inside-ireport

Congratulations! The Awards go to ...

katie — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:52:39 GMT

The recipients of the 3rd Annual iReport Awards have been announced!

We've said it before, but one more time won’t hurt: The overall quality of photography, videography and storytelling represented in this year’s iReport Awards was outstanding. Citizen journalism has come a long way since CNN iReport’s humble beginnings in 2006, and the Award recipients are a wonderful testament to that.

Without further ado, here they are:

Breaking news: Hasan Amin, Egyptian revolution rages on

Original reporting: Nicolas Rossier, One breath: Story of a free diver

Commentary: Richard Huffman, My tribute to those lost in Newtown

Compelling Imagery: Judy Starkman, Secret lives of swimmers

Personal Story: Sam Wessels, I speak about autism because I can

In-depth Storytelling: Carlos Chiossone, Superstorm Sandy stories

Community Choice: Erik Olsen, The shoe cobbler

That’s not all!

For the first time ever, we revealed honorees in a new category called Excellence on the Web. These are six examples of the best in citizen journalism outside of iReport in 2012, and we couldn’t be prouder to honor such impressive examples of participatory journalism.

You may wonder why we’d honor stories outside of iReport: A big responsibility of the iReport team is listening to the conversations and stories that take place on and outside of CNN iReport. We’re curators at heart, and this new category allows us to share even more incredible examples of participatory storytelling with the world. Plus, no other major news outlet is recognizing excellence in citizen journalism in this way.

Here are the honorees: (Go here to read more about each entry.)

Humans of New York: Hurricane Sandy: Brandon Stanton, Tumblr

SyrianDeveloper: Mike Blackhatoviche, Instagram

Wright's Law: Zach Conkle, Vimeo

@aiww: Ai Weiwei, Twitter

San Diego fireworks, loud and up close: Dan W. Roy, YouTube

Jersey Shore Hurricane News: Justin Auciello, Facebook

Last but not least, we are thrilled to announce the 3rd Annual iReport Awards Spirit Honorees. These six honored iReporters – Jannet Walsh, Misael Rincón, Rachel Cauvin, Jim Jorstad, Lia Ocampo and Jim Brenneman – are wonderful members of our community, sharing stories that resonate with a wide audience and taking the time to make CNN iReport such a warm and special place. They’re the folks that make running this site such a fulfilling experience, and we couldn’t thank them enough!

Congratulations to all of the recipients and honorees. We are so impressed with all of you and are already eager to do it again next year. We’re nerds for citizen journalism – it’s true.

Now we're off to sneak a celebratory bottle of champagne into the newsroom. Cheers to you all!

CNN iReport Facebook roundtable Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. ET

hhanks — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 19:46:54 GMT

You hear so much about kids with autism, but adults on the spectrum have their own struggles, and the workplace can be one of them. After we received two iReports on this topic, we decided to pursue it further.

So, on Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. ET, the last day of Autism Awareness Month, we will be holding a roundtable chat on CNN’s Facebook page on autism and Asperger’s in the workplace. iReporters and experts will be taking your questions and sharing their experiences in a discussion on this subject and the challenges they’ve seen. We'd also like to hear about your views and experiences as well.

Joining us will be Dave Wellman of Myriad Genetics, who has worked with and managed employees with Asperger's syndrome; Becky Ketts of Nobis Works - which provides job training for those with disabilities and other barriers; and iReporter Sarah Still, who recently iReported on her personal challenges with Asperger's.

We hope to hear from you tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. on CNN’s Facebook and look forward to your contributions to our discussion!

2013 iReport Awards: Watch the finalists

dsashin — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 20:10:02 GMT

There are two weeks left to vote for the 2013 CNN iReport Community Choice Award! If you haven’t had a chance to review the iReport Awards nominees, we’ve made a quick video recap of each category. Watch them below, vote here, and then let us know which iReport you choose.

Each of the iReports nominated for the iReport Awards are outstanding examples of participatory journalism and our talented panel of judges will select the recipients in each of the six categories: Breaking News, Original Reporting, Commentary, Compelling Imagery, Personal Story and In-depth Storytelling.

The Community Choice Award recognizes the story that resonates with you, the iReport community. Remember, you can vote once every 24 hours until May 6. The awards will be announced May 14 on CNN.com.

Breaking News

Original Reporting

Compelling Imagery

Commentary

Personal Story

In-Depth Storytelling

iReport millionaires' club: Congratulations Omekongo Dibinga!

hhanks — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 06:11:17 GMT

We like to give a virtual toast whenever one of our contributors hits 1 million page views. This time, we're proud to honor Omekongo Dibinga, a two-time iReport Award nominee and master pundit.

Besides being a motivational speaker and spoken-word performer, he is a social activist, married with two daughters — a recent iReport talks about how he and his wife balance their personal dreams with their daughters' needs -- a PhD student at the University of Maryland (his dissertation is "an intellectual history of Jay-Z"), as well as a faithful iReport cheerleader. He is also a teaching assistant at Georgetown University for Michael Eric Dyson's very popular sociology class devoted to Jay Z ( “Sociology of Hip-Hop — Urban Theodicy of Jay-Z").

