In today’s world, people are trying to become more and more involved in the internet. They want people to hear their voice just like any other writer or journalist. There are numerous sites that offer comments to be posting in regards to a news story or video, but how many sites actually allow the average person to post a story of their own and receive feedback on that?
This week, I viewed a website called News Assignment , which is a open sourced journalism website which is looking to test the idea of having average people write their stories to post. The title of the website reads “get involved” from the the second you click on the website. This idea of becoming involved immediately catches the viewers eyes to attract them to the experiment and make them want to help and give an input.
This idea will fill the need of the readers who want to become involved. If the experience works, it is a great way to get news that a reporter couldn’t necessarily report on because of importance and situational relevance. There are only so many reporters in our country and they cannot be everywhere at once, but with revelations like camera phones, etc. people can just click away to report the news on a website such as this one. Although this website is still in its beginning stages, if people continue to participate in their “news assignment lab,” it could mean great success for both the website and people all over the world.
The idea that Shirky presents in regards to models becoming too intense and making viewers disperse and start again on their own is exactly what this website looks to improve. By involving the readers and simplifying their website to find exactly what stories are needed, they will ultimately be able to maintain their viewers and keep them constantly entertained with stories from real people who report on real events.
I think that this website could work extremely well because it is a website involved in 100% reader involvement. The idea of it serves to include people, rather than just having them read stories reported by the same people over and over again. It will need to be scanned daily for legitimate news and as previously mentioned when it comes to crowd sourcing, there will need to be limits as to who can submit stories, but in the long run it is a compelling and fun idea for the media and the internet to utilize.
