VOA Russian and Ukrainian Services in the Social Media “Spotlight”
In commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the VOA Russian and Ukrainian services partnered with the web site content aggregator Posterous to crowdsource memories of Chernobyl in the form of stories, videos, and pictures. Posterous allows citizen journalists to submit content via email to the site, where those emails are automatically converted into blog posts (and any attached media are embedded within the post). Anyone with email, or even a a phone with email capability, can contribute.
Impressed with the Eurasia division’s innovative use of its tools for crowdsourcing, the team at Posterous featured VOA’s project in a “Spotlight” on the official Posterous blog. As of this morning, the Spotlight feature has been viewed approximately 90,000 times.
VOA’s extensive coverage of the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster has included perspectives from the region and the United States. The VOA Russian and Ukrainian services have provided original reporting on the ground, including photos and video reports from the area of the disaster. As part of its special report, VOA English produced an interactive map of publicly listed nuclear reactors from around the world.