CNN Exchange - concept, copywriting, co-designed with Lee Summers and Kelly Elmore 2006
web design by Lee Summers
So this is what started happening: all these people were posting their own stories, their own videos and photographs up on this internet thing, on blogs, on all kinds of new, groovy, easily-accessible-information-getting-places and people were actually looking at this stuff.
"But you can't know for sure if those stories and videos and photos are factual! No one is holding these people responsible! It's not responsible journalism!"
People shrugged and said, "That's fine. But I still want to read these stories and watch these movies and look at these photos. Some of them are pretty cool."
And so CNN said to themselves, "We can't beat 'em. So they should join us."
And that's what CNN Exchange is - you can get your professional news, and then you can get your citizen's news.
The thought that stuck in my mind is that with citizen journalism every individual gets to put their own spin, their own flavor to their stories. It's like the strangeness of fingerprinting, of signatures; that these things make us individuals.
"Yes ..." I thought to myself ... "like signatures ..."
So I went to The Local when they were having trivia on Wednesday night (always a huge turnout, and then people stay for drinks till they leave for Brit Pop Night at MJQ), went to every table and asked if people minded writing "exchange" on a large sheet of paper. Only about 7 people wouldn't write it down, and 108 people did.
From there it was the simple process of coming up with the tag "Make Your Mark," designing the print poster of someone writing "exchange," deciding on which handwritten "exchange" to use (my handwriting won out), and making the CNN Exchange website.
On the website you always see the most popular stories, the most recent stories, and a featured citizen journalist.
That was it! We put on our collared shirts, presented and handed it off to the CNN VP of Marketing, and sat back and collected our grades. A big old -A.
CNN used the tag "Make Your Mark" and they changed the name of CNN Exchange to I-Report.
The rollout includes a print campaign to drive traffic to the site.
The website is designed so that both the newest and most popular stories can be viewed
immediately, as well as a profile of a featured citizen journalist.