Dibinga has taken a hard look at his own feelings toward women and shared his thoughts on President Obama's 2012 DNC speech at the convention itself, to name only a few of his most memorable moments in iReport punditry. He's even weighed in on another of his passions, comic books, from time to time.

Dibinga is currently nominated for an iReport Award in the Commentary category for his feelings about the Jerry Sandusky sex-abuse case (view below).

So here's to one of our top iReport pundits, and here's to one million more to come!

iReport Awards: How you can join

dsashin — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 12:33:06 GMT

The iReport Awards are back and they are better than ever!

We are bursting with pride about the quality of the 3rd Annual iReport Awards finalists. From Sam Wessels – a 10-year-old boy who opened up about what it’s like to live with autism -- to Femi Green-Adebo, a Nigerian photographer who ran to the scene of a fiery plane crash in his neighborhood -- the 36 nominees represent the best of CNN iReport: Raw, passionate and full of heart.

Many of the iReport Awards nominees had the courage to share eye-witness accounts in the aftermath of haunting experiences. Denver videographer Adam Witt was sitting in the Aurora, Colorado, theater when a gunman killed 12 people. He told us the experience left him with rippling emotional effects he hadn’t expected. Florida mother Jess Hathaway’s decisionto pull her boys from the Boy Scouts – and then tell CNN’s millions of readers about it -- was equally courageous in its own way.

The finalists include professional filmmakers and photographers who wanted to give their stories a world stage (like Navid Baraty, who shot the above photo of crowds in Times Square watching the Mars Rover landing), and first-time iReporters who had no idea what would happen after they clicked the upload button. Then there are the nominees in our new In-depth Storytelling category, who stayed with their stories for weeks and months, and in some cases, years.

We hope you’ll help us honor them by visiting the Awards site on a computer or tablet and voting for the story that moves you the most.

There are six categories: Breaking News, Original Reporting, Compelling Imagery, Commentary, Personal Story and In-depth Storytelling.

Our panel of judges will select a recipient for each category. But you get to decide who gets the Community Choice Award! Click on the iReport you feel most deserves it and vote once a day until May 6. You can vote for any of the 36 nominees in the six categories. Then check back May 14 to see the results.

Beyond voting, we hope you will join our community and share a story of your own. Your voice plays a crucial part in the stories CNN tells. We often use the term “citizen journalism,” but that doesn’t fully cover what CNN iReport is. At its core, it’s simply regular people sharing glimpses of their lives in their own words and pictures. Every day, we look for new ways to incorporate your voice into the stories CNN is covering.

You can start right here by visiting our assignment desk.

Who knows? Next year at this time, we might be honoring you in the 4th Annual iReport Awards.

Happy April Fools’ Day from iReport!

zdan — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 20:03:56 GMT

For years we’ve talked about taking over the Assignment Desk on iReport for April Fools’ Day. This year, we finally decided to pull it off!

Our team spends a lot of time brainstorming to come up with strong assignments, so we decided to poke fun at ourselves by thinking about it the other way: How do we turn good assignments into bad ones?

Our peaceful takeover included silly assignments like: I have no story to share, your ugliest travel photos, average weather photos, ask this random guy a question and your embarrassing flaws.

While we got a chuckle out of the fake solicitations, we weren’t sure how the community would react. Funny enough, we got some real stories to our joke assignments. From the ugliest travel photos to your non-news stories, we were tickled by the anecdotes behind your stories.

iReporter Teresa Christensen sent in this photo of her then-teenaged sons on a stop in Badlands National Park in South Dakota. The fact that their heads are cut off was no accident, she said. “We were in the Badlands! But they were so inconvenienced, their attitudes so impatient, and their faces had such dread and contempt that I figured the best shot would be from the shoulders down with the beautiful Badlands in the background.”

When I called iReporter Gabriel Dominise about his colorful sunrise photo on a cold day in Essex, United Kingdom, he had a lot of details about his non-story. The conversation that ensued was delightful:

“When I saw the stories about nothing to tell, I thought I have some pictures with no stories at all and I wanted to make use of those useless ones,” he said. Dominise explained he was standing on a cold platform waiting for a delayed train this winter when he captured this photo.

“It’s so gloomy and it looks like a sunset but it’s early morning. It was like a dead picture,” he said.

When asked what he thought of our no-story assignment, he said, “I was not expecting an assignment that asks if you have nothing to share. It’s unique. It’s interesting.”

It became apparent that our tomfoolery had worked, so I let Dominise in on the secret. He laughed when he realized it was a playful prank.

As for the ask a random guy at CNN a question assignment, we got quite the response when we posted it to our Facebook account. CNN's Jarrett Bellini was so bored, he actually answered some of the questions you sent!

Q: What exactly do you do? and do you enjoy being "the most unimportant person" at CNN?
A: I occupy a desk and occasionally walk around the newsroom with my coffee mug as though I'm meeting with people who matter. Being the most unimportant person at CNN is great. I can nap under my desk and literally nothing changes.

