Citizen Facts

Summary

What if the future of journalism was based on the co-construction of information by tens of thousands of citizens?

The Citizen Facts project takes on the challenge of radically transforming the production of information. It enables every citizen to participate in high-quality journalistic investigations, supported by a distributed technological infrastructure that allows them to be remunerated via the blockchain.

This project builds on the investigators’ extensive experience in producing collaborative investigations, some of which were recently featured in an acclaimed web series on Arte.tv. With IMI’s support, this experience in collaborative journalism will be complemented by a tailor-made platform that can be adapted for other media, such as Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS), and a research project. As a result, this project has three main objectives:

  • A technological objective to explore the workflows and technical infrastructures best suited to support this new type of citizen journalism
  • A scientific objective to study the social and organizational dynamics that enable citizen participation in information production
  • A societal objective to combat misinformation by harnessing the collective intelligence of audiences while strengthening their media literacy skills

Timeline

  • October 2023: The “Citizen Facts” web series is released on Arte.tv (Babel Doc, ARTE France)
  • April 2024: The CITIZEN FACTS association is created in France
  • October 2024: The “Citizen Facts” project is launched with the support of IMI
Keywords :
journalism, citizenship, inclusion, co-construction, media literacy, public debate, democracy
Duration

12 months

People involved

Principal investigators

Aude Favre (CITIZEN FACTS)

Sylvain Louvet (CITIZEN FACTS)

 

Scientists

Tommaso Venturini (UNIGE)

Nathalie Pignard-Cheynel (UniNE)

 

Technology experts

Baptiste Robert (Predicta Lab)

Thierry Revelin (Predicta Lab)

 

Media experts

Amélie Boguet (RTS)

Sophie Badoux (RTS)

Lama Serhan (ARTE)

Academic institutions

Medialab (UNIGE)

Academy of Journalism and Media – AJM (UniNE)

Industry partner

Predicta Lab

Media partners

RTS – Radio Télévision Suisse (SRG)

ARTE

Status

This project started in October 2024 and is ongoing

Related call for projects

Shaping the future of media and society: multidisciplinary projects on immersive and connected experiences and the open web” (2023)