Citizen Matters

Citizen Matters is an award-winning independent news media outlet with a focus on cities and citizens by reporting on critical issues, ideas and solutions to India’s urban issues. Citizen Matters is published by Oorvani Foundation, a Bangalore-registered trust setup in 2013 to develop and promote journalism on governance, citizenship and society in India at the city, state and national levels. [1][2][3]

Citizen Matters
Founded2008
FoundersMeera K, Subramaniam Vincent
Type[Not for Profit, Trust]
FocusUrban Journalism
Area served
India
Employees
< 3
Websitecitizenmatters.in

History

Citizen Matters was founded in Bengaluru in 2008 by Meera K and Subramaniam Vincent. The idea for Citizen Matters emerged after the duo felt that while there existed many local newspapers and online news media outlets, there was no English local news outlet dedicated to reportage of civic issues from Bengaluru. This prompted them to start the website focussed on news from Bengaluru from the citizens' perspective. In 2009, a few months after the launch of Citizen Matters - the website, a fortnightly magazine was launched. It was one of the first websites that ventured into print owing to the demands from their readers.[4] [5] Back then, it was Bengaluru’s first online community e-newsmagazine. The print edition of Citizen Matters ran from 2009 to 2012.[6]

About the founders

Meera K is the founder editor of Citizen Matters. A long time resident of Bengaluru, she has been an ICFJ Knight fellow and also been an Ashoka fellow. [7] Subramaniam Vincent is currently the director of the Journalism and Media Ethics program at the Santa Clara University. He was also the 2016 John S Knight fellow at Stanford University. He is no longer involved in the day-to-day functioning of the website. [8]

Funding

When Citizen Matters was started, initial funding for the website came from the founders and a few donors. They also tried selling 'Living in Bengaluru' guidebooks consisting of step-by-step guides for essential procedures like getting birth and death certificates, driving licenses, passports, using BMTC bus services, knowing traffic fines, getting property papers, living in apartments, voter registration, getting water and electricity connections, filing FIRs, selecting school boards among others.[9] However, they ceased its publication eventually. Their attempts at raising funds from angel investors and venture capitalists did not materialise. Eventually, they decided to go the non-profit route started Oorvani Foundation in August 2013 to run and manage the site to fund Citizen Matters through grants and donations.[10] Inspired by the National Public Radio model in the U.S., they have launched annual drives to solicit funds from readers to fund the news website.[11] They have also received grants from organisations viz. Rohini Nilekani foundation, Daksh among others.[12]

Citizen Journalism

Citizen Matters uses a hybrid model of contributions from professional journalists combined with citizen-generated content. More than a third of their content comes from citizens. They have a small in-house staff consisting of an associate editor, two or three staff reporters and the co-founders that edit and vet and heavily rely on independent journalists for articles on their website. Each piece is edited and sent back to the citizen journalist before getting published. Examples involving citizens in their journalism include stories about the city's master plan where by a citizen cross-checked the Bengaluru masterplan’s map of the area where he lived and found that it showed a road that did not exist.[13] They have also used stories by citizens on issues related to road widening, solid waste management among other things.[14]

Awards

Citizen Matters has received several awards for their journalistic work. It was declared the joint winner of the Manthan Award (South Asia and Asia Pacific), instituted by the Digital Empowerment Foundation, in the e-News & Journalism category. Citizen Matters has also received the Manthan Award South West India, instituted by the Digital Empowerment Foundation, in the e-News & Journalism category, for creating an online resource of news and independent coverage.[15] Their journalists have also won several awards for their work.[16]

References
  1. "About us". Citizen Matters. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  2. Citizen Matters: A local news outlet for Bengaluru
  3. Bangalore – City in beta
  4. "Citizen Matters: A successful model for a citizen journalism news site". International Journalists' Network. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  5. "For the past decade, Bengaluru's crowdfunded Citizen Matters has been getting its readers to report on civic issues. This is how it works". Splice. 2018-04-10. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  6. "Citizen Matters: A successful model for a citizen journalism news site". International Journalists' Network. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  7. "Meera K". International Center for Journalists. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  8. "Subramaniam Vincent - Markkula Center for Applied Ethics". www.scu.edu. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  9. Living in Bengaluru 2.0 Paperback – 1 January 2014. Bengaluru, India: Citizen Matters. 2012. pp. https://www.amazon.in/Living-Bengaluru-2-0-Citizen-Matters/dp/8192566935. ISBN 978-8192566931.
  10. Chandran, Rahul (2015-01-12). "Citizen Matters: A local news outlet for Bengaluru". Livemint. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
  11. "For the past decade, Bengaluru's crowdfunded Citizen Matters has been getting its readers to report on civic issues. This is how it works". Splice. 2018-04-10. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
  12. "Citizen Matters: A successful model for a citizen journalism news site". International Journalists' Network. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
  13. "For the past decade, Bengaluru's crowdfunded Citizen Matters has been getting its readers to report on civic issues. This is how it works". Splice. 2018-04-10. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  14. Chandran, Rahul (2015-01-12). "Citizen Matters: A local news outlet for Bengaluru". Livemint. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  15. Digital innovators honoured at Manthan
  16. "Awards and Recognition". Citizen Matters. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
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