Shimla: Online video news, not a new concept, but one reported by Citizen Journalists has been successfully launched by Instablogs.com and is getting raving comments from net users around the globe.
In a fast changing media environment, Instablogs.com, a global online newspaper from India, has carved a niche for itself by being able to blend traditional media with the new media for users.
Nikki, a Los Angels based surfer who scans the net for her daily dose of news left behind a comment on the new video capsule introduced two days ago, “I must say this is the news of the future through online reporting.â€
The Shimla based online media network launched “Ground Report’ a new feature that allows net users to view citizen journalist (CJ) video reports from around the globe. On day one, there were CJ reports from US, Korea, Netherlands, Bangladesh and India.
“This is a breakthrough in the history of online reportingâ€, wrote in Hina Shah, a Peshawar based net user.
“We are one of the most colorful communities on the internet,†says Ankit Maheshwari, a first generation entrepreneur and founder of Instablogs.com.
You will find people from all corner of the world, from New Zealand to Canada, Chile to Russia. One of the core focuses of Instablogs is to bring people from different regions, cultures, dialects together on a single platform,†he adds.
Little wonder, the online media network has been able to rope in citizen journalists across countries such as the USA, UK, Israel, Iraq, Australia, Pakistan, Brazil, Bangladesh, Congo, Serbia, Moldova and a host of others, contributing exclusive news stories, opinion and pictures to the site.
Outside traditional media channels, we are bringing forth critical world issues through the eyes of the people most effected from them, says Ankit. The objective is to initiate dialogue between world’s citizens, understand each other’s issues and encourage them to see themselves as citizens of the world, he adds.
Starting out using Web 2 technologies for putting together an online media platform by encouraging blog mode of writing, the web property has grown three times in under a year, from 10 lakh page views to 30 lakh page views..
In a formidable marketplace of global social news sites such as OhMyNews, Newsvine, Associated Content, NowPublic and Gather.com, Instablogs has emerged as a responsible social news site by adopting a collaborative news model structured around a conversational mode with inspired citizen opinions from all over the world, says Ankit.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
