demonstration

Demo: A WhatsApp Bot for Citizen Journalism in Rural India

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Devansh MehtaAuthors Info & Claims

COMPASS '21: Proceedings of the 4th ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies

Pages 423 - 427

https://doi.org/10.1145/3460112.3471981

Published: 23 September 2021 Publication History

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Abstract

Increasing penetration of Internet-enabled smartphones in low-resource areas makes them an attractive platform for engaging emerging users. In this paper, we demonstrate how a voice forum for citizen journalism in rural India– previously accessible via an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system– can be naturally supported and enriched using a chatbot. Implemented using the WhatsApp Business API, the bot enables submission of both audio (with or without image) and video stories. Following review by moderators, stories are published on a website and social media sites, and can also be browsed interactively using the WhatsApp bot. This multi-way, intermediated model of communication expands the scope and functionality of typical WhatsApp groups while offering significant cost savings relative to IVR systems. In the first 9 weeks of a long-term deployment, the bot demonstrated high usability and acceptance and resulted in 218 published stories from 27 users.

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Naik TShankaranarayanan MSwaminathan MBali KJain M(2024)Examining Factors Influencing Technology Integration in Indian Classrooms: A Teachers’ PerspectiveACM Journal on Computing and Sustainable Societies10.1145/36773252:3(1-29)Online publication date: 16-Sep-2024
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Kotenidis EVryzas NVeglis ADimoulas C(2022)Integrating Chatbot Media Automations in Professional Journalism: An Evaluation FrameworkFuture Internet10.3390/fi1411034314:11(343)Online publication date: 21-Nov-2022
https://doi.org/10.3390/fi14110343

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COMPASS '21: Proceedings of the 4th ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies

June 2021

462 pages

ISBN:9781450384537

DOI:10.1145/3460112

Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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Published: 23 September 2021

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COMPASS '21: ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies

June 28 - July 2, 2021

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ACM SIGCAS/SIGCHI Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies

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Naik TShankaranarayanan MSwaminathan MBali KJain M(2024)Examining Factors Influencing Technology Integration in Indian Classrooms: A Teachers’ PerspectiveACM Journal on Computing and Sustainable Societies10.1145/36773252:3(1-29)Online publication date: 16-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3677325
Kotenidis EVryzas NVeglis ADimoulas C(2022)Integrating Chatbot Media Automations in Professional Journalism: An Evaluation FrameworkFuture Internet10.3390/fi1411034314:11(343)Online publication date: 21-Nov-2022
https://doi.org/10.3390/fi14110343

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Emergent practices around CGNet Swara, voice forum for citizen journalism in rural India

Electronic governance and citizen journalism

Citizen Journalism: How Technology Transforms Journalism Business through Citizen-Reporters in Nigeria

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