Q: Do you know why there were so many dead fish on the beach of Fort Lauderdale?
A: If you finally swam all the way to shore and suddenly found yourself in South Florida you'd probably kill yourself, too.

Q: How you doin'?
A: I have a canker sore. Otherwise, fine.

So to all of you who took part in our fun day of lighthearted humor: Thank you! iReport wouldn’t be the passionate, fun-loving community without you. Happy April Fools’ Day!

Spring is here and looks like this

rachel8 — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 16:13:28 GMT

It’s the first day of spring! (In the northern hemisphere, that is.) We teamed up with the CNN Weather unit for a one-day assignment on Instagram using the hashtag #springcnn.

The weather team will be showing some of the best photos on CNN International.

Check out some of the ones that have come in so far, and if you have a smart phone, go here to view all the photos coming in.

Happy spring from the Bronx

Photo by Instagrammer (and iReporter) Rachel Cauvin (@rvcfoto) in Riverdale, New York

What spring means to me: Gardening, pups, outdoors

Photo by CNN Meteorologist Jennifer Delgado (@jendelgadocnn) in Atlanta, Georgia

Spring peeks out

Photo by Instagram user @sarrill in Rochester, New York

Thanks to everyone who joined! CNN International showcased some of the best photos on air.

iReport's Google Hangout: Your time-lapse questions answered!

hhanks — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 16:56:40 GMT

[Updated at 4:10 p.m. ET] Thanks for coming to the hangout! Here's the archives of the two parts of the discussion. Thanks to all who participated, and thanks to Wes Little for joining us as well.

PART I:

PART II:

And here are a few of the links mentioned in the hangout:
Dynamicperception.com
iTimelapse app
Edythe's crane time-lapse
Wes Little's comet time-lapse
John's Facebook

[Updated at 2:59 p.m.] Welcome to the hangout!

TIP FOR BEST VIEWING: Keep this window open to comment, and view the stream in a separate window so you don't lose your place if you post. You can also send your questions via Twitter using the hashtag #timelapsecnn.

You’ve seen them all over iReport, television and social media –have you ever been curious about time-lapse videos? Ever thought about doing one of your own, but not sure where to start?

If so, we’ve got the roundtable for you. Please join us Tuesday, March 19, at 3 p.m. ET as CNN Digital video team’s Edythe McNamee and iReporter/time-lapse expert John Eklund share tips and answer your questions about this fascinating cinematic technique.

For the first time, we’ll host the roundtable via Google Hangout. Here’s how you can participate:

1. Submit questions ahead of time here in the comments, or on Twitter @cnnireport using the hashtag #timelapsecnn. Feel free to ask multiple questions – we’ll select some of the best ahead of time.

2. Check out some time-lapse videos in advance of the chat!

3. Come back to this page on Tuesday, March 19, at 3 p.m. ET, to join in the chat!Are you planning to join our Google Hangout? Looking forward to learning more about time-lapse? We hope you’ll be able to join us right here on Tuesday!

iReporters skywatch for Comet Pan-STARRS

dsashin — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:15:55 GMT

By Polina Marinova

CNN iReporters were armed with binoculars, cameras and tripods Tuesday – ready to capture even just a glimpse of Comet Pan-STARRS.

At exactly 7:46 p.m., Brian Karczewski got the shot he had been waiting for in a California church parking lot. Karczewski, 24, captured the comet alongside the crescent moon overlooking the Ortega Mountains. It was barely visible to the naked eye and appeared as "a little orange fuzzy spot," but he used binoculars and his camera to pick it out.

"I love astronomy and find astrophotography a good challenge," he said. "I was very excited to capture the comet next to the Moon. Never photographed a comet before!"

Brian McMahon also waited patiently for the comet to appear. He began snapping photos after sunset in Richmond, California, pointing his camera toward Mount Tamalpais. McMahon said the comet appeared in the photos 30 minutes after the sun had set.

And in Galveston, Texas, web designer Vadim Troshkin shot this photo for Galveston.com and said he was glad to see the comet during “such a beautiful sunset.”

Did you capture Comet Pan-STARRS too (or any other interesting celestial sights)? Share it here!

You're in Travel + Leisure!

rachel8 — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 20:54:39 GMT

Several months ago, we partnered with Travel + Leisure to ask you for your favorite restaurants to "eat like a local." You know, the fabulous places that aren't mentioned in any guidebooks but serve a heck of a meal. You sent in hundreds of delectable submissions, and we promised that 10 of your picks would be featured in Travel + Leisure's April 2013 issue for their "100 places to eat like a local" special.

Well, the time has come! T+L chose their 10 favorite submissions and the issue will hit newstands any day now. We were lucky enough to get an early copy, and were so proud to see your iReports in print. It's the first time iReports have ever been featured in a magazine!

Want to see if your eatery was among the 10 printed? Check out the gallery here, or download a PDF of the magazine article. And be sure to check out Travel + Leisure's website for the full list of 100 places to eat like a local.

Congratulations to the 10 iReporters who were selected! And thanks to everyone who participated for making us so very, very hungry at our desks.