It's difficult for TV stations to get the news out fast enough to compete with social media sites like Twitter, but the new LifeNews app gives it a fighting chance. The app is designed to be location-based and whenever a person with the app is nearby a breaking story, they have the opportunity to contribute photos and videos to LifeNews in exchange for money.
With these exclusive videos, LifeNews has original content that can go directly to air. Beyond this, LifeNews now can sell its exclusive content to rival news stations, since it's like being able to have reporters always at the right place at the right time. Viewership of LifeNews and use of the mobile application went way up, proving that getting news via the TV is not yet over.
Citizen Journalist Apps
The LifeNews Mobile App Collects Crowdsourced Content
Trend Themes
1. Location-based News Apps - Entrepreneurs can develop similar apps with better-incentivized models or differentiate themselves with novel features to stand out
2. Democratization of News - Innovators can develop apps that enable citizens to verify user-submitted content to separate true stories from fake news.
3. Crowdsourced User-generated Content - Companies can capitalize on user generated content by incentivizing users to contribute original and unique content.
Industry Implications
1. Media - Media companies can adopt and improve upon citizen journalism concepts to generate more diverse and engaging content for viewers
2. Mobile Applications - Entrepreneurs can develop and monetize new citizen journalism apps to capitalize on location-based news stories
3. News - News stations can form partnerships with other platforms to acquire exclusive and authentic user-generated content to supplement their own journalistic efforts.