Skype and VICE News combine to bring a new experience to news and reporting

When it comes to the Internet, news and information is in abundance. Between the traditional RSS feeds, Facebook, Twitter YouTube or bookmarking of sites, most people can find the news that’s important to them. For those interested in world news with a bit edgier reporting, VICE News should be a staple. Often news outlets let their financial, political, or geographical influence bleed into their reporting. VICE News does a remarkable job of digging for the dirt in the news but on a broader international scale with little agenda showing.

VICE News and Skype are looking to expand the news outlets platform reach, and is quickly becoming a multi platform focused news source for a younger more digitally native audience. With collaboration from Skype, it’s set to offer its readers the ability to help report and be a part of the news they read daily. Readers can now respond to reports or events with the ability to send in video message via Skype. Readers can now log into their or start up a Skype account to then send video messages to the news sources. Depending on the message, content and validity, some messages or messengers can end up in a VICE News live broadcast.

“Skype is enabling VICE News to continue to break down barriers, making it easier to gather and share truly global stories. Skype TX allows us to bring in a wide range of voices and faces into the conversation – which lets ideas, and not technology, dictate the story.” – Sterling Proffer, General Manager, VICE News

VICE News approach to content wrangling is similar other trends established by ‘new’ media outlets like Twitter, YouTube, newcomer Periscope and iCNN. These strategies involve and engage their audiences rather than relegating news to a passive experience for them. It will be interesting to see if these new approaches commingle with more traditional news reporting in the near future.