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Digital Planet: Sierra Leone citizen journalism

Factual: Science & Nature

Journalist Patrick Lahai

04/12/2012

Sierra Leone citizen journalism

BBC World Service - Digital Planet, Sierra Leone citizen journalism

Citizen journalists take to the Twittersphere in Sierra Leone

Citizen journalists take to the Twittersphere in Sierra Leone; News of the rise and rise of Kickstarter; Behind the scenes workings of Batman at SIGGRAPH Asia

Sierra Leone citizen journalism 
Citizen journalists in Sierra Leone have taken to the streets to report on the recent national election. They were armed with nothing more than mobile phones and began sending text messages and disseminating them via Twitter, offering minute-by-minute reports on events that had never been so scrutinised before.  Libby Powell, the founder of the news outlet, Radar, joins Click to discuss how local people have been empowered by technology to work as citizen journalists.
(Photo: Patrick Lahai - courtesy of Radar)

The rise of Kickstarter
Yancey Strickler is a co-founder of the crowd-sourcing platform, Kickstarter.  Since launching in 2009, Kickstarter has raised more than $340 million for creative projects, including films, exhibitions and gadgets.  Until recently, only projects based in the United States were funded.

The site recently launched in the UK and the BBC’s technology reporter Dave Lee speaks to Yancey Strickler, to find out what it is that makes people so eager to hand over their money to projects that may end up failing.

SIGGRAPH: Asia
The special effects behind some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters and some of the most sophisticated computer games have been revealed in Singapore at Asia’s fifth SIGGRAPH, one of premier film, animation and computer games events.  Highlights have included a behind-the-scenes exploration of the Batman film, Dark Knight Rises, and the computer game, Creed 3.  Mike Seymour from fxguide, a news website for people interested in visual effects and digital imagery, reports from the meeting at SIGGRAPH.

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