Covering major breaking news events in a way that gives a real insight in to what is happening means using eye-witness accounts and personal stories, but dealing with the volume of information over an extended period from many people on different sides of the story presents a huge challenge for editors and journalists. Contribly helps you deal with user generated content at scale, enabling your journalists to genuinely to lead the news.
For example, in the Autumn of 2014 Hong Kong was witness to massive protests dubbed the ‘Umbrella Movement’. News organisations across the globe reported the events extensively and many collected large amounts of witness stories. It was breaking news for a number of weeks.
Both publishers and protesters wanted to cover every side of the story and update the world on what was happening. It was a huge challenge for journalists on the ground to deal with the volume of eyewitness accounts.
Using the Contribly platform the Guardian collected and published hundreds of personal stories from people involved with the movement by creating a space where contributors could upload their stories, photos and videos, and experience others’ too. Significantly, The Guardian were able to verify this content and publish with confidence knowing that they had licence to use it. They were able to lead the news with unique insights from stories they received directly.
From just one call out on a live blog, they collected over 250 individual stories, of which 90% were published. In addition dozens of long form articles were published using galleries from the images and accounts told.
