Roll your own TV channel

By Bob Toovey - 22 February 2006

Citizen Journalism is currently text based, mainly due to blogging which makes it possible for anyone to participate. I know that the idea of citizen reports is new (well almost) and is taking hold slowly but surely. But the next big thing is going to be video reports.

Producing your own video reports is easier than ever due to quality software and cheaper hardware to run it on. Windows XP does have Media Maker software, I have little experience of it but it does seem to be capable of stringing video clips together. What if I was to tell you, you could do it with professional quality for around £300?

Here is a snip from the Visual Communicator webpage…

Visual Communicator is a simple-to-use, affordable software solution that makes it a snap to create your own polished video news broadcasts in minutes instead of hours. It allows you to capture attention, establish a personal one-on-one connection with your viewers, and deliver journalistic content like never before—with the professionalism of a real network TV studio.

So for cheap money you could create your own online version of a TV channel. If you are not sure then visit the EDP24 website, where this is already happening, with their online video bulletins.

EDP or Eastern Daily Press is based in the county of Norfolk in the UK and mostly publishes newspapers. They are currently using Visual Communicator to create 3 to 4 minute video bulletins of local and regional news. More on this can be found here.

It’s not going to take to long before we start seeing net based Citizen Journalism TV. In the UK broadband accounts for around 60% of internet connections. With high speed connections and low-cost production tools, it is now becoming available not just to the public but to enterprising Citizen Reporters who wish to go just that bit further.

If you are not sure that video reports is the next big thing then take a look at Democracy, a video search and multi format player. It allows you to find channel listings via RSS, download content via BitTorrent from independent producers and is able to play videos in almost any format. Now combine that with the ability of publishing your own channels of video…I guess you can see where I am going!

Democracy is available for Mac and for Windows and Linux versions are due soon. Best thing of all, it’s open source so it’s free!

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