We're Putting The "I" Back In Eyewitness

You may notice that the personal pronoun “I” is a very important letter of the alphabet at Orato.com.

That’s because we want to read about, listen to and watch the world unfold through your eyes and ears.

Mainstream media do what they can to take the reporter’s personality and perspective out of the news, and while so-called objectivity has its place, the eyewitness or “I” witness, if you like, has an important place in the exchange of information.

For one thing, it’s not just information. If it’s happening to you, you know it’s not just information. It’s your life and the lives of your neighbors and your loved ones. In some ways, the processing of our lives into news takes the life out of it, and it becomes a commodity. Putting the “I” back into reporting puts the life back into the news.

Orato.com has been online now for just over two years, and by many measures, it’s a success. We attract more than 10,000 visits a day, and, as you can see on the home page, the Orato Village community of correspondents is 4500 strong, people like you from around the world.

But perhaps we haven’t been aggressive enough in encouraging you to communicate your experiences in the first person. There’s still a reluctance to let go of that security blanket of third-person objectivity, to speak with your own voice. Which is understandable. We’ve all been taught that subjectivity gets in the way of the news and has to be controlled or suppressed. But the Internet gives us all the tools to tell our stories, and Orato.com is the platform to tell them on.

To encourage first-person reporting and to reward our correspondents, we’re now accepting story pitches for payment. If we accept your pitch, we’ll publish your story and pay for it. Not very much for most pieces, it’s true, but if you’ve got a great story or mind-blowing exclusive, we’ll compete with the mainstream media to get it – and we’ll give you the final editorial cut. So Osama Bin Laden, if you’re out there somewhere, tell us what you’ve been up to lately…

We’ve already accepted some great pitches from correspondents: a quick glance at the Current Top 5 stories has several intriguing first-person pieces: The Day I Shook Obama’s Hand, and I’m The New Johnny Cash, to name a couple. And it’s working. You can read the entertainment pages of your local Daily Bugle and find out about Vince Mira, who is somehow channeling Johnny Cash, and it will be informative, but to read his first-person account of what it’s like to be the new Man in Black is fascinating. And watching him perform on Ellen makes the little hairs on the back of your neck stand up. It’s a new kind of journalism – an authentic encounter with the real people behind the news.

What you see is just the beginning…there’s a lot more in the pipeline and as people catch on, the pitches are starting to come fast and furious. Why not join the others and pitch your story? After all, you’re the expert on you.