YouReport Platform

Background

Newstalk and Communicorp Digital wanted a platform for citizen journalism where people could report on news, events or anything they wanted to get off their chest. This hadn’t been done properly before in Ireland, and we felt we could add some great unique features to the website to make it stand out.

During the scoping and discovery stage, we also helped develop the positioning and brand for the website and concept. Our team involved personnel from production, creative, brand strategy, and media & research who worked closely with Newstalk and Communicorp Digital.

Project

One of the key goals of the website was to keep it “clean”; making the site extremely easy for people to use. We also wanted people to quickly understand what YouReport was all about, through good use of copy and video.

On the site, “YourReporters” can sign up and login a number of ways: through Facebook, Twitter and email. Then, they can upload videos, photos or articles which are entered into a weekly competition. The top 4 YouReports are displayed on the homepage, as determined by page views. In addition we put in place anti-gaming mechanics to prevent people trying to cheat the system by driving up page views. YouReporters are also awarded points and badges as they play the game, another gamification element which is unique to the Irish market place.  And, so Youreporters could easily upload a photo or video of something when out and about, we also integrated YouReport into the Newstalk mobile app.

Results

Although it’s still early days for YouReport.ie, feedback has been very positive so far. In the coming months we will also be adding some additional exciting features to further enhance and differentiate the platform.