aligning themselves with the protests. The Republicans could then play on that and discredit the Democrats by attacking the movement. It’s a political long-play, but it wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened. That may well also be the reason Obama hasn’t explicitly backed the movement.

A Citizenside member from DC who has been taking pictures of the movement adds his view on the matter:

"If the Occupy movements become progressively aggressive, the situation will almost certainly benefit the Republican party since the protesters represent the more liberal strata (identifying with the Democratic party) of American politics. This is because there is a "silent majority" which is not as vocal as the individuals who are participating in the movements, and they will be angered at the misplaced efforts and disruption caused by the extreme elements of the Occupy movements. The movements will only boost President Obama within a small segment of the voting population."

On the other side, we have reports from another member who thinks Obama’s time is up because protesters are actively upset with him:

"Obviously people are angry with the government economic policies, but the occupy movement has evolved into soup bowl of complaints about anything. The occupiers refer to Obama as "Barakstar" in sarcasm. It should be interesting to see what Obama's response will be to the Occupy movement, but I think it's too late for him to salvage his career. When “Saturday Night Live” starts to make fun of you, it's game over."

Photo: Phroso_Photography

It’s all about the money, money, money...

The OWS protesters wouldn’t, as a whole, be happy helping any party get into power in the upcoming elections. Their focus seems to be on Wall Street, the money-makers, the 1%.

In an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, film-maker and activist Michael Moore explained the stance of the occupiers: “The reason we’re not occupying Washington right now is the congressmen or senators are the employees of Wall Street. We’re kind of tired of dealing with the middleman or the servant."

He added that the problem with the US was the current brand of capitalism and today’s “corporate America”. He talks about the need to change that system.

Through all of that, though, the OWS protesters can’t be naïve enough to imagine that their actions won’t have any political impact. Even if they don’t back a side, don’t support a candidate or party, the politicians will use them to further their agendas.

A 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Turkey on Sunday, October 23, 2011, devastating the city of Van. Rescue crews have been working around the clock to save people from collapsed buildings. Here is some of the best citizen media documenting the quake and rescue efforts.

Flooding and mudslides hit northern Italy on October 27, 2011. Seven people are confirmed dead and seven others are missing. The Italian Council of Ministers has declared a state of emergency in the flood regions. Here are the best eyewitness videos and pictures.

"Flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months … Once there, we shall incessantly repeat one simple demand in a plurality of voices."   These were the words used in the video released on the internet 3 weeks ago which called on protesters to gather in Wall Street.

Photo: davidscameracraft

On the day of the protest, Septembre 17 2011, only a thousand turned up in lower Manhattan out of the 20 000 expected.  Six days into the movement, while between 100 and 300 protestors are still mobilized, many bloggers and internet users ask the same question "has the "Occupy Wall Street" protest failed?"

While many still wonder whether the protest will last,  some opinionated bloggers believe in the fact that the movement is a complete fail. "I can confidently say that the anti-corporation folks occupying (with consent) the corporate-owned Zuccotti Park are nowhere near achieving the Tahrir that ousted a dictatorI honestly think it’s a matter of days until it all disintegrates and the hippies go home. Either it will be done non-violently, or it will veer into a riot."

Others, less radical, blame the protestors for misreading and misunderstanding the strategies and techniques used in Tahrir Square back in Februrary and onward. Not only would they have failed to gather the masses ("the event has come to represent an extension of the same insular leftism with no broad appeal to the public") but they would have also failed to use the new media and the media themselves in their favor. In spite of the evident pessimism on the web, the initiators of the movement remain determinated in making the "occupy wall street protest" a new Tahrir Square. Punch lines such as "This has just begun" can be read on their live chat. On the 6th morning (10am Local Time) of the protest, about a 100 demonstrators woke up in the Zuccotti Park.

Despite the good intentions and the determination of the protestors, the lack of coverage in the American media as well the uniqueness of such gathering in America are bad omens for the continuation of the protest.

This week's best pics from Citizenside

We got some really great pictures from you guys this week. Nicolasm's pictures from the indignados march gave us some ambiguous, tragi-comic gems like the clown picture below. Other members showed us some compelling stories from Israel/Palestine, stars at the Toronto International Film Festival, and even speedboats and gold-plated weaponry from the iDEX weapons show in London. Have a look around, I think you'll be impressed. I am.

It’s a well-known fact: Internet is full of hoaxes. Some of them are created by evil minds. Most of the time, though, it starts with a simple joke, with no intention to harm anyone. And because some journalists rush for buzz as they rush for scoops, pranks can end up on TV news.


