CNN Viewers Headline 'I-Reports’
Web Users Make News Via New Site
By Karen Brown -- Multichannel News, 8/13/2006 8:00:00 PM
When Antoine Maalouf saw dense black smoke rising from an Israeli air attack on a TV-transmission tower in Fatka, Lebanon, last week, he grabbed a portable video camera and shot footage of it.
But he didn’t just keep it to show friends and loved ones — he posted it to CNN’s new Exchange user news-content Web site for the rest of the world to see. And that’s exactly the kind of content Cable News Network is trying to attract with its new Web venture.
Launched August 1, the www.CNN.com/exchange Web site offers witnesses around the world an easy way to submit “I-Reports,” video and pictures of news events. Not only is it available for other Web users to see, but custom-built software will help CNN news producers sort through and evaluate the submissions for possible on-air use to illustrate breaking news stories.
The site also got a significant boost last week when computer manufacturer Dell Inc. signed on as charter ad sponsor.
Up until now, CNN has been using video submitted by eyewitnesses to news events — most notably in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina — but it has been a challenge for both sides to get that video from cell phone to live-TV broadcast, according to Susan Bunda, senior vice president of news for CNN U.S.
“There was no system that was user friendly,” she said. “So speed forward a year, and we recognize the value of it and also the technology that has progressed so much — especially consumer technology. We had a way that we believed could make it easy for the consumer, and then they add these wonderful personal elements to any of the stories we are covering.”
Allowing users to submit clips in any of a wide array of video formats, shot on everything from camcorders to video-enabled cell phones, does put the processing burden on CNN. So behind the scenes, a software system provided by Blip.tv takes in all of the submitted video or pictures and translates them into a common format.
“Even with the quality differences, you also have huge format differences,” said Blip Networks Inc. CEO Mike Hudack. “So one thing that we offer that is very important is the ability to take all of that in and transcode it into a common format, whatever the origin may be.”
Once the Blip.tv software translates the video into a common format, it also sorts and prioritizes the submissions. From there, CNN has a team of editors that look through the submissions, contact the sender to verify that it is legitimate and prepare footage for telecast on a CNN program.
So far, the video quality hasn’t been much of an issue, and depending on what the story is, it doesn’t have to be full broadcast quality anyway, Bunda said.
“Depending on what the story is, even if it isn’t perfect, it still gives you a window into a story that you otherwise just wouldn’t have,” she said. “I really think it personalizes it.”
The greater problem may be the potential for users to post bogus or manipulated video, and “we would be naïve not to have that concern,” Bunda said. “Our hope is by going through the traditional editorial vetting process that we will be able to weed that out, because we don’t want to show something that is not truthful and honest.
“I’d like to say that will never happen; unfortunately, there are those people who try to pull a fast one like that. We will certainly work to never let that happen.”
The CNN deal is a major step for blip.tv, which has seen its client list grow to also include Oxygen Media. In fact, the company is seeing so much demand for its blog development and digital media tools that “we are at the point now where we are turning away business,” Hudack said.
In addition to offering its user video management system to programmers, blip.tv also offers video production tools for up-and-coming producers looking to create Web TV series fielded through the blip.tv site.
“We’re finding this incredible democratization, where anyone can create their own TV show or anyone can go out and report the news to some extent,” Hudack said. “So it’s really the same trend.”
For CNN, meanwhile, the digital content-submission page is really an update on the time-honored tradition of “eyewitness news” — only this time, the witnesses can become the reporters as well.
“I really believe it’s an important part of our role in covering this world today,” Bunda said. “I think the world is so much more tech-savvy, and I wish we would have started this yesterday.”
