Journos get to share their views

Young people around New Zealand have a new platform to express themselves.

Journalist Damian Christie has launched a website, urs.net.nz, to give budding reporters a place to have their voices heard.

The New Windsor resident has worked in media for more than 15 years.

‘‘I thought that there was a gap there and traditional student media didn’t cater to people creating video. These days that’s a large number of people.

‘‘The way we see the world has changed. We don’t go out to the world and write about it, we go out there and capture it while we’re there.’’

He believes giving young people a way to share their views gets them actively engaging with the world.

‘‘Those of us who are lucky enough to have jobs as journalists and reporters take for granted the fact that we immerse ourselves in parts of societies that we would otherwise be completely separated from. It’s such a privilege and I think these days we can extend that privilege to the wider community.’’

New Zealand Broadcasting School student Alex Ashton agrees.

‘‘You’ve got YouTube, but if you put anything on YouTube it sort of gets lost in a sea of everyone else doing similar things,’’ the 19-year-old says.

YouTube has 72 hours of video uploaded every minute.

Mr Ashton has benefited from urs.net.nz.

He won a film competition on the site and flew to Hollywood with Mr Christie to interview the stars of Despicable Me 2 including Steve Carell and Russell Brand at their premiere.

Mr Ashton says at first he didn’t believe he had won.

‘‘It’s obviously an amazing experience in itself; I have never been to America. I was always quite keen to do that – it’s just happening sooner than I thought.’’

Mr Christie is now travelling around New Zealand helping young people create media and encouraging them to tell the stories that are important to them.