That’s what happened during hurricane Irene, when heavy rains flooded the streets of Puerto Rico. Witnesses started posting images on social networks. So did Hector R. Fernandez, in a different way, as he told Citizenside:

“I was on Facebook and I noticed that most of my friends were posting pics of flooded areas here in Ponce, so since where I live the rain wasn't heavy enough to flood anywhere close, I thought that I should post something too but on a "bigger scale" to get comments rolling and such. Well I looked at the pics again and I noticed one that made me think "damn a shark swimming down this would look awesome" so I downloaded one of my friends’ picture.


Then I did a random Google search for shark, and eventually came across the picture of the man paddling a kayak with a shark following behind on a very blue sea. Now, Honest to God, I just copied and pasted both pics on Photoshop (CS4) and used the Eraser Tool with a soft round selection, that's it, pretty much done within minutes.


And I posted it on my FB.

The rest is media history. As of today I know that the pic has been broadcasted on TV twice saying it was real, see for yourself: on WHDH and Telemundo.”

Those two mistakes were made in a rush for buzz. It just needed a few minutes to discover that the picture was a fake, as we explained it in a previous blog post.

Google Image Search could help you find a message left on a forum explaining which picture has been used for the prank. Internet is indeed a place full of hoaxes but it’s also filled with tools and people that can help you debunk them.

You could even find the original picture by yourself, browsing through Google images. Typing “shark” results in finding random pictures about attacks. It would be a better idea to look for images using “shark swimming” in the search. Then it only take a few seconds to find the original image of the shark.

“I never thought anyone outside my friends would believe me, or even cared about who made the picture, Hector added. Now, on how it was created, I never expected this kind of reaction since it wasn't meant for anything else than making my Facebook friends laugh through that traumatising time.”

I'm starting to see patterns in people's memories of the 9/11 attacks.

I've been reading a lot of people's stories lately, as we're collecting them here at Citizenside. When you've read enough of these recollections, you start seeing patterns. One motif keeps coming back time after time: the phone call from a loved one.

At home, at work, on that day many of us were interrupted by a phone call from a friend, a parent, a child.

"Turn on the TV, something's happened," they said.

That phone call played out a billion times around the world that day. It was, in a sense, a proto-tweet. After all, what's more common on Twitter than "I have seen something that you should check out"?

At its essence, that phone call is a basic act of journalism, motivated by a personal relationship. It's about sharing information with your nearest and dearest in an emergency.

If something on the scale of 9/11 were to happen today, the results from a media perspective would be quite different. Eye-witnesses would flood the internet with video, photos, and other content. Facebook, Twitter, and other services would be blazing with links shared and re-shared. The scale of this content sharing would be colossal, petabytes per second.

But if you zero in on an individual's action - whether it's filming and posting a video, commenting, or linking to it - it comes down to something very personal.

We've all seen the multimillion-view scoring videos on YouTube: the music videos, the random viral hits, the subversive advertising ads. But that's just the thinnest slice of what's posted there, and it's not representative of the majority of what's out there.

My team here at Citizenside contacts people every day regarding fascinating videos they've taken of news events. Often they only have a few dozen views. They weren't uploaded by someone who wanted to get a million hits and an ad deal. They're usually uploaded by someone who was in the right place at the right time and wanted to show their friends and family something they saw.

The subtext of posting a video on YouTube is often "This is what I have seen. You need to know it, because you are someone I care about." It's a personal act to film something, upload the video, and tell your friends. We are members of networks because of personal connections. The really important business of news happens between these personal connections, on a personal scale: we witness an event and tell others about it.

That's the main difference between 2001 and 2011. Now sharing news can mean sharing videos, pictures and other stuff, rather than just a simple phone call. When stuff happens, we still tell our loved ones about it. Only now we do it in ways that generates 'content' as a by-product.

A billion photos texted around the world generate content in a way a billion phone calls don't.

The kicker here is that all this content we're all generating has value to people beyond its immediate (and personal) audience. It has information value to a wider network of people beyond our loved ones. In some cases, it even has economic value.

This has created the major media challenge of the second decade of the 21st century: finding a way to extract maximum benefit from that flood of content generated by millions of essentially personal information transactions among small groups of people.

Note that I say 'benefit' here and not 'profit'. Overall, everyone benefits when information is more easily available. Yes, some people may make a lot of money off of this, and there's nothing wrong with that, but that's a different story. And exactly how to do it is still an open question.

Don't be fooled by the broadcast towers, the printing presses, the millionfold growth figures of Twitter and Facebook. Even in the case of huge, world-stopping news like 9/11. At its essence, news reporting happens one-to-one, because individual people want to share something important with their friends.

