Are you more interested in the Olympic movement and its impact on society than the action at the sports stadia? Then tune in to #media2012 – a network of citizen journalists that plans to provide alternative coverage focusing on different dimensions of the London 2012 Olympics. The network’s website claims it is ‘curating a social media legacy for London 2012’.
The Twitter hashtag will be used to curate stories about the Olympic Games that “the traditional media would never cover”.
Chair of the #media2012 steering committee, Professor Andy Miah, says part of the cause behind #media2012, which was first set up in 2010, was to “make a difference to how [London 2012] was remembered and understood”, and it hopes to do that by establishing a new information feed focused on “content within the Olympic programme that is under-reported”.
“We will focus on things like the London 2012 Festival, the Cultural Olympiad, the range of other events that stakeholders produce, but also some of the activities that happen underground, which can be controversial or challenging,” he added.
#media2012 won’t be ignoring the sports action completely and Miah says he wants to work with professional journalists without accreditation to cover stories that the average citizen cannot and also hopes to find a formal media partner.
The citizen reporters already signed up include students, artists and journalists, as well as teachers, athletes, film-makers and activists.
Just last week the IOC (International Olympic Committee) branded London 2012 the first social media Olympics when they launched the Athletes’ Hub – a platform allowing competitors to communicate with their fans. Coverage from all media sectors is likely to be far more interactive than four years ago, largely down to the popularity of tweeting as BBC Sports Editor David Bond explained, “Twitter has just changed everything. It wasn’t around in Beijing, maybe just starting off, but it wasn’t at the level it’s at now in terms of the amount of people who use it, the personalities who use it”.
