Participatory journalism in India - an update

As promised last week, here's a quick look at citizen and participatory journalism (CJ/PJ) developments in India:

Merinews seems to have come into its own. A clean navigation frames some thoughtful citizen analysis pieces, such as "Hyderabad: Hi-tech city of corruption, apathy and crime".

The writer's intro:

Little does anyone know that behind the façade of a hi-tech city, Hyderabad harbours some of the worst of problems that any metropolitan could face.

At the top of each article you can see how many views and comments the article has garnered, as well as tagging options. At the bottom, you can see a collective rating for the piece and a chance to give your own rating.

Back on the home page there is a block in the middle called "Viewer's Choice" with a list of headlines and their number of views and comments. You can pull these up by week, month or quarter. A "recent articles" pull finishes the home page.

Another interesting aspect is of Merinews is its "Special Reports" page, focussing the readrer input on specific issues. As the Merinews team frames it:

The Special Coverage section of merinews periodically explores issues of national or international importance from all possible points of view. Like the rest of merinews it is an open section where citizen journalists investigate and report. They can also suggest new topics for special coverage and invite experts in the area to contribute as citizen journalists. The Special Coverage section welcomes contributors to participate on subjects ranging from an analysis of all the strands of an issue to a critique on how others in the media are exploring it.

Current topics include urban chaos, whats ahead for India in 2007, lack of leadership, pollution/environment, and the quota /reservation system. Unfortunately, most of the links to the specific topics are having trouble loading, so I can't tell if these are an thoughtful compendia of the issues, or a more free-wheeling forum board rant-fest. No way to tell at the moment, but given the level of pieces I've seen so far throughout their site, I'm optimistic.

the other CJ venture , Citizenxpress, puts a little more focus on the writers, with individual mugs and a left-hand sidebar with such stats as stories, comments, videos, images, etc, thus lending a social networking/profiling dimension to their presentation. Navigation is extensive, but not always well-maintained: I found a metallurgy report in the entertainment section, for example.

Citizenxpess is an interesting endeavour but it may need time to define its focus and presentation. I'm still waiting to see how both sites fare in an urgent/breaking news scenario.

Here's a great example of the participatory technique in action, with the mainstream Times of India's ambitious project, India Poised. Here's their intro, and its worth reproducing in full:

A two-pronged action plan marks The Times of India's christening of 2007 as the 'Year of India' and the ensuing six-week long 'India Poised' campaign. Sweeping aside the euphoria and headiness surrounding Brand India , TOI will bring you a critical assessment of India 's readiness for any serious claim to international fame. Along with our television partner, Times Now, we will pry open areas of public governance, infrastructure, health, business and economy, environment, social sector and culture, among others, to sort the stars from the non-performers. We will seek answers why, and draw a roadmap with lucid action points.

Wherever Indians are performing well, we will showcase their stories to amplify what makes them tick. Rest assured, we won't bombard you with a list of the usual suspects. TOI has been actively scouting the country's topography in the past months in search of unsung heroes who have succeeded in this country against all odds. We hope their stories will hold invaluable nuggets for all of us to excel in our diverse fields.

If you have any queries or suggestions for these remarkable Indians, please feel free to shoot an email or SMS to us. That brings us to the second plank of our 'India Poised' campaign: You. No profiling or querying by TOI will ever result in a substantive action plan without your inputs. Through our reader-interactive initiative, 'My Times, My Voice' we seek to involve you not just through the newspaper and TV channel, but also a dedicated website (www.indiapoised.com) and over mobile phones and blogs (www.mytimesmyvoice.com). Your opinion may or may not always be in consonance with what we believe, and that's exactly how we want to present it, as a reflection of India 's true democratic strength. We request you to take the time to refer to our newspaper and website for neardaily exercises in reader participation.

You are also invited to umpteen on-ground events that will straddle a healthy mix of work and play. From panel discussions and debates, to walkathons, music contests and cuisine festivals, we hope you'll enjoy it all to the hilt.

The range of opportunity for readers to interact and contribute is astonishing: you can add your own words or poems to the "Two India's " piece by Amitabh Bachchan; you can vote for who best represents India; download the anthem by Gulzar/Shankar; a story contest; add your contributions to a new citizen charter (my favorite); rate and discuss the feature articles; an interactive history quiz and snakes and ladders game; and mobile access. This is just at a first glance and there's probably far more for readers to engage in under the hood.

My only issue with TOI is they seem to abandon patrolling their comments on some of the articles throughout their whole site. You can easily find Hindu-Muslim flame wars on unrelated topics, and I think better policing throughout would help. Again, inviting a community to participate and not participate with them is missing the point. Odd that TOI doesnt snap to this, considering the effort and invitation that is going to the India Poised piece.