EmailCatalina Albeanu from Journalism.co.uk introduces us to a new tool matching journalists in the field and ordinary people with news outlets. Video is the standard language of news these days and with the proliferation of smartphones and portable HD video cameras news organizations can no longer simply rely on their professional camera crews, and can utilize this network of smartphones for their outlets.
This is where Verifeye comes in. The main problem for news outlets using everyday citizen's video is verification of truth and authenticity that you wouldn't have to worry about so much with a professional crew. Videos filmed through the free app are verified at the point of creation, and news outlets can license content on a pay-per-story basis.
Albeanu writes:
Visual news agency Verifeye Media launched a free camera app on Tuesday (8 March) to enable freelance journalists and accidental eyewitnesses to earn extra revenue.
Videos and photos shot through the app are verified at the point of creation, explained co-founder John D McHugh.
The app, called Verifeye Media Pro Camera, geolocates each submission to the newswire, and every contributor's identity is checked by the team, although they remain anonymous to buyers.
Verifeye Media licenses 'stories', sets of videos or collections of still images, to news organisations at a fixed cost of £200 per story – 50 per cent of which goes to the eyewitness or freelancer who created the content, a payment that gets processed within seven days.
"As soon as something goes on our newswire, we've already got the rights to distribute it, we've already got the rights to license it, we already know who's created it," said McHugh.
The entire process is automated, generating both a receipt for the media outlet who bought the footage and also a record for the contributor's sales report to alert them of the transaction.
Not everyone who downloads Verifeye Media Pro Camera and wants to use it to film on their smartphone needs to submit their content to the agency, he explained, but those who are interested can sign up through the website.
The app is available for download from iTunes.
Read the full article here.
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