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Tag: Susan Grant

  • CNN celebrates second anniversary of iReport

    CNN celebrates second anniversary of iReport

    MUMBAI: Two years after inviting CNN’s global audience to contribute pictures and video of the news of the day, the network’s iReport initiative has brought in more than 175,000 videos and photos in its history, nearly 125,000 coming within the second year alone.

    The untimely death of Bernie Mac, a solar eclipse in Siberia, the conflict between Georgia and Russia conflict and Michael Phelps’ record-breaking eighth Olympic gold medal were among the most recent topics that moved CNN’s viewers to capture their own takes on the news as iReport celebrates its second anniversary.

    CNN News Services executive VP Susan Grant says, “With iReport, CNN wanted to engage viewers who have a desire to follow and participate in the news, and our iReporters have exceeded our expectations in both the quality and quantity of their submissions over the last two years. Sometimes the iReports we receive are first images of breaking news and often exhibit powerful points of view on issues or news events. But every day our iReporters show an enthusiasm for and pride in the community they have created.”

    With a 176 per cent rise in photo and video contributions since the same time last year, CNN’s user-generated content initiative now generates an average of nearly 15,000 iReports each month. iReport has proved to be an exceptionally powerful newsgathering tool for the network and is incorporated into reporting across multiple networks and platforms each day, including CNN/U.S., CNN.com, Headline News, CNN International and CNN en Español.

    The watershed moment for CNN’s iReport occurred on the morning of the Virginia Tech shooting tragedy in April 2007, when graduate student Jamal Albarghouti captured dramatic video on his cell phone. Since then, more and more iReports have been incorporated into the network’s coverage.

  • CNN creates presence in Second Life

    MUMBAI: US news broadcaster CNN has opened a hub within Second Life, a three-dimensional virtual world entirely created by its residents. The network will look to those most familiar with the virtual world – the Second Life residents themselves – to determine what constitutes news “in-world.”

    Just as CNN asks its real-life audience to submit iReports – user-generated content submitted from cell phones, computers, cameras and other equipment for broadcast and online reports – the network invites the residents of Second Life to share their own “SL iReports” about events occurring within the virtual world.

    CNN News Services executive VP Susan Grant says, “The thing we most hope to gain by having a CNN presence in Second Life is to learn about virtual worlds and understand what news is most interesting and valuable to their residents. Our iReport initiative has generated a great response from CNN viewers and users who contribute a wide variety of news, events and perspectives every day; and we are genuinely excited about the opportunity to forge a similar relationship with Second Life residents, albeit recognizing the need to customize the process for the virtual world.”

    When Second Life residents observe an in-world event, they can take snapshots, shoot video, or write a report about the event and submit to CNN with a click. Submissions selected by CNN iReport producers will go back into Second Life as SL iReports for residents to view throughout the virtual world. SL iReports may also be viewed and discussed in the real world at CNN.com’s SL iReport Blog at www.CNN.com/secondlife, where users are invited to share comments and subscribe to daily e-mail updates sent via Real Simple Syndication (RSS).

    CNN’s in-world hub includes a news desk where weekly editorial discussions will be held and an amphitheater for in-world events, such as training sessions and appearances by CNN anchors and correspondents. During the weekly editorial discussions, held each Tuesday at 5 p.m. (ET), one of CNN’s SL iReport ambassadors, CNN producers and editors with experience in virtual worlds, will moderate a conversation with residents about the prior week’s SL iReports and upcoming in-world events that might be interesting to cover.

    At the network’s hub, residents also can meet SL iReport ambassadors and other resident reporters, as well as access iReport kiosks, free-standing terminals where residents can pick up free gear and tools for gathering and viewing in-world user-generated content.

    Kiosks offer a variety of free gear and tools including:

    • A “HUD” or “heads-up display. This is a small, collapsible window that resides on the user’s computer screen enabling them to view the latest photo and text SL iReports while they are in Second Life; 
    • A continuous stream of the latest video SL iReports; 
    • An instructional video on what an SL iReport is and how to submit one; 
    • Avatar-ready apparel, including hats, T -shirts and press badges; and 
    • A duplicate copy of the kiosk itself, which residents can place wherever they choose across Second Life.

  • CNN relaunches website with integrated features

    MUMBAI: News brpadcaster CNN has relaunched its site cnn.com. The aim is to be an intuitive, integrated Web site that puts users within a click of the global, international and local news and information they find most relevant to them.

    With the site’s enhancements and redesign, users can access the news of the day through a story package that provides text, images, video, related stories and user-generated content. Also, the live online video content that was available through the subscription-only CNN Pipeline becomes woven into the fabric of CNN.com and is available to all CNN.com users for free, making the service even more dynamic and user-friendly.

    CNN News Services executive VP Susan Grant says, “To simply describe this relaunch as a site redesign grossly understates what we’re doing at CNN.com. This goes beyond the next level of online news and jumps straight into a fully integrated experience in which articles, videos, images and user-generated content all come together to give users a more enriching, immediate interaction with the news content and information they need and want.”

    Improvements to CNN.com and its international edition include:

    • Integrated multimedia storytelling that puts text, videos, photos, maps, charts and more all accessible on one page. Tabbed elements allow easy access to a variety of media types, allowing users to determine themselves how they get the news they want.

    • Presentation of video has been improved. This includes CNN’s online video archive stretching across its 27 year history – all free of charge without need for downloads. A new on-demand video player offers a Flash-based, play-in-page experience complete with larger and higher quality video and tools to create playlists and provide feedback. A live player provides access to up to four live video streams, one of which is guided by CNN.com-exclusive news anchors – the only offering of its kind on the Web.

    • More ways for users to engage in news through feedback, content submissions from users with I-Report articles, video, photos and and blog commentaries.

    • Locally relevant content, allowing users to personalize CNN.com to offer enhanced weather forecasts and personalized local headlines. This content comes from various sources and content-sharing relationships, including CNN.com’s affiliates and the recently announced strategic alliance with Internet Broadcasting, the US’ largest publisher of TV station Web sites.

    • Links to content available on other news and information sites and blogs as part of CNN’s commitment to being a good web citizen.

    • Better TV promotion on the site to improve the complementarity of CNN’s TV and online services

    There is a Hot Topics section front that provides in-depth multi-media content based on timely, newsworthy stories; The All About pages give users access to an archive of stories that CNN.com – and other selected media sources – have published on almost any subject; The We Recommend feature, which presents users with stories and videos from CNN.com and other content partners based on the user’s past CNN.com browsing history.

    · “From the Blogs” feature, which aggregates comments from blogs around the Web discussing either a specific story or topics related to one published on CNN.com.

    · Highlights at the top of every article, which enable users to scan and digest story details quickly, and a “Next” link, which allows them to browse through story highlights quickly. CNN.com also directs users to related content, one way in which the site reveals connections between stories.