IBNlive Launches Student Blogs; Not Using Enough Citizen Journalism Content

IBNlive, the website for TV channel CNN-IBN, appears to have taken to Citizen Journalism in a big way. The site, which earlier allowed their own journalists and a select few to blog, has recently set up the CNN-IBN Forum for Students (CFS). CFS appears to be a controlled launch – there are currently just 9 student bloggers – apparently handpicked, since I couldn’t find a “sign up” link. That’s what the editorial control appears to be limited to — I’ve often come across blog posts from CNN-IBN journalists, criticizing their own channels coverage. During the Gujarat Elections in December, the channel had also invited viewers to blog live as poll results were declared.

They’ve also expanded the mandate of their Citizen Journalism initiative, allowing users to upload images, videos and text. There’s a mobile component, powered by Kerala based MobMe Wireless. However, while the channel using the text content from CJ for responses on news shows, most of the image and video uploads are rarely used. That’s a major dampener for anyone uploading content to the channel – they obviously want bigger play, more on the channel than the site. TV news may have its own dynamics, but without bigger play on TV, this Citizen Journalism initiative might just fizzle out.

CNN-IBN should take cure from CNN’s iReport initiative, which does get regular airtime on the channel.

Update: Vikram Iyengar, in the comments to this post, points me to the beta version of CNN’s iReport website. I tried iReport.com yesterday before putting up this story, and it didn’t work then.

Disclosure: IBNlive is a part of the Network18 group, of which I have an inconsequential number of shares