VMLY&R and Mediacorp Connect Journalists and Citizens with CNA Eyewitness

Global brand experience agency, VMLY&R, and Singapore’s largest content creator and national media network, Mediacorp, today announced the launch of CNA Eyewitness, an open, collaborative channel that allows journalists and citizens to work together in the creation of news stories. 

The platform aims to bridge the gap between citizen contributors and news media, enabling greater collaboration, faster reporting of breaking news stories and curbing of fake news. 

Targeting aspiring journalists, citizens and whistleblowers, CNA Eyewitness consolidates citizen contributions from the CNA app (iOS and Android), Telegram, Facebook’s chatbot, Twitter Direct Messages and forms on the CNA website, to facilitate timely, on-the-ground viewpoints from CNA readers. Editors can then fact-check and verify the information with contributors before developing the content into holistic and immersive news stories for CNA. Identifying the opportunity for greater connection between CNA and citizen contributors, VMLY&R developed the unified CNA Eyewitness dashboard as well as a Facebook chatbot for contributors. 

Willy Tan, lead, digital news and lifestyle, Mediacorp, said: “We are glad to collaborate with VMLY&R in developing CNA Eyewitness, which will transform the way we collect information by allowing our audiences the flexibility in reaching out to us using their preferred channel of communication. Not only will we be able to receive information across multiple platforms, effectively increasing the volume of citizen tip-offs, this real-time platform will also enhance our efficiency in developing new content, consolidating Mediacorp’s position as the go-to source for timely, trusted news.