Citizen journalism: New startup to promote parallel reporting

Qissa.pk offers its reporters an opportunity to get compensated for their effort based on the reach of their content

LAHORE: When conventional media outlets are facing financial crunch owing to struggling economy and shift in the government’s advertisement policy, tech-savvy entrepreneurs introduced a new venture called Qissa.pk, an independent citizen journalism platform to promote parallel reporting.

The basic model of Qissa.pk is based on citizen journalism, which has been around for a very long time, but it offers its reporters an opportunity to get compensated for their effort based on the reach of their content.

“We only invite video news, shot with mobile phone camera by ordinary. It enables our audience to get first-hand information thus eliminate a web of fake news. Anyone can sign up and upload videos on Qissa.pk. All content passes through the filter for moderation. Once it is approved and goes live, the citizen reporter can get paid up to Rs 2,500 for his video,” said Muhammad Waqas, CEO of Qissa.pk.

The aim behind this startup was to cater to those cities that do not have access to necessities. The CEO hails from Sargodha which though being a city has a very rural mindset.

The city has been progressing quickly over the past decade owing to Sargodha University but a lot of health issues have also arisen in recent times which are never reported. Added to that is the lax attitude of the authorities forced him to start a platform where citizens can report their local issues as they would “help authorities get the real picture while setting priorities,” he underlined.

Highlighting significance of citizen journalism, he said it first came to the foray during the World War II. However, it never became mainstream and its value as parallel reporting channel never got underpinned. Many citizen journalism platforms across the world have mushroomed but Pakistan has been lagging behind on this front and a huge vacuum is available.