Interview with alternative news platform YASSSU’s CEO Roland Mueller

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) February 15, 2012 -- Citizen journalism has a great start this year. A promising new platform is coming from Vienna, Austria. YASSSU will bring together mainstream and alternative news. Here is an interview with YASSSU's CEO Roland Mueller.

Q: What is YASSSU?

A: YASSSU is a Vienna based start up developing a desktop and mobile media platform that makes news consumption/publishing a social experience. Media content (text/audio/video) from mainstream sources is semantically combined with alternative publications from citizen journalists or bloggers from all over the world. Users do not only benefit by getting totally new perspectives but are also offered a range of features that facilitate expression of opinion – e.g. by deciding whether they believe a certain publication is either true or false. Last but not least user activity is financially rewarded through sharing of advertising revenues and tools that allow monetization of individual content.

The new platform (http://bethefirst.yasssu.com) will go live in April 2012. In order to offer a full range of different media channels, our content management team is building up partnerships with citizen journalists and bloggers.

Q: Tell us more about the name – YASSSU.

A: The name YASSSU originates in the Greek expression “?e?? s??” which means “hello”.

Q: Introduce YASSSU team.

A: YASSSU was founded in 2007 by Roland Mueller who has extensive experience in building companies and who is the visionary mastermind of the company. Lukas Ransmayr is heading the process of developing the new platform and Pierre Greber, Head of Content Management, is responsible for aggregating content sources and communicating with media partners and bloggers.

Hutan Vahdani and Robert Huttinger complete the team by designing and implementing the marketing and social media strategy.

Q: How do you see relations between mainstream and citizen journalism?

A: At YASSSU we are convinced that alternative media sources such as citizen journalists, do not get the audiences that they deserve. The media landscape is still dominated by large media corporations that actively or passively ignore a wide range of topics that are only covered by alternative sources and therefore defining public opinion. That is why we believe that it is important to aggregate different perspectives at one single spot and to relate alternative publications with mainstream content by using semantic technologies.

As we believe that each and every story has another perspective, we clearly see the potential of this approach.

Q: Is citizen journalism a threat to traditional media in your opinion?

A: Citizen journalism is not a threat but rather a complimentary resource of information that should be made accessible to larger audiences. The truth often lies in between – but can only be found when there is more than one perspective available.

Q: Do you think that it is possible to connect professional and citizen journalists for better cause – better information and reporting?

A: That is exactly what we are doing. We connect the information spread by media corporations as well as by alternative sources. Furthermore we engage people to start publishing their content by rewarding them in a financial way. Advertising revenues are shared with users who publish content on their own channels and monetization features allow individual publishers to set a specific price for their publications.

Q: Many think that citizen journalists are not trustworthy. What do you say?

A: We believe that mainstream media isn’t too trustworthy either. The truth can only be found if people with different opinions and perspectives start discussing and expressing their views. To support this kind of social interaction the new YASSSU platform lets users decide whether they believe a certain text, video or audio item to be trustworthy or now. A deeper social relation can further be expressed by declaring oneself as “Supporter” or “Opposer” of another users media channel. As a result publications can be filtered by popularity and finding like-minded peers becomes very easy.

Q: How do you see citizen journalism today?

A: Citizen journalists are becoming more and more important within the media landscape. They cover topics that are not addressed by large media corporations or even convey a very different perspective on certain events. A good example was the start of the “occupy” movement. It took the mainstream media eight days until they covered that thousands of people were protesting right in the heart of NYC. We believe that this gives us a good indication of what other topics might not be covered by traditional publishers.

Q: Your view of media today and media in the future.

A: As technology further advances, we see a far bigger proportion of people who are able to publish and share their views, opinions and experiences. We expect those alternative individual sources to publish news even quicker and much more efficient than large media corporations. Nonetheless mainstream media will still put the stories from citizen journalists into a wider context – mostly framed by political influences and particular interests. Thanks to the massive amount of data and information that we can expect to arise over the next years, mainstream media coverage is likely to become even less trustworthy. We really believe that active engagement of individual publishers is important because they might become our premier source for in -depth reports and investigative news.

Q: What are your expectations regarding YASSSU in 2012?

A: After successfully launching the new platform in April we expect it to become an open space where freedom of speech, extensive discussions and expression of individual opinions will prosper and subsequently create a culture of responsible news participation and help bringing investigative journalism to the web. Additionally, YASSSU has just been invited by the Austrian government to participate in an exclusive start-up program in Silicon Valley, which has great potential to bring the company and the new platform to the next level.

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