Hello! In view of the current trends of Internet and journalism, I would like to discuss about this relatively new platform for citizen journalism, Storyful. As mentioned during my presentation two weeks ago, Storyful selects social media content from reputable sources all over the world on YouTube and Twitter and then compiles these bits of information into news. Storyful curators, who are responsible for editing and providing a context for the social media content, will then churn out stories that include a short description of the background of the news story, tweets, videos, photos and maps.
So… You may be wondering: what exactly distinguishes Storyful from usual news websites or even other citizen journalism platforms, and what about it appeals to news readers?
Well, upon exploring the Storyful website (http://www.storyful.com), I found that there is this function called “Around the World in 18 Tweets”, which provides easy-to-digest summaries of the world’s top stories and is updated throughout the day. One of the posts reads:
Tibetan monk dies 'after torture'
Updated about 6 hours ago
International Campaign for Tibet says 37-year-old Jamyang Jinpa died of wounds received during torture.
Rights group says Tibetan monk dies after torture http://bit.ly/huIONT #Tibet #China
Tweet by @AsCorrespondent
Such bite-sized information enables readers to gain at least a superficial understanding of the global top stories, thus making it more convenient and time-saving. This presents a huge advantage over usual news websites.
Next, the curators filter the content posted to Storyful, playing a gatekeeping function in the dissemination of information. This makes Storyful much more reliable than other citizen journalism sites such as blogs because the content on these sites are usually not checked or reviewed.
Storyful even has real-time updates (at the left hand side of the main page) on tweets by Storyful contributors. Here is one of the tweets:
Such frequent and bite-sized updates are unprecedented in the area of citizen journalism.
Storyful even has a YouTube channel to itself (http://www.youtube.com/user/storyful). Indeed, the company lives up to its proclamation: Storyful will help you discover and share stories with value, meaning and resonance. It will find authentic voices amid the noise. It will be real life in real time.” Not only so, it also fulfills its company statement: Storyful uses the power of social networks to create an authentic, cooperative and socially useful journalism.
To conclude, here’s a Storyful video on the recent Cairo uprising.
Useful reference site:
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