@DNA2008: CNN releases beta of new iReport UGC site

Posted by Martin Stabe on 4 March 2008 at 08:53
Tags: CNN, Citizen journalism, citizenjournalism

CNN has released a beta version of iReport.com, the second phase of its user-generated content submission tool, iReport.

Unlike the iReport user-submission tool that the international news channel launched 18 months ago, the new site is largely community-modernated.

A full launch of the service is due later this month, CNN business development director Chris Press told the Digital News Affairs conference in Brussels.

In its first 18 months, CNN’s existing iReport tool has received 100,000 reports, including video from the Virginia Tech shootings, the Burmese uprising and the Minneapolis bridge collapse, Press said.

But because all the content is vetted before being published on CNN.com or on CNN television, Press said, only about 10 per cent of iReport submissions are actually used on CNN.

“Nine out of 10 people were disappointed”, he said. The new site, however, will primarily be is designed to resolve that by creating a site linked to but clearly distinct from CNN’s editorial content.

Tags: CNN, Citizen journalism, citizenjournalism