Source: CNA website

Nearly 14 years after The Straits Times first dipped its toes into citizen-sourced content with the launch of STOMP, or Straits Times Online Mobile Print, CNA has set up a new crowdsourcing platform through which readers can send in tip-offs and other content.

Similar to STOMP, CNA Eyewitness — which utilises the tagline “See it. Report it” — will enable users to send in photos and videos either via CNA’s website or app, or social media and messaging platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Submissions, according to the Temasek-owned company in a statement on Monday (1 June), will be monitored “via a customised dashboard that was built in partnership with global brand experience agency, VMLY&R”.

Contributions deemed by CNA to be “newsworthy” will then undergo a fact-checking by the news outlet’s journalists and editors “who will develop the content into accurate and verified news stories for CNA”.

The stories, according to CNA, may be published online and on its social media platforms, as well as broadcast on CNA television bulletins or on radio over CNA938.

Touching on why CNA has decided to launch the crowdsourcing platform, CNA Digital chief editor Jaime Ho said that it was driven by the need to “strengthen the connection between journalists, producers and editors in the CNA newsroom and our millions of readers and viewers across Asia”.

“With their input, combined with our stringent editorial checks and standards, we hope that we will continue to be a trusted source for news that is verified and in touch with our audience,” he added.

Managing director for VMLY&R Singapore Preethi Sanjeevi said that CNA Eyewitness “allows for greater collaboration, communication and interaction between the public and CNA editors, to not only curb the spread of misinformation, but enable the development of deeper, more personal news stories”.

On the day STOMP was launched in June 2006, ST editor Han Fook Kwang said that STOMP was borne out of the need for newspapers to become “more than just passive providers of news” in an environment of new media.

“They have to engage their readers in areas which appeal to them. We have to provide readers with new avenues to express themselves, to enable them to interact with us, and among themselves.

“STOMP will enable us to do this. We want STOMP to become a forum of lively discussions – whether the topics are weighty national issues or where to get the best bak chor mee,” he added.

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