The Associated Press has cemented their exclusivity with Bambuser, allowing its users to share their live footage with the Associated Press. Last May, the AP and Bambuser began collaborating by allowing an opt-in setting for citizen journalists to release the rights of what they were filming, giving their footage to get greater reach. The option also gave the ability for journalists to get in touch with the video streamers to get more information from the ground. Bambuser is based in Stockholm with an office in Turku, Finland.
In the last four months Bambuser content has been used by AP customers more than 4,000 times – much of it from the front lines in the Syrian conflict where it has been almost impossible to get western journalists on the ground. The streaming video is delivered either as standalone content in real time or integrated into longer edited pieces for AP’s network of more than 700 broadcasters.
“User-generated content is integral to covering breaking news events,” said Mark Davies, AP deputy director of international video. “Through the Bambuser deal and use of the ‘Share The News’ function, AP has pre-approval to use the Bambuser content, allowing us to check and verify content we deem newsworthy and put it live to air incredibly fast.”
Bambuser’s service isn’t exclusively focused at streaming footage from conflicts and war zones, it’s still a handy tool for sharing your kid’s soccer game live with the grandparents and saving it as a video online. But since the Arab Spring uprisings, it has increasingly become a tool for citizen journalists to document the world around them.
The company has been embracing this real-world impact they’ve had on journalism. Last December, co-founders Måns Adler and Jonas Vig traveled to Egypt to witness firsthand how their users were documenting the elections.
The company also provides a twitter account, called @Bambuser_Alert, where they link to an awful amount of shelling, tank movements, protests, and other noteworthy footage. The news media may have trouble emphasizing that Homs, Syria, is still being destroyed, but on Bambuser it is live and very much real.
“Through the co-operation with AP, Bambuser has further strengthened its position as a tool to capture live and newsworthy video content,” said Hans Eriksson, executive chair, Bambuser. “We have already had enormous success working with AP in getting live news video distributed globally and this is because users can rely on AP’s expertise as a very credible and professional news organisation that matches many of Bambuser’s own values.”
