Although CNN
moved in to
the world of citizen
journalism over 18 months ago with iReport, most of
the submissions made by users never actually made it
to the site.
However, this week CNN have
launched iReport.com, a site that will contain solely
user created content, including videos.
Unlike the iReport feature, however, the content on
iReport.com won’t have anyone vetting the content. Instead, it will be
a wide-open
format, and they’ve been marketing the new site to its frequent
submitters.
News Related YouTube
In other words, it’s the equivalent of a news-related YouTube
with a bit
of Flickr and Digg thrown in for
good measure.
Unfortunately, CNN seems only to have paid attention to the
social
parts of Web 2.0 in their planned implementation, and none of the
problems.
While users will be able to rate content as well as share
submissions on their own sites, we will once again see everything up to
the users, an issue that may undermine not only the site’s credibility,
but also the overall usefulness of the site.
Possible Mob Mentality Problem?
As we’ve seen with Digg, there tends to be a mob mentality
that
establishes itself in any site that lacks an overall editorial
control.
Digg users recently protested a mere change to the algorithm
that
management hoped would provide a more balanced set of popular articles;
has CNN even taken a look at sites like Digg?
The sites that have succeeded are those like Slashdot, which
maintain
control
over submissions.
No system is perfect, but taking the time to vet user
contributions, screen them for inappropriate content, and assess their
worth to the site, gives any news site a step up in being taken
seriously as a valid news source.
This article is based on Profy post written by Cyndy Aleo-Carreira.
