Six months after the site’s launch, FRANCE 24 has built a network of 300 Observers across the world.

WHAT IS NEW

Based on User Generated Content, the site provides exclusive, original or quirky information that is always pertinent to current events. The site’s distinctive feature? The photos, texts and videos are systematically validated and put into context by FRANCE 24 journalists before being put online and commented on by other site users.

In the initial version of the site, only FRANCE 24 journalists recruited Observers and created profiles for them. The new version of the site is inspired by Web 2.0 social networks and allows site visitors to create their own profile, dialogue with other members and enter into direct contact with the editorial team in order to propose content.

THE OBSERVERS, 6 MONTHS ON

All the photos, videos and eyewitness accounts that are published come from people at the heart of the event. The editorial team of The Observers has succeeded in crafting a unique approach to collaboration between journalists and amateurs that has allowed the site to obtain information otherwise inaccessible to the media. In March 2008, The Observers posted the first images of the dead in Tibet.

Although rumors about the repression were circulating, no images had leaked out of China before these: http://observers.france24.com/en/content/20080318-dead-riots-tibet-photos-china. These photos were first broadcast on FRANCE 24 before being taken up by other media, including CNN and the AFP.

Since its launch 6 months ago, the site has seen its number of visitors increase by 250%. With the publication of around ten new elements per week, the site has become a point of exchange and discussion for FRANCE24.com visitors.

The originality of the posted elements, their diversity (photos, videos, texts) coupled with The Observers’ distinctive approach results in a news platform that is innovative in its content – content that is often taken up by other internet sites. As China was coming to terms with the heavy loses caused by the earthquake, the site proposed a surprising subject:

“Did toads predict the earthquake?”

Taken up by several American websites, the document has been consulted by more than 20,000 internet users.

To mark the EURO 2008, a special edition of The Observers is accessible in French and English until the end of the competition. On the programme: live results and commentary of the matches, analysis by FRANCE 24 journalists and reports from “blogging supporters” who are on the spot to relay, day by day, what is happening on and off the pitch.