NET. TV: Empowering citizen journalism through NETCJ
Widen the scope of the report in a 17,000-islands country. Cheaply.
As the newcomer in Indonesian television terrestrial, NET. TV continues to look for ways to develop journalistic world innovatively. Besides broadcasting in the terrestrial network, all of the TV content can be accessed online and through YouTube which allows all of the audience from across the world to be able to access the content they provide. They did not stop at that point. With the idea of a group of ordinary people nowadays has a basic skill of journalism such as taking video and reporting in social media, NET. TV leverage that idea to empower the citizen journalism in Indonesia and abroad. It has been 90,000 thousand people spread in 75 countries contributing as NET. TV citizen journalist. The history of popular citizen journalism in Indonesia starts in 2004 when Tsunami hits Aceh and one citizen was successfully recording that very moment of devastation and publish them on national TV afterward.
Why people want to contribute to NET. TV citizen journalism (NETCJ)? This television company brand is targeting to the young Indonesian or millennials which has a trait to contribute more to the society. They advertise the idea of citizen journalism is easy. It’s also considered as a cool way to put their name and face to be appeared on national television or even to the audience abroad. Some people are endorsed by their local community or local government to advertise their tourist spot broadly by creating video and upload it to the NETCJ.
The steps are simple. All people can shot a video, mix it up, no need to narrate it or give a music background but they should give a caption of what unique about the place/activity/situation they were captured at that time. It feels very natural as what we do in social media without the need of heavy editing. After that creative process, they are demanded to upload it into the NETCJ website. The first time status will be ‘Waiting for approval’, then ‘Waiting for publish’. When the video quality has been well achieved, the video will be shown on the NETCJ website, and some of it will be chosen to be shown in NET. TV television. If they are published and shown on television, the citizen journalist will get an honorarium based on the exclusivity of the news. Some news which can be captured by all people (less exclusive) will be paid as low as IDR 250,000, which is more than 1-day average income of many Indonesian. The most exclusive one, for example, the video that was captured from outside Indonesia will be paid as high as IDR 5,000,000, which is more than average monthly income of Indonesian.
Some of people contributing at many times in NETCJ are also subject to be given an incentive to join a training with accomodation and transportation in Jakarta paid by NET. TV. This giving them more passion to report with higher quality and gain their community network while most of them are an amateur videographer or travel vlogger in social media.
But why NET. TV do that?
The value that NET.TV get are the logistically-cheaper reports which can enhance their scope of the report as well. Indonesia is as wide as the UK to Turkey and has 3 time zones. And one way to cover the news from every corner of Indonesia is through citizen journalism while many parts of it have supporting infrastructure: almost all already have an electricity for at least to charge the video device; almost half of the people have a smartphone, and the internet to upload it to the website. Imagine the cost of fly a reporter to another city in the same island can cost a lot more than one honorarium for the citizen journalist including the redactional fee and their training incentives. And Indonesia has more than 17,000 islands. Their brand which targets millenials and young people must always feature travel inspiration and domestic or international tourism may be very costly to be reported traditionally. NET. TV which can be accessed online also attracts more Indonesian contributor outside Indonesia. NETCJ also allow a real time news be reported from many angles.
In other way, NET. TV also gain its popularity to the rural Indonesian so they can be accepted nationwidely and their advertisement value is higher because the target audience is much wider. They do a strict quality control to the published citizen journalism video while do not really burden that needs to the citizen journalist itself. Now, NET. TV is considered as the most successful newcomers in Indonesian television.
Source:
Generally in netcj.co.id
Interview to NET CJ contributor
Thanks for posting this Nandx. This sounds like a really interesting model. I am often amazed by the quality of the posts that people in my social media networks make – not for any compensation, except perhaps the number of likes, but just as an avenue to express themselves. It’s really impressive how Net.TV has chosen to harness this expression to differentiate itself as a newcomer in the Indonesian journalism industry. While this is great, I hope they figure out a way to keep the submissions diverse so they don’t end up reliant on the small group of constant submitters.