INewsit

iNewsit is an independent community-powered news and current affairs website which attempts to draw original and accurate content from its users thus utilising the news-gathering capabilities of citizens at the scene of notable events.
It takes a page from Wikinews, CNN’s iReport and other similar initiatives as it acts as a social news platform, and encourages, regular citizens to upload videos, photos, audios and write articles from anywhere where there is breaking news. The site differs however in strategy in that it encourages public journalism to try and uncover the truth behind the headlines, as it attempts to empower the general public to expose stories which mainstream media have either dismissed as unimportant, failed to report in an impartial manner or deliberately distorted or covered up due to financial or political influences.
As mobile phone penetration rates across the world have increased dramatically in recent years, including in third world countries, iNewsit hopes to gather footage from camera enabled mobile phones. It encourages the general public to upload footage and photos from countries where there is tight media censorship, to expose to the world stories which would otherwise go unheard of. It hopes to expose human rights abuses and violations of international law.
Another major difference between iNewsit and other citizen news initiatives is that there is potential for members who upload material to the site, to earn some money. iNewsit acts as an agency marketing all its content to media groups and news agencies across the world attempting to sell the news content on the member’s behalf. iNewsit takes a commission for any news content it manages to sell.
The site has been particularly useful for students, freelance journalists and others wanting to take up journalism as a career, as it has helped to expose their work on the internet and promote their material to media organisations and publications across the world.
The website was launched on Tuesday, 4 Nov 2008, on the day of the United Sates presidential election in which Barack Obama was elected as the first African American president, and since has covered many major international events as well as local stories.
During the Gaza War of December 2008/January 2009 iNewsit received a large number of Videos, Photos and Articles from people in the region as well as some NGOs and media organisations. As a result, iNewsit appeared consistently on the first page of Google SERPs on many search terms related to the Israel Gaza war, appearing above major news organisation websites such as Al-Jazeera and CNN.
In recent months iNewsit has faced some strong criticism as it has no way of verifying the authenticity of the content it receives from its users. Some of the content submitted to the site have also appeared on YouTube and other media sharing sites so it cannot fully protect its members' material from being used without payment.
References
*http://www.inewsit.com/about_us.php
*http://www.inewsit.com/news/-iNewsit-Launched-
*http://www.ijnet.org/ijnet/training_opportunities/international_reports_sought_for_community_powered_internet_news_program
*http://www.kawaleesonline.com/index.php?news=1075
External links
*iNewsit

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