PeoPo win 2013 Foundation for Excellent Journalism ‘Social Utility Award’

PeoPo win 2013 Foundation for Excellent Journalism ‘Social Utility Award’

Introduced by The Foundation for Excellent Journalism in 2005, this year the biennial ‘Social Utility Award’ has been snatched by PTS’s 'PeoPo Citizen Journalism Platform'.

With a strong belief that all citizens have the right to voice out, in April 2007, the audiovisual ‘PeoPo Citizen Journalism Platform’ was established to facilitate citizen access to the media. After over six years from its inception, the platform is now freely open to all citizens, has notched up over five hundred audiovisual media workshops, actively promotes lectures and other educational training courses, and to date, has over seven thousand citizen journalists scattered throughout the length and breath of the country. With over one hundred reports being uploaded each day, over eighty thousand news reports already accumulated, and over seven hundred thousand people visiting the site each month, PeoPo has already become a media force to be reckoned with.

The platform has a highly diverse range of local news content, covering issues including care for the vulnerable, environmental protection, cultural heritage, community improvement, agriculture and media watch etc. The stories are gathered from people and things occurring in the everyday lives of individual citizen journalists, as well as NGO initiatives and critiques, thus providing richer and more diverse information. However, this new media application in citizen journalism is not only under great focus in Taiwan, PeoPo has also seen unprecedented interest from international media organizations around the globe. Organizations including the UK’s Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA); Public Broadcasters International (PBI); United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); Japan NHK; and the International Institute of Communications (ICC), have all formerly invited PeoPo forward for communicative exchange; moreover, in 2008, PeoPo became a finalist at NHK’s Japan Prize.

PeoPo has been credited as an essential pipeline for Taiwan’s citizen journalists to voice out. Through providing reports that are diverse and not limited to specific geographical locations, the platform is helping to strengthen outlying communities. Over the past few years, there have been several major controversial land expropriation cases, including those of Wanbao and Dapu, both of which were first covered by PeoPo citizen journalists before being followed up on by the mainstream media. Such cases show that in today’s climate of growing commercial interests, PeoPo plays an important role in covering stories that are often neglected by the mainstream media. Furthermore, the subsequent powerful social movements triggered by PeoPo’s coverage, is a clear demonstration that the platform fully embodies the true spirit of a social utility.

(以下為中文對照)

PeoPo獲得2013卓越新聞獎基金會頒發之社會公器獎

社會公器獎係由卓越新聞獎基金會於2005年開設，每兩年頒獎一次，本屆社會公器獎則由公共電視的「PeoPo公民新聞平台」奪魁。

「PeoPo公民新聞平台」創立於2007年4月，是一個強調每個人都有發聲權利、旨在落實媒體近用權的影音公民新聞平台。成立六年多年來，在人人都能申請加入的開放平台基礎上，加上500多場影音工作坊、演講教育訓練等培力課程的積極推廣，迄今共有7千餘位散佈全台各地的公民記者加入PeoPo平台，每日上傳新聞數量超過百則，所累積的公民新聞報導已超過8萬則，該網站的每月平均瀏覽人次亦高達70萬人次，已經成為一股不可忽視的媒體力量。

其新聞內容多元且極具在地性，新聞面向涵蓋了弱勢關懷、生態環保、文化古蹟、社區改造、農業及媒體觀察等，有發生於個別公民記者生活周遭的人事物觀察，也有NGO的政策倡議或批判，因而提供了更豐富多樣的資訊。PeoPo不僅是台灣第一個聚焦在公民新聞的新媒體應用，此一創新的嘗試也成為國際媒體組織詢問度最高的台灣媒體經驗，包括CBA大英國協電視年會、PBI世界公視年會、聯合國教科文組織、日本NHK、IIC國際廣播電視組織等都曾邀請PeoPo前往交流，並在2008年入圍「NHK日本賞」。

評審認為PeoPo給予遍佈台灣各地的公民記者發聲管道，報導議題多元且不侷限於特定地域，而能兼顧偏鄉。近年幾件具有重大爭議的土地徵收案如灣寶、大埔事件等，都是PeoPo公民記者率先報導而引起主流媒體跟進，不僅填補了主流媒體在商業利益導向下日益忽視公共議題的新聞缺口，也在後續的運動上帶動了公民力量的匯集，可說是充分發揮了社會公器的精神。