How Citizen Reporters Work

OhMyNews has an interesting article on Tribun Timur, a local newspaper in Makassar, the capital city of the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi, which benefits from citizen journalists.

"It was first published two years ago and has become one of the leading newspapers in Makassar, with a distribution of 50,000 copies and about 120,000 readers.

... “We practically do not have a special budget to send our reporters to Mecca, which is why we are trying to maintain cooperation with people who are going to Mecca, asking them to send reports to us. We started this kind of cooperation last year, and we have gained so much popularity among our readers, because the stories are unique and original. Thanks to the idea of citizen journalists, and we might say that our newspaper benefits from this model,” explained Dahlan.

The citizen reporters in Mecca send summaries of the stories via SMS (short message service), and the newspaper in Makassar makes international phone calls for further information.

Based on the experience from the previous Hajj season, this year Tribun Timur feels more confident asking six citizen reporters for special coverage, one of the reporters being the mayor of Makassar, Ilham Arif Sirajuddin, who will lead the pilgrims from Makassar.

“When at least 345 pilgrims died in a stampede during a stone-throwing ritual this Jan. 12, Tribun Timur received various first-hand stories from its citizen reporters, enabling it to provide comprehensive coverage."

emily | 9:38 AM | SMS Services offered by the Press |
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