Community journalism as future of news

Local news coverage focusing on neighbourhoods, suburbs and small towns helps to address gaps in the mainstream media, providing increased diversity, greater depth and context to reporting in any particular area. In this, Yusuf Omar, co-founder of Hashtag Our Stories, says community journalism may be the future of news. He observes the form of journalism contains more views, angles and perspective. Hashtag Our Stories empowers mobile storytelling communities and creates shows in every language.

With the ultra modern technologies such as virtual reality (VR), live streaming capabilities, 8K video footage and 5G internet, it’s never been easier for local news organisations to get eyeballs on stories outside of the mainstream, national news agenda. But the developments that have happened in mobile journalism specifically have ensured it’s not just journalists who get to tell stories any more – citizens can use the smartphones in their pockets to shoot, edit and publish content to thousands of viewers, without needing major broadcasting platforms. In this, Hashtag Our Stories tells their stories with a belief that this is the future of news, as Yusuf explains his delegates a powerful story can stop going viral – the traditional media no longer has the monopoly on information.