UGC Monthly - an interactive news roundup       It's la Rentrée! Now that summer’s over, it’s time to assess your UGC strategies for Q4 and 2012. Luckily, Citizenside’s got everything you need to successfully integrate UGC into your cross-media operations. Let’s start with our one-of-a-kind image bank, Citizenside Pro, the only place to find professionally-verified UGC images from all around the world. Launching in just weeks, the sneak preview is below! And let’s not forget, Citizenside’s Reporter Kit, the UGC Hub solution used by European media leaders to get their audiences collaborating for better event coverage and boosted engagement! The edition's topics are: Game Changer Citizenside Pro and the Eyewitness Wire Feature Focus Using Geolocation for Better UGC Meet Us! (on the right) Find us at these upcoming conferences Thanks for your continued interest in Citizenside's development, and France's leading UGC Hub solution, The Reporter Kit. Drop me a line sometime, let's share some ideas! Garrett Goodman | International Coordinator     Game Changer Citizenside Pro and Eyewitness Wire     Citizenside is ecstatic to announce two products that will change the way news organizations find and consume "citizen media". Citizenside Pro is the marketplace for professionally-verified news UGC. There are over 500 000 eyewitness photos and videos already, with more added every day! Enter your email for 15% off your 1st purchase! The Eyewitness Wire is a curated feed of the best images from Citizenside's 50 000+ members in over 150 countries. The wire is delivered straight to your newsroom via ftp or rss in real time for one affordable flate montly rate. Download the brochure     Feature Focus Using Geolocation for Better UGC     Whenever I demo the Reporter Kit, there's one tool that makes editors drool: the Call for Witnesses. Within one minute, you can pinpoint a location and start firing off emails to a geotargetted group of your readers in the area. It works using the Google Maps API, so it's simple, intuitive, super fast, and insanely powerful! Use it for breaking news, or before a planned event to maximize your coverage and audience engagement. Contact us for a demo!     For any inquries, I'm at Garrett@citizenside.com Visit our www.ReporterKit.com   What is the Reporter Kit? The Reporter Kit technology is used to create a community site where your audience can share their photos, videos and experiences with each other, and your editors. Completely integrated with leading social networks, the Reporter Kit makes it fun and social for your readers to participate in the reporting. Find out more!   The Guardian chimes in: “ Working with Citizenside has given us a chance to explore some new ways of partnering with other communities and platforms that share our approach to openness. „ - Matt McAlister, Director of Digital Strategy at the Guardian   Meet the team! Which are you attending? Citizenside will be present at a number of conferences in the upcoming months. Don't miss a chance to meet the team and learn about the newest innovations in UGC for news! London, October 7 --------------------------------- Vienna, October 15 and 16 --------------------------------- Arrange a meeting     View this online / Stop receiving this awesome monthly update

Street festivals and carnivals bring out the best in a city. This week London was alive to the pulse of the Notting Hill Carnival - a thrumming island beat that you could hear blocks away from the carnival zone.

Meanwhile in Arles, in southern France, the historic town square saw some Roman legionnaires and old-school gladiatorial combat.

It's a big world. This week we've gotten everything from hurricane damage to student protests in Chile, to Eid al-Fitr prayers marking the end of Ramadan. The sheer variety of what you're seeing out there is astounding.

(Cliquez sur les images pour les agrandir)

Since the beginning of the week, this photo has been buzzing on Twitter: Apparently Hurricane Irene, now tearing up the North Atlantic, has led to such flooding in Puerto Rico that there’s a shark swimming in the streets. The news has been widely spread, especially through social networks. Quickly, many web users doubted it was true. But how to prove it is a fake? Once again, a little Google Image Reverse Search can give you some clues. In this case, it led us to a forum where a member had already debunked the hoax. The original image is a well-known photo representing a shark approaching a kayaker. The irony is that the kayaker picture was also doubted when it first came to light. But this one is actually genuine. Puerto Ricans can breathe a little easier: the damage provoked by Hurricane Irene has been terrible - but at least they won’t end up in a shark’s stomach.

Among all the other things happening in Tripoli this week, we've also been following the story of 35 journalists held hostage at the Gaddafi-owned Rixos hotel in central Tripoli. Here's a look at their two days of captivity in their own words:

We've been scouring the net for a look at the media uploaded by anti-Gaddafi rebels in Libya. Here's the story from their own eyes.

It's been quite a week at Citizenside. Our members have shown amazing resourcefulness and courage as they covered the largest outbreak of urban disorder in the UK in recent times. They've been attacked, seen street battles, and even helped us find a missing bull's head.

One of the most important things in any crisis is good information. All across the UK, as the looting spread our members went out and documented what was going on around them - the violence, and the aftermath. This was the perfect case of a major story perfectly suited towards networked newsgathering. It happened out on the streets, not behind closed doors, and its very scale and distribution made it hard to cover by traditional news media. A network like ours has some huge advantages here. Local people, reporting what's happening near them, often have better access and positioning when things kick off.

We here at the editorial team bring things together, but Citizenside's real strength is its network of members all over the world. Great things can happen when we come together. This week has been the greatest confirmation of that.

(Click on the images to enlarge)