MaYoMo – User Generated Journalism
MaYoMo stands for Map Your Moments and invites users to act as journalists and videojournalists from all over the world to create an international news channel. The site is attractively presented with a world map covered yellow indicators wherever news stories have been created. Hovering the cursor over these indicators shows thumbnails of video stills plus the headlines, and viewers can click to watch the whole story. The variety of subjects covered is comprehensive, and stories remain available long term with a slider below the map to choose a date range. Viewers can browse by hovering their cursors over the general world map to choose a story, or select from the subjects on the menu.
Citizen journalism has become important in countries where the press are having trouble gaining entry, with video from mobile phones filling in the gaps television journalists can’t fill. There is potential for this website to fulfil a significant purpose. It’s also fun, with lifestyle and entertainment sections. The journalism and videos vary in quality, from those presented by skilled writers and videomakers, to the extremely amateur, although even the unskilled can broadcast an important video. One showing Michael Jackson stepping from the coroner’s van and asking if he was still alive show the potential for scams and misinformation. Despite this there’s no doubt citizen journalism is with us, fills an important role, and lets everybody have their say. The way MaYoMo has presented such a massive project in such a clear and well-organised way is impressive.
Socially!