EmailGuardian News & Media has today unveiled a new platform that will allow people from around the world to submit their content directly to Guardian journalists.
GuardianWitness, in partnership with EE, will build on the Guardian's groundbreaking model of open journalism to crowdsource content from around the globe by enabling users to share videos, pictures and text directly with the Guardian's editorial team, as well as to browse the contributions submitted by other GuardianWitness users.
Launched in partnership with EE - the UK's first and only superfast 4G mobile network - GuardianWitness is an innovative collaboration, demonstrating the Guardian's open approach to working with brands to create new digital experiences for audiences.
GuardianWitness is available to users on any network via free iPhone and Android apps, or online at witness.guardian.co.uk. Selected submissions will go on to be featured on the Guardian website and / or in the Guardian or Observer newspapers, enabling users to help set the news agenda and become part of the Guardian's award-winning journalism, comment and reporting. Video submissions will also appear on a new GuardianWitness YouTube channel.
GuardianWitness will encourage user content submissions in three ways:
- Assignments: Each week, Guardian editors will set users a range of GuardianWitness "assignments" from across the spectrum of the Guardian's editorial output - including news, sport, culture and life and style. Assignments for launch include 'tall buildings', linked to a forthcoming Observer / RIBA discussion. Assignments will also take the form of exclusive competitions.
- Live news: Guardian and Observer editors and reporters will sometimes invite readers to contribute submissions to breaking news stories to help report the day's events from all corners of the world. As well as being published on the GuardianWitness apps and website - and because GuardianWitness is deeply integrated into the Guardian's editorial tools - selected submissions for these categories will be picked by editors to also feature directly in news articles and liveblogs. Users will be alerted to news stories that are welcoming contributions with a GuardianWitness badge - for instance videos of the latest extreme weather event.
- Submit a story: Users will be encouraged to submit content or ideas about stories or topics that might be of interest to the Guardian. Content submitted to this "open" assignment will not necessarily be published on GuardianWitness, but suitable submissions will be flagged to our editorial team who may want to follow up on them for possible stories and features, or set up a new assignment based on the original submission.
In order to contribute content to GuardianWitness, users will need to create an account, either through their existing Guardian account or through their Facebook / Twitter profiles. GuardianWitness content can also be shared by users on Facebook and Twitter.
Joanna Geary, the Guardian's social and communities editor, said: "At the Guardian we have a long history of getting our readers involved in our journalism. In the last few years alone our readers have helped us to review MPs' expenses documents, follow the UK riots, gain real-time insights into the Arab Spring as events in the Middle East unfolded and challenge the government's employment schemes.
"GuardianWitness will further reinforce our recognition that journalism is now a two-way conversation and will open up our site as we never have before. Not only will this make it even easier for our readers to get involved in our journalism and form both local and global communities of joint interest, it will also provide our journalists with a fantastic new tool, providing them with insights and views that we perhaps don't yet have access to.
"We can't wait to see how the platform grows and develops in the coming months and look forward to sharing some of the best contributions with our global audience."
Spencer McHugh, Director of Brand, EE said: "Smartphones have changed the way in which news is covered and shared around the world as ground-breaking mobile technology breaks down the barriers between journalists and the public. As the first providers of superfast 4G in Britain, EE is uniquely placed to support this transformation in the way news is reported, consumed and shared. This revolutionary new platform from the Guardian recognises these developments, enabling users to film or photograph something and share it with the Guardian's editorial team in a matter of seconds, and EE is delighted to support the Guardian's approach to open journalism."
Further information about GuardianWitness is available at witness.guardian.co.uk. The free iPhone app is available here and the free Android app is available here.
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Notes to editors:
In collaboration with n0tice and partners, GuardianWitness products were designed, built and developed by the Guardian's digital development department.
All user submissions will be reviewed by our editorial team and suitable contributions will be published on GuardianWitness.
About Guardian News & Media
Guardian News & Media (GNM) publishes guardian.co.uk, the fourth largest newspaper website in the world, as well as guardiannews.com in the US. Since launching the US digital operation, US traffic now represents a third of the Guardian's digital audience, with US traffic reaching 12.7m unique users in February 2013, maintaining its lead over BBC News and Reuters. The Guardian's mobile site is the number 1 quality newspaper mobile site.
In the UK, GNM publishes the Guardian newspaper six days a week and the world's oldest Sunday newspaper, The Observer. The Guardian was first published in 1821 and in 2012 the Guardian's website was awarded the Website of the Year prize at the 2012 Online Media Awards. The Guardian was named the UK's most trusted newspaper in 2012 research by 'Conquest Research & Consultancy'.
About The Scott Trust Ltd
The ultimate owner of the Guardian is The Scott Trust, which was originally created as a trust in 1936 to safeguard the title's journalistic freedom. In 2008 it was replaced by a limited company with the same core purpose of the original trust: to secure the financial and editorial independence of the Guardian in perpetuity, while its subsidiary aims are to champion its principles and to promote freedom of the press in the UK and elsewhere. Other than to cover expense, The Scott Trust takes no dividend from the group's businesses, whose profits are instead reinvested to sustain journalism that is free from commercial or political interference.
About EE
EE is the most advanced digital communications company in Britain, providing mobile and fixed-line services to 27 million customers, and is the first company in the UK to provide 4G mobile services alongside fixed-line fibre.
EE is the company that runs the Orange, T-Mobile and EE brands in the UK.
Its 4G service will cover more than half of the UK population by June and EE continues to improve the speed and reach of the UK's first 4G network. Its fibre service already covers 50% of the population. EE's mobile service currently provides coverage to 99% of the population with 2G and 98% of the population with 3G.
Follow EE on…
Facebook at: www.facebook.com/ee
Twitter at: www.twitter.com/ee
YouTube at: www.youtube.com/ee
LinkedIn at: www.linkedin.com/company/ee-uk
About n0tice.com
GuardianWitness was developed using n0tice, a mobile publishing platform for community journalism. Approved submissions for GuardianWitness will therefore also appear on n0tice.com. The n0tice toolkit helps publishers, broadcasters, brands and developers give their users ways to see and share what's happening nearby. Developed by Guardian Media Group, this mobile-first platform offers white-label solutions for collecting, managing, integrating, displaying and sharing geo-tagged text, photos and video submitted by users.
For more information about n0tice services for partners, visit http://n0tice.org/.
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