Community Correspondent® Debuts Version 2.0 of Citizen Journalism Web Site

source: http://www.kren.com/Global/story.asp?S=7359942&nav=menu616_2

Los Angeles, California (November 13, 2007) – Pappas Telecasting Companies, the largest privately-held, commercial television broadcaster in the United States, today announced the launch of version 2.0 of its citizen journalism Web site, CommunityCorrespondent.com.  Community Correspondent 2.0 is stocked with many new user-friendly features, including larger file size, photo galleries, the Assignment Desk, Whistleblower, an On-Air video player, and rich correspondent profiles.

Since its launch in June 2006, Community Correspondent has attracted more than 750,000 unique visitors, 11,000 registered users, and over 20,000 stories submitted.  For the month of October 2007 alone, more than 1,500 stories were submitted and visitors logged nearly 190,000 page views.

“Community Correspondent 2.0 is a very cool, feature-laden update that incorporates many of the ideas that have been suggested by the users of our site,” said Rosemary Danon, Vice President / Online and New Media of Pappas Telecasting.  “And, Community Correspondent is still the only major news-related site that allows user submissions without editing.”

Desiree Hill, Vice President / News Development of Pappas Telecasting, added, “Community Correspondent is a useful newsgathering tool for our news departments across the country.  We’ve recently had the nationwide story of the teacher accused of kidnapping her student from Nebraska.  That story created a community buzz on the Web site and gave us additional content to pursue.  In other markets we’ve had stories ranging from fires threatening towns to a minister blogging from Israel during the conflict with Lebanon to a cat rescued from a tree.  Community Correspondent is like a hyper-local wire service run by local citizens.”

Community Correspondent 2.0 features larger file size – users now have the ability to upload stories of up to 30 mb.  On the previous site, video clips were limited to less than one minute; with version 2.0, videos of more than five minutes can be uploaded.  Additionally, multiple photos can be attached to a story by using the site’s new Photo Gallery feature.  Users have the option of creating private galleries, in which only that user’s photos will appear, or public galleries that can be added to by any user.

Another new component is the Assignment Desk, where Community Correspondent staff list the topics in which videos, photos, or stories are sought.  Current and recent assignments include California Wildfire Stories and Relief Efforts, Friday Night Football Highlights, comments on this fall’s new network programs, and a Salute to Troops. 

A notable example of the use of the Assignment Desk was Nebraska’s Harvest of Harmony parade, an event that is over 40 years old.  Pappas’ ABC affiliate NTV invited viewers via Community Correspondent to send in their own photos, video, and memories of parades past.  In addition, the NTV team streamed the parade live and edited and archived the video into specific school and personality clips that were labeled and posted in 2-3 minute segments.  E-mails came in from around the country as people welcomed the parade into their homes via the internet.  One viewer noted that she spent the day watching the parade in Atlanta while talking to her 90-year old mother who sat in her Nebraska home and watched on television.

Whistleblower is a new addition that allows users to anonymously report misconduct by businesses, individuals, or government agencies to Pappas Telecasting’s news departments.  This feature’s value is illustrated by the case of a Pit Bull that attacked a four-year-old boy.  After a user tip was sent to the Whistleblower, the NTV News staff in the Lincoln-Hastings-Kearney, Nebraska market investigated and found that the dog had a history of vicious behavior.  The resulting story on NTV (KHGI/KWNB) led authorities to seize, and eventually destroy, the dangerous animal.

Another Whistleblower success story from the Sioux City, Iowa area involved a group of first grade students that didn’t make the bus trip home on the first day of the school year.  A tip sent in by upset parents to the Community Correspondent Whistleblower prompted an investigation by KMEG News.  As it turns out, first grade teachers had not heard the message on the school’s public address system announcing that the bus was about to depart due to the commotion occurring at dismissal time.  To fix the problem, school administrators instituted a new procedure employing a checklist of all students scheduled to use bus transportation each day; students are checked off the list as they enter the bus.

Community Correspondent’s On-Air video player serves up stories that have been produced by Pappas Telecasting news departments, suggested by Community Correspondent users’ postings.  In Fresno, California, one such story profiled Lynea Lattanzio, founder and director of “The Cat House on the Kings,” a private, non-profit sanctuary for cats.  At any given time, the 12-acre facility houses approximately 700 adult cats and 100 kittens.  Recently, Ms. Lattanzio was selected as one of ten finalists for the “Animal Planet Cat Hero of the Year” by the Animal Planet cable network.  Through a lead in a user posting on Community Correspondent, the KMPH FOX 26 news department created a full-blown story that was seen by viewers to KMPH’s Ten O’Clock News.

Rich correspondent profiles allow users to post photos or avatars, their interests, professions, and other personal information.  A list of each user’s postings to Community Correspondent, as well as other users’ comments on those postings, appear beneath the profiles.

Also new to Community Correspondent 2.0 are Automated Flash Conversion, in which videos in any format are automatically converted to Flash-based video using Go2 technology, and auto-publishing by cell-phone, which gives a sense of immediacy by allowing users to post video, still images, and text from multimedia-enabled cell phones.

Registration is easy – just visit www.CommunityCorrespondent.com, select your desired Pappas Telecasting station, then select “Register.”