Snow map developer creates 'Cutsmap' for Channel 4's budget coverage

Channel 4 News has commissioned the developer behind the #uksnow map to create a UK Cutsmap, launched the day before the government is due to make its annual budget statement.

Ben Marsh, who created the snow map by gathering tweets featuring the hashtag #uksnow, a postcode and a one to ten number rating of the amount of snow, has built a crowdsourced map for Channel 4 News to monitor spending cuts.

Cutsmap has been launched today in time for tomorrow's budget and allows people to report cuts either using the Channel 4 website or via Twitter.

Tweets which include #c4cuts and a place name or postcode, plus a link to a report on cuts, perhaps from a local paper, blog entry or council website, will automatically appear on the Cutsmap on the Channel 4 website.

Channel 4 News wants to "harness the power of social media and the wisdom of the crowd" in order to collect stories of spending cuts that may have been missed, Ed Fraser, online editor for Channel 4 News, told Journalism.co.uk.

"We are aware that there are a huge number of cuts at a local level taking place which, at a national level, are not necessarily being reported."

Cuts already announced on a local level can be submitted to the map from today, while new announcements can be added in the coming months.

Fraser said cuts highlighted by the map could be used to inform Channel 4's TV news coverage. "It's a two-way process as they'll appear on the map but we'll hopefully use it to potentially direct our coverage as well."

He added: "In terms of technology, we've had to work quite hard with place names, but it should pick up and refine quite localised areas.

"You can add in one of about eight categories - for example defence, council cuts, NHS, emergency services - but we're not making that a prerequisite as we think it would become quite unwieldy for people."

A round-up of how other broadcasters will be covering tomorrow's budget is available at this link.

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