Moderating Citizen Reports (Submissions)

Citizen reports are news tips or stories submitted by users. As an administrator or moderator, you play a key role in reviewing these submissions for accuracy, relevance, and appropriateness before they are potentially developed into news articles.

Accessing the Submissions Queue

You can find the queue of pending citizen reports by navigating to the Admin Panel and selecting "Submissions" from the sidebar, or by directly visiting /admin/moderation/submissions.

This page displays a list of submissions awaiting review, typically showing the title (if provