New Citizen Media App MyPoint.tv Launches in Austin

Have you ever seen something that’s so important you felt that everyone needed to know about it? What if you had the capability and the platform to share newsworthy stories to a large audience. Better yet, what if you could be compensated for it? That’s where MyPoint.tv comes in.

Launching this month, MyPoint.tv is a new citizen media platform that allows you to become the media and publish newsworthy items in order to “free what you see.” Be your own journalist and get the word out there.

MyPoint.tv's goal is to use its platform to help get your stories noticed and talked about. What we see and how we see it matters. But without a citizen media platform, most of these video recordings will never reach big audiences, even if it is about something that the public should know. With this new platform, the public will have a whole new way of accessing valuable, unbiased, newsworthy information. This is your information.

The video component is the key here. If you've ever been on a comment or message board, you'll likely come across quite a bit of toxicity and hate speech. The anonymity that the internet grants users helps to promote that toxicity. With MyPoint.tv, everyone is given the chance to say their piece, but they are required to do so via a video. This removes the anonymity and forces users to be accountable for their statements. Through this method, MyPoint.tv believes that it will be a source of empowerment and productive conversations.

This isn’t to say that traditional news outlets will become obsolete, but rather that there will be an additional way for people to obtain newsworthy information. Important stories happen all the time, whether it’s a local charity event or a personal journey against injustice. The challenge is how to empower people to stay alert and offer all of this information in one place? This is the question that a new Austin-based startup MyPoint.tv is trying to solve. MyPoint.tv’s aim is to change the landscape of how people consume news. It doesn’t just have to be on a news broadcast or in the trending topics on Twitter.

The submission process couldn’t be easier. All you have to do is download the app and create your profile. From there, you can use the video recorder on the app to start recording and uploading newsworthy content as soon as you’re ready!

Of course, this model lends itself to, let’s say “less than newsworthy” items. While it’s true that anyone is able to submit a video, that doesn’t mean all submitted video submissions will make it to press. All videos are watched before publication to ensure the content of the video provides valuable information to the public. No piece of news goes through without it coming across the eyes of a MyPoint.tv employee.

MyPoint.tv values every new member of its growing community. That's why there is a reward pool for all new submissions in the 20 seconds category which promotes citizen journalism! Under their current model, anyone who signs up, records a 20-second newsworthy event, uploads it and has it approved will be paid $20 for their services (because that’s exactly what this is: a service). There’s no limit to the amount of submissions a single person can submit, either. Videos can be filmed with a smartphone, and the only requirement is that it has to have informational value. Read more about the MyPoint.tv campaign here.

You can even think of MyPoint.tv as a new kind of social media app. For over a decade, social media apps have brought people closer together through new methods of connection. MyPoint.tv does the same thing, albeit with a more goal-oriented approach.

MyPoint.tv officially launched last Friday and the door is now open for you to become a citizen journalist!