SPOTLIGHTm

Tame on the outside, wild on the inside.

CBS Eyemobile for iPhone

What is it?

A noble attempt at bringing real-time citizen journalism to the iPhone. While users can upload videos and pictures on the website, the video-challenged iPhone only allows users to upload photos and commentary as they hypothetically see news happening. While the pictures should be user generated, most users steal pictures from the Internet, upload them, put in a one-liner, only to start what often becomes a homophobic and racist flame war in the comments.

How much does it cost?

Free.

Who is it good for?

People who believe that “Citizen Journalism” is the way of the future and have some tolerance for the MySpace and YouTube generation that largely destroys the possibility for this particular iteration to be filled with more intelligence than Internet fail.

People who go to a lot of live events or experience a ton of natural disasters and want a platform to share them. Exhibitionists who like a little hatorade with their breakfast from strangers with 90’s chatroom-like screennames. Social scientists who are fascinated by stream of consciousness platforms.

Summary

The oft-crashing Eyemobile has the potential to be something great, but it has unfortunately been  plagued by frequent crashes and polluted by the users that make us question ideas surrounding racism, sexism, and general respect while reading comments on MySpace or YouTube. It is our belief that there is real value in Citizen Journalism and that it will inevitably continue to become a bigger part of our newswatching future, but the reality is that without a filter or some sort of editorial direction, users run wild and essentially turn what could be a powerful tool for insight into current events to a message board where intelligent commentary is few and far between.

Our main gripe with the application is the frequent crashes, but it has to be said that the ratio of good to bad content is shockingly bad. It would take a large community of users following the unspoken rules during live events to turn this application into what CBS likely envisioned. Eyemobile will have its moments of greatness during natural disasters, riots, and other live events, but it provides little value to casual newsreaders who just want to read something interesting that’s going on.

Keep it or Delete it?

Delete it.

Is Citizen Journalism REALLY the future?

Outside of the seemingly inexplicable frequent crashes on Eyemobile, this application feels like one of the most disappointing ones early in its iPhone life because of what it could become versus what it actually is.

The open and all encompassing definition of “Citizen” somehow seems to bring out the worst in many of us when it comes to the Internet. Regular, decent people turn into flame war monsters on Tech blogs and “You suck at life. GDIAF” becomes an appropriate way to end a conversation. Clearly, this is no different on Eyemobile.

We know this is supposed to review the application, but it would be irresponsible for us not to report on the content that fills Eyemobile before it shocks anyone else hoping for semi-coherant and insightful conversation on Eyemobile. So readers, you’ve been warned.

In terms of the application itself, it’s rather simple. More than usual, there appear to be an impressive number of usernames already registered on the site. There’s a good chance that you might not be able to use one of your standbys when you try to register as a reporter. We can’t explain why, but it’s worth pointing out.

Otherwise, the process is very simple to contribute to this global untamed newsroom. Snap a picture or upload one of your exisiting photos, leave some commentary, and just like that, you’re a citizen journalist. It’s obvious that there is real power in this - imagine a hurricane, any number of traffic incidents, animals running wild at the zoo, etc.

Upload a picture, get some comments...

In theory, the only real tool you need to do this is provided in the application. Of course, video feels like it’s woefully missing from the application, but video also feels like it’s woefully missing from the iPhone, so it’s by no fault of the application.

You can browse other user reports, many of which appear to be submitted via the Eyemobile website on any number of topics. Much of the stories and media available are not user-generated.

Instead, many users choose to repost something that they’ve seen somewhere else, either an image or YouTube video, which takes away from the “man on the street” feel that citizen journalism is supposed to embody.

If there was some sort of way for CBS to attempt to have only user-generated content of relevance, the user experience would be increased ten-fold.

While the pictures would likely be of lesser quality, it makes the content much more valuable than seeing a stolen AP image of OJ Simpson with one line of smartass text accompanying it.

On a slow news day that is devoid of stories available to the masses, the number of high quality stories are going to be few and far between - turning Eyemobile into Seesmic or Twitter for the bored. Again, if everyone was using Eyemobile the right way and the application would stop crashing every few clicks, this could be so much more.

On iPhone, stories are broken into categories of relevance, which we’d assume would change depending on what’s currently going on. Since users are contributing on the website as well, you’ll get some video and pictures, most of which are copywritten and uploaded to Eyemobile.

The problem with the application is that the lack of filtering (which we understand would be somewhat contrary to the spirit of citizen journalism) and editorial curation gives the casual user who simply wants to read, not contribute, very little reason to use the application. While it’s fascinating to see how people use a tool like this to share their opinions on their soapbox, the lack of direction makes this the wild wild west of news.

Ironically, there will be shining moments for Eyemobile in the worst of times - during natural disasters, riots, and any number of tragedies. However, the lack of stability within the application and inevitable lack of value to readers 99% of the time when compared to superior news applications on the iPhone. The application has given users the power to share their perspective on a developing story, but the crashing application makes it hard to become part of the untamed newsroom that is Eyemobile.