Online Journalism Blog

[Keyword: online journalism]. That’s the headline in the Media Guardian, which reports that the mobile phone network 3 is pursuing talks with ITN and Sky News “about feeding clips produced by its customers on to television news bulletins”. It sounds like the company may have already discovered a goldmine with its service allowing customers to send in clips which can be downloaded and watched by other subscribers (a turnover in the millions has been quoted in New Media Age), so this comes as a logical extension of that business.

Interestingly, 3 UK’s chief executive Bob Fuller is quoted as saying “The onus will be on the people, such as TV companies, publishing the content to check their sources”. The article goes on:

“An ITN spokeswoman, who confirmed that talks were under way with 3, said
they already ran background verification checks of mobile phone clips sent in
for use in bulletins. “Editorially, we want to be 100% certain that anything we
put out, whether on terrestrial TV or mobile phones, is bona fide,” she said.

“ITN already has extensive experience of packaging content for use on mobile
phones, so taking mobile-generated content and packaging it for use on bulletins
plays to its strengths. “We are looking at developing ways of capturing people’s
images and how we can use them better – using our expertise to make sure they
are produced and packaged properly,” said the spokeswoman.”