Ensuring News Media Resiliency in the Modern Age
Ourco Inc. created the OUR platform to ensure that journalists have a pulse on the communities, organizations, and people they cover. As a mobile and web app, OUR takes the passive consumption of news and turns it into active civic engagement. News editors, city staff and elected officials can use results of dynamic polling to drive content, make informed decisions and engage with a more participatory audience. In short, OUR provides a civic network that champions thought leadership and journalism—key factors to building a healthy community, no matter its shape and size.
Through data visualization and immediate gratification through animations, OUR creates an immersive user journey resulting in more lively news consumption. Polls and news are embedded into the posts on the app allowing users to see what other people think in real time.
A poll question can be posted to the entire community or targeted to a specific group, e.g., subscribers, business leaders, or residents, to gather a 360° perspective of sentiment.
As users interact with content on the platform, the system keeps track of responses and gives insights into voting patterns and how answers compare with others. Users are anonymous, though they have the option to reveal their identity. Moderators, who host the OUR community, can easily identify trends in responses. Filters allow for granular reporting of demographics, such as race, age and gender identity. Putting polls and surveys in one place enables news organizations to see patterns in the community, while insights from the platform are easily shared among users.
The digital age has wreaked havoc on local and national news. Constructive dialogue on social media has been replaced by vitriol based on bias or misinformation. Social media giants are geared toward advertising and data mining. OUR is devoid of spam, pop-ups and user information is always protected. The platform is designed to recapture the online audience in real time by providing a fact-based, rational forum for civil discourse. OUR blends in-person and digital interactions to connect people in a more human way. Moderators representing news outlets or municipalities provide articles, government information and other content that educates stakeholders about different perspectives on issues.
Local journalists intimately know the communities they cover, while leaders rely on news media to prioritize community needs. The OUR platform is the intersection where journalists, city leaders and residents meet to safeguard democracy through participatory decision-making and inspired governance.
News organizations finally have a sustainable model that streamlines sentiment gathering, enriches storytelling, and optimizes journalism’s vital role as a public service.
