New site Demotix brings together citizen and pro journalists, says founder

A website aiming to unite 'citizen journalists' with 'mainstream media' outlets and their professional counterparts has gone live today.

Demotix will sell news videos and images submitted by professional and amateur correspondents from across the globe to more mainstream media outlets.

Content will be made available on an exclusive and non-exclusive basis with 70 per cent of any fee charged given to the photographer or filmmaker.

The initiative was founded in response to the 'mass shrinkage' of foreign news coverage by media organisations, Turi Munthe, Demotix CEO, told Journalism.co.uk.

"Demotix is potentially crucial to the mainstream media, but we don't pretend to be the mainstream media," he said.

"It's a public site and we hope that it will become an alternative place for people to get their news. But we want to have a little bit more kick than that - we want to turn our 'street reporters' into sources for the mainstream media."

This model will give the mainstream media access to countries where there is heavy censorship and threats to journalists by providing coverage from the ground, Munthe said, while also giving those 'street reporters' a chance to 'get their voices back into the mainstream'.

Metadata in the content, which could indicate the identity or location of a journalist, will be removed in cases where a contributor is at risk.

Images of North Korea from the site have already been picked up by Telegraph.co.uk since the project was soft launched six weeks ago.

However, Munthe was adamant that the site was not a bid to kill off professional news media:

"We are categorically not a death to professional media. They [professional journalists] can't disappear, on the contrary they're the ones with the opinions and with the particular points of view. What we want to do is supply them with raw and original data from places they can't reach," he said.

The initiative also aims to give freelance journalists the opportunity to showcase their work and forge links with mainstream media.

"We want to bring professionals back in and broker deals for their images all over the world. Professionals will lead Demotix; they will lead the aspirations of all our street journalists.

"By creating a website that everyone can access in many ways we give a megaphone to the person on the street where ever they are. Demotix sees itself as standing on the lines of free speech."

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