iReport: Participatory Media Joins a Global News Brand

This 10-page case study from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University in the United States (US) explores the US-based Cable News Network (CNN)'s iReport, launched in August 2006 to collect citizen-generated media for potential use by CNN programmes. Billed as a location for "uncensored, unfiltered, unedited, user-generated community news," the iReport.com website features photos, videos, and text on topics ranging from current events to personal stories and opinion submitted to the site by registered users, or "iReporters."

As detailed here, the iReport project has two distinct purposes for CNN. On the editorial side, it gives editors and producers a means to locate, select, and solicit audience-contributed media. For CNN, a business dependent for commercial success on the size of its audience, the participatory media platform, built around thousands of media clips submitted daily, attracts significant traffic in its own right while also serving to promote the overall CNN brand. According to a Mediaweek report, the site served nearly 4 million video streams, and 2.5 million users visited the site in June 2008, an increase of 22% over the previous month. As iReport.com continues to receive a stream of high-level attention from CNN.com executives, its materials are used by producers from a number of prime-time shows. "That the company has figured out how to incorporate audience contributions in a way that adds vast amounts of inexpensive content to its inventory without threatening the integrity of the news brand is impressive."

The specific business, editorial, and technological elements of the project are described. After registering on the site, iReporters can submit content by uploading materials via the Web or by sending mobile messages to an iReport email address. The content submitted includes a broad range of genres: personal narratives, political opinion, breaking news, firsthand reports on any number of topics, social commentary, travel photos, and humour. To help users produce content, the toolkit section of the site provides short collections of tips about storytelling (who, what, where, when, why, and how), photography (use the rule of thirds), videography (make sure to have lots of B-roll), and audio work (hold the microphone firmly). Content posted to iReport.com appears on the site nearly immediately, but producers find and vet content before it appears on a CNN property. The material almost always complements, rather than replaces, professional CNN reporting. In addition to materials solicited via the main site, individual programmes, and CNN's "Assignment Desk", the iReport team (a core staff of 10) also works to push iReport materials. They monitor the "newsiest now" list and other popularity indicators on the site, and pitch user submissions to CNN producers in news agenda meetings.

In November 2007, iReport opened a "hub" in Second Life, where users of the virtual world can upload reports about virtual events. These appear on iReport's Second Life assignment page, and on CNN.com's Second Life blog. On the in-game CNN property, users can view iReport videos and acquire CNN-branded objects for their avatars. iReport organises weekly virtual training sessions in these areas on photojournalism, reporting, and storytelling. CNN producers and editors occasionally hold Q-and-A sessions in the space.

iReport offers its contributors no compensation beyond a sense of belonging and the pride of seeing their work appear on CNN. If the content is licensed to a third party, CNN will share an (undisclosed) portion of the fees with the iReporter. CNN staff will share URLS with contributors so they can see how their work was used online, but there are no systems to give data on estimated network views or to provide video clips of the content as it appeared on-air. The top 20% of iReporters on the site earn the "superstar" label, which is generated each week by calculating a score based on members' contributions, ratings, popularity, and site activity. This label puts them in a special section in the user listing section of the site and adds a red superstar badge to their submissions, serving as a visible award and acknowledgment. The iReport blog, written by a number of CNN staff, serves to highlight good content and solicit feedback on site features.

In conclusion, while "[t]here is little question that iReport should be considered a success for CNN,...[i]n terms of enhancing public discourse, it is hard to consider iReport to be revolutionizing CNN - creative producers may use the mechanism in interesting ways, but the impact on overall editorial practice for such a behemoth is small. In terms of the stand-alone site itself, its emphasis on being unedited means that it doesn't take advantage of its ties to a news organization to educate its audience on journalistic practice, which may be a missed opportunity, or the best way to find and keep the enthusiastic contributors they want."