Introducing Eyewitness — the chatbot journalist for your media organisation
Update: We won! We’re being funded to build Eyewitness and will be looking for beta partners soon. If you’re interested getting access drop me a message @tomhewitson.
As a former journalist I know that often the best stories come from the most unlikely sources.
That’s why as part of the #innovateAFRICA challenge myself and @johngriffin are building the Eyewitness chatbot platform.
Eyewitness lets media organisations use their Facebook account to gather tips, opinions and quotes from their fans through a simple-to-use chatbot and analysis platform.
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By connecting Eyewitness to their Facebook account the media organisation can let people send unsolicited tip offs, photos and videos in a simple chat message where journalists can follow up for more information and verification.
Messages are automatically sorted by time and topic making it easy to spot rapidly developing situations and analyse trends.
Journalists can also send specific questions asking for sources, opinions, further evidence or vox pops.
We’re really excited about the potential for Eyewitness to transform newsgathering in Africa. Initially we’re partnering with The Star in Kenya and Punch in Nigeria but we’d love to hear from you if you’d be interested in trying it out.
To get on our beta waitlist please retweet the tweet below, not only will you be added to the list but you’ll be helping make sure Eyewitness happens!
