What is Neaju?
What is citizen journalism?
What does true citizen journalism mean?
What is considered news?
What is a news article?
What is a news story?
What kind of content is considered
inappropriate?
How can I submit news reports?
Where can I submit news reports from?
What if I have more information to report
on the same news event?
Can I edit my reports after I submitted
them?
What is a Neaju ranking system?
I recognize posted article, image or video
as copyrighted content – what do I do?
I do not think that something I see on the
site is real news – what do I do?
How can I comment on the news posted on the
site?
What is a news channel?
Who can form a news channel?
Can I be a member of multiple news
channels?
Can news channel administrators delete or
edit my submissions?
What kinds of subscription options are
available on Neaju?
What is Neaju?
Neaju is Internet’s first true citizen
journalism site. It is built to allow anyone to report news as it is
happening, and to post it for everyone to read, bypassing the normal editorial
process that typically distorts reporting and inserts opinions and spin.
What is citizen journalism?
Citizen journalism is when you, regular
citizens, not professional news reporters, collect and report on news events.
Citizen journalism is much more powerful and widespread then traditional news
reporting. Since we are everywhere and normally see the news unfolding way
before news agencies do, we can report it that much faster. You have probably
been participating in citizen journalism for a long time. Have you ever seen
something, say a car accident and resulting traffic jam and phoned your family
and friends to tell them about it? Was it usually way before you heard about
it on the radio? When you picked up the phone, you became a citizen
journalist. Your audience was very small – only one or two people, but with
Neaju – you have an opportunity to tell about what you see to a world-wide
audience.
What does true citizen journalism mean?
We believe that news should be reported
without bias, prejudice or distortion of any sort. However, all news reporting
agencies and even most of our citizen journalism competitors use editorial
process – they take original news submission, and then put it through desks of
multiple editors who comment on the article and make changes. Some changes are
good such as verification of facts, but most of the time, the changes are
designed to achieve two things – make the article more “readable” by making it
more dramatic, or to give some sort of a slant based on the views of the
editors. For example, when reporting about a military conflict, one agency may
highlight the losses of the civilian life, whereby another will concentrate
heavily on the advancements and achievements of the military. Both of these
are reporting on the same event, but through editorial process, they are
channeling your attention to what they want you to think, and feel. Citizen
journalism should not be like that – citizen journalism should be free of the
editorial process and conformity to some higher view. We encourage our citizen
journalists to submit their news reports in real time – as they are occurring,
and allow the readers to decide what is most important and what they think
about it.
What is considered news?
The first thing to remember is that news
can be just about anything that is happening that is new. However, the
audience for that news report is what you have to think about. We will take a
simple example and walk you through the process of what we mean.
A college football player is getting ready
for a game at home and while putting on his gear, falls down – that maybe news,
and maybe funny, but the audience for that report is very small – maybe a few
people outside of the people who actually seen it. The football player then
goes to the game and breaks a his college’s record for number of sacks in a
game – that is newsworthy, as most of the people who go to that college would
want to know about it, plus any future students and football players from that
college would probably want to see the report of him doing it. Let’s say the
player broke a state-record – news gains even bigger audience as most of the
collegiate football players in the state would want to know about it. Now
let’s say the game is a national championship – the audience for the news
reports is now the entire country. And finally, let’s say that the President
of the United States is hosting a G8 summit and invites all of the dignitaries
to the game (farfetched scenario, we know) – all of a sudden, the news about
the game, performance of all players becomes a matter of almost world-wide
significance. So in deciding what is news and what is not, think about the
audience – if it is only a few people who are going to be interested in your
report, probably not a good idea to post it. If you think the story has a
potential for a much bigger audience, even if it is within confines of your
school – capture and report it.
What is a news article?
A news article is a collection of a written
word, images and video reports about a particular event from a single author.
If you see a news event unfolding, a celebrity dining in your favorite
restaurant for example, you can take a picture with your camera phone and
submit it to Neaju for immediate publication along with a few words. That will
be considered a news article. When submitting a news article, the important
thing to keep in mind is that a news report should answer 3 basic questions –
WHO, WHAT and WHERE. Using the example given above, a good news report would
contain an image of the celebrity, along with a text submission stating that
the name of the celebrity, where you’ve seen him or her, and what are they
doing. The more details you’d give about the event – the more interesting the
news report becomes. For example, after snapping a picture of the celebrity
eating a steak, you could write what the steak was, maybe give a few more
details about the place where you are at, or if you want to switch your phone
into video mode, and come up to the celebrity to ask a few questions – that
would make the report that much more interesting.
What is a news story?
