公視公民新聞的成功典範(英國衛報)

該篇報導的作者為前英國BBC全球新聞總監Philip Harding，他在去年12月親訪公視PEOPO，今年2月15日在英國衛報發表以下報導。
原始連結: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/feb/15/citizen-journalism-taiwan

公共電視公民新聞的成功典範
菲利普．哈丁（Philip Harding） 《英國衛報》2010年2月15日

台灣媒體的自由程度是不是亞洲數一數二，或許還有爭議；然而可以肯定的是，台灣媒體確實是百家爭鳴。這座島嶼的兩千三百萬民眾，擁有八個二十四小時電視新聞頻道、二十個電視台播放晚間新聞、四千家雜誌、兩千五百家報紙、兩百家廣播電台。然而根據Edelman Asia Pacific的一項調查，台灣媒體受信任的程度，在亞洲地區卻是排名墊底。

有鑑於民眾普遍不信任新聞媒體，台灣的公共電視（相當於台灣的BBC）另闢蹊徑，大力推動一項公民新聞計畫「PeoPo公民新聞平台」。

大部分新聞機構頂多邀請閱聽人「寄上照片與影片」，但這項計畫讓它們相形失色。PeoPo網站成立至今不到三年，公民記者已多達近四千位，提供三萬多則完整的新聞報導。去年八月莫拉克颱風侵襲台灣，造成七百多人喪生，為廣大地區帶來嚴重災害，當時PeoPo就發揮了關鍵作用，它散布各地的影音記者全力以赴，以災情報導讓政府無地自容，從而加強救災工作。

想讓自己的報導在PeoPo網站亮相，必須先申請成為公民記者。PeoPo完全尊重記者的報導自由，不會限制干涉。如果有閱聽人對某一則報導的內容有意見，記者會接收到通知，考慮是否有修改之必要。PeoPo仍然保留將問題報導下架的權力，但成立至今未曾動用。

為確保報導的品質，PeoPo也設計多項機制，其中之一是為公民記者提供廣泛的教育訓練。PeoPo至今舉辦過三百多場工作坊，網站上也提供五十支影音新聞教學。

公共電視已經將PeoPo整合到電視頻道，每天播出五分鐘公民新聞報，周六和周日的電視新聞也會播出至少四則PeoPo的報導。展望未來，PeoPo可望成為公民新聞的典範。

相關連結: 前英國BBC全球新聞總監參訪PeoPo

原文:

Public Television's citizen journalism project hailed a success
    * Philip Harding
    * The Guardian, Monday 15 February 2010

Whether Taiwan's media are among the most free in Asia, or not, there are certainly a lot of outlets. The island has eight 24-hour news channels, 20 evening newscasts, 4,000 magazines, 2,500 newspapers and 200 radio stations – all for a population of 23 million. But the Taiwanese media are also ranked by users as being the least trusted in Asia, according to the Edelman Asia Pacific survey.

Faced with such widespread public distrust, Public Television in Taiwan – a public broadcaster in the same way as the BBC – has launched an impressive multimedia citizen journalism project called PeoPo (an abbreviation of People's Post).

It's a project that goes much further than most news organisations' limp pleas to viewers to "send us your photos and videos". In just over two years about 4,000 PeoPo members have contributed over 30,000 completed reports to its website. When Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan last August killing more than 700 people and causing widespread devastation, it was the PeoPo project, with its widespread and persistent team of video reporters, which shamed the government into getting much-needed aid to the stricken areas.

Contributors must join PeoPo to post reports on the site but once registered, they are free to contribute what they like without moderation or interference. If someone objects to a report, it is forwarded to the contributor who is invited to reconsider and amend it if they want to. The TV station reserves the right to remove material, but it has never done so.

One of the ways quality is maintained is by an extensive training programme for members. The project has run over 300 face-to-face workshops; there are 50 online training videos.

The mainstream public television channel has integrated this output into its programmes. There is a daily five-minute programme on the best stories filed that day and at the weekend the main news bulletins carry at least four PeoPo reports. PeoPo could well be a model for citizen journalism in the future.