As promised last year, MSNBC.com has launched a citizen journalism section, and it’s called “First Person.” Users can upload video, photos and stories in response to suggested topics. MSNBC.com used First Person earlier this month with the NBC Nightly News series, “Trading Places: Caring for Your Parents,” and the site received over 6,000 stories, photos and videos. Current topics range from “unsung Americana” to silly dog photos. “This release is the first phase in an ongoing investment of surfacing user generated content onto MSNBC.com,” said Travis McElfresh, VP of technology for MSNBC.com. “Rather than creating just another free-for-all posting site, we have equipped the MSNBC.com editorial team with automated tools and filters so that they can easily and quickly identify offensive or non-relevant content before it is published. Automation and integration with relevance technology will further enhance the First Person experience and allow us to scale to some very interesting scenarios.” Of course, some of the best submissions may end up on NBC News and MSNBC.
One of the photo pages. Pics with the most votes are highlighted as user favorites.