A news story is a term we use to describe a
collection of Neaju news articles coupled with news articles by traditional
news agencies, on a single news event. The way it works is when we receive a
number of news articles from different users on the same news event, our
editors will search the Internet for news reports by traditional media on the
same topic. If we find these reports, we will group all of the news reports by
Neaju reporters and traditional media reports under the same heading of a news
story. What that gives you is a more complete picture of the news event: you
have various reports from eyewitnesses (Neaju users) complete with pictures and
video, and traditional news reports which may offer different photography, video
or text reporting with different perspective of the event and some additional
information that may not be available to regular citizen journalists. For
example, a tornado rips through a small town in Kansas and news reports from
citizen journalists start to come in with images of the tornado, and pictures
of devastation that the tornado caused. In a few minutes, traditional media
may pick-up the event and send their own reporters that will have interviews
with police, residents, and FEMA officials.
What kind of content is considered
inappropriate?
Inappropriate content can take on many
forms and we will generally decide on the case by case basis if something is
inappropriate. However, we have a few rules:
1. You cannot post pictures containing nudity or images of death
2. You cannot post content that was generated by someone other than you
– generally known is copyrighted content
3. You cannot post news articles that you know to be false or
fictitious even for entertainment purposes
4. You cannot post non-news content, especially advertisements
These three rules will be heavily enforced
and failure to comply with them will result in removal of the content and
possibly removal of your account from Neaju.
How can I submit news reports?
To make news reporting easier for you and
to attempt to obtain reports in real-time (as they occur) we created two
separate ways news reports can be submitted to Neaju.
First, is the traditional way of logging
into your Neaju account, and from My Neaju, clicking on the New Article link.
You will be redirected to a web-based form where you can enter you written word
report, and upload images and video. Nothing exciting or real-time about that,
if you ask us.
Second method is through email. When you
register with Neaju, you will be asked to create two pieces of information
during the registration process – your user ID, and a four to five digit code.
Your user ID will be used by you to login to the site and other Neaju users
will know you by that name. The four or five digit code will be added on to
your user ID to create a private email address which you can then use to submit
your reports from anywhere in the world. For example, if you created a user ID
of ‘Frank’ and decided on the five digit code of 45321, your private news submission
email address becomes frank.45321@neaju.com.
Then, you can use almost any cell phone or Internet-connected computer, to send
a news report to that address and it will be posted on Neaju with you listed as
the author (read on, we have a secret to disclose that most cellular carriers
do not want you to know J)
We do have a few rules connected to the
code – first, it must remain private. You cannot disclose it to anyone as others
may use it to post inappropriate content with you as the author, that can
result in your account being banned – there will be no exceptions to enforcing
this rule. Second, please make it random and more difficult to guess – like
2007 is probably a weak code, as is 11111, as it could be easily guessed and
used by “evil-doers” to post inappropriate content.
And finally the secret. You may think that
your cell phone is not capable of sending email messages or that you are not
subscribed to the required service. Did you know that if you can send MMS
messages, you are likely capable of sending emails as well? This little
factoid is not advertised by the carriers but it is true – when you go to send
a MMS message, instead of entering a cellular number of the recipient, enter an
email address and you will see that it works just fine. Of course, now that
the cat is out of the bag, the carriers may start to clamp down on this little
feature, hang tight – we will be rolling out new ways of submitting news reports
from the field shortly.
Where can I submit news reports from?
To follow-up on the previous question – the
answer is from anywhere in the world as long as you have your user ID and
private code setup. We do encourage you to report in real-time – so the sooner
you can submit your report – the better. Want to snap a few pics with your
digital camera, then jump into the nearest Internet café or Kinko’s and
upload it – by all means. Want to email us your report from your phone – we’d
love to have it. But more importantly – our readers, and your fellow citizen
journalists would love to read it.
What if I have more information to report
on the same news event?
We have designed Neaju to allow you to keep
adding information to the same report. If you are using your computer, login
to the site, go to My Neaju, and click on the Add button next to the news
article that you want to add information to. You will be presented with a form
where you can upload your images, video or text.
If you are submitting your report via
email, the rule is simple: any reports that are received within 10 minutes of
each other will be automatically treated as an addition to the previous
report. For example, if you keep snapping pictures of the fight you notice on
the street, and keep sending it to your private email address. The first email
we’ll receive will generate a new news article. But as you keep snapping and
sending, as long as they are received no more than 10 minutes after previous
submission, we will keep adding your submissions to the original news story.
Can I edit my reports after I submit them?
The short answer is NO. We would like to
preserve the integrity and the originality of the initial report and you will
not be able to delete anything that you have submitted to the site or edit it.
You will only be able to add as described above.
What is a Neaju ranking system?
Neaju ranking system is designed with dual
purpose in mind: to determine which news reports are most interesting, and
which citizen journalists provide interesting news reports. Here is how it
works:
1. Neaju readers will be able to rate the written word, images and
video reports within any and all news articles, by assigning a 1-5 star value
to each piece of content.
2. Each Neaju article rating will be a combination of:
a.
All assigned ratings for all pieces of content
by Neaju readers
b.
Number of views of that news article
c.
Number of people who have commented on the news
article
3. Each Neaju news story will be a combination of ratings for all news
articles that are part of the news story
4. Each Neaju reporter will have a rating that will be based on the sum
of all ratings for all news articles submitted by that reporter.
5. Each Neaju news channel will have a rating that will be based on the
sum of all ratings for all news articles submitted as part of that news
channel.
But that is not all. There will be
subtractions from the rankings as well, and they mostly relate to what will be
deemed as inappropriate content. The way subtractions work is any content that
is removed from Neaju by site administrators will result in a subtraction from
ratings. Some removals will carry smaller penalties, and some bigger. For
example, a removal of content for copyright violation may easily bring a
four-star reporter down to one star. But the effects of content removal do not
stop there as all ratings are based on the rating of a news article. So if we
remove content for copyright violation, not only will the rating of a news
article plummet, so will the rating for the reporter and rating for the news
channel that the reporter is part of. So take care!
Other than that, go ahead – try to become a
five star reporter!
I recognize posted article, image or video
as copyrighted content – what do I do?
We strongly encourage our readers to
participate in reporting violators. In fact, if you have registered for the
site, you probably noticed a section in the terms and conditions document that
you had to agree to, that requires you to report copyright violations to site
administrators. We have tried to make the process as easy as possible – each
news article has a link next to it, that is labeled Report Copyright
Violation. If you notice something that you suspect is a violation of
copyright laws, click on that link and you will be presented with a short form,
where you can describe your concern. Please give us as much details as
possible – such as what portion of the news article you suspect to be in
violation and where have you seen that information posted before. Once we
receive your submission, we will review the information you gave us, the
offending posting, and potential source of original material. If deemed
appropriate, we will remove the content from the site.
I do not think that something I see on the
site is real news – what do I do?
Quality of the news reports found on the
site is directly related to you, the reader, taking issue with false
reporting. We do not doubt that there will be individuals who will find it
amusing to post false reports on the site as a legitimate news event. We will
combat these false reports and with your help, we can win.
If you see something that you do not think
is a legitimate news event, we encourage you to do two things. First, rate the
news article with 1 star. Our site administrators will be watching for news
articles that receive a lot of these one star ratings, and may choose to
investigate the report for validity. We also encourage you to click on the
Report Inappropriate Content link found on the right side of the news article
and express your concerns. They will be forwarded to site administrators and
we will once again, attempt to obtain verification of the news report.
How can I comment on the news posted on the
site?
Each news article will give Neaju news
readers an ability to comment on the report by clicking on the Post New Comment
link found at the bottom of the news article. Comment section of the site has
all of the components that you are used to – you can post comments, reply to
existing comments, and rate quality of the submitted comment.
What is a news channel?
News channel is a unique feature of Neaju.
It is designed to allow citizen journalists to report as a group based on
common criteria. For example, followers of a particular band across country
may organize into a single news channel and provide relevant reports on band’s
movements, live coverage of concerts, sightings, etc. Or students in the same
school may create school’s news channel. Organization can be based on any
criteria deemed of interest – location, topic, person.
Who can form a news channel?
Anyone. If you have registered on Neaju –
you can form a news channel.
Can I be a member of multiple news
channels?
No. Although future enhancements to news
channel functionality are planned and will allow any Neaju user to be a member
of many different news channels, at this time, any one reporter may only be a
member of only one news channel.
Can news channel administrators delete or
edit my submissions?
No. Doing so will go against the concept
of true citizen journalism we are trying to promote. By inviting you to join
their news channel, news channel creators and administrators agree to accept
your submissions (and all the glory and punishment that comes with it) as they
are.
What kinds of subscription options are
available on Neaju?
We have created a comprehensive
subscription system that will allow you to be notified of news articles that
are of interest to you.
At these early stages, there are only 2
types of subscriptions available – via email or as an RSS feed. There are more
subscription methods that are planned in the near future, but email and RSS
feeds is what’s available right now.
Using either one of these two methods, you
can subscribe to:
-
News story – you will receive notification if
additional Neaju news articles or outside news articles are added to the story
-
News articles – you will be notified if
additional information is added to the report or if new comments are posted
-
Author – by subscribing to an author, you will
be notified of all news articles that are submitted by that author
-
News Channel – by subscribing to a news channel,
you will receive a notification if any member of that news channel has posted a
new article