VJ Movement is a new site that lets everyday people pitch their ideas for news stories to a group of selected global professional video journalists who then go on to produce them and post them online. Here’s one about a poor Chinese immigrant turned professional gambler who plays poker so that his kids can live the American Dream in Orange County, California.
I also love their raison d’être:
Loudon came up with the idea for the VJ Movement while covering conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. While talking with colleagues after long days of reporting in these war zones, Loudon realized two things: that many journalists could not do stories they wanted to do because editorial directors in far-off newsrooms believed other events were more important, and that when multiple journalists covered the same topic, they all ended up with entirely different stories. This is the basis of our concept, “There is more than one truth.”
VJ Movement is in its early stages and who knows how successful it will be but it’s a great idea. However, in order to register so that you can pitch, it costs $50 for a year’s membership. That seems a pretty steep price for the right to send a reporter tips and leads. So if you want to give it a whirl, we’ve got a free 3-month trial login you can use, username and pass are consumerist.
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“There is more than one truth.”
Hmm. Can that be true? Or, is the opposite true? Interesting.
@jokono: Well sure.
The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth, whether it’s scientific truth or historical truth or personal truth.
Don’t call it that.
@ds: +1. I posted a “Yellow Boat” reference last week…only one of about 30 got it.
@ds: ^ What he said. Nobody from here calls it that, ever. Not even ironically.
I just registered. You cannot pitch your story unless you’ve upgraded your membership by paying 50 British pounds.
@opticnrv: Thank goodness they provide a little quality control.
@opticnrv: Use our login, consumerist/consumerist
OK, I have an idea for a story. It’s about a group of global professional video journalists who have stories pitched to them by the ordinary public, who tehn produce them and post them online.
@DirectMailFan: I bet The Consumerist would be interested in that story.
I say we band together, pool our money, pay the $50 and submit a script for Star Wars: A New Hope. Done with cats, of course.
“That’s not a moon – that’s …Catnip!“
@Trai_Dep: Yeah, they want journalism.
Perhaps you should submit it to Gannett for free.
Is anyone else have trouble viewing? The videos don’t seem to play when I click on them…
Hey, Ben, can you please put the video widget behind the cut? It starts to buffer the video when you load the front page of Consumerist – not good for those of us on cellular connections who have to watch our bandwidth. Thanks!
Sounds cool….but just a reminder, Orange County is the name of a county.
*The OC* is the name of a tv show. (and not a very good one at that!)
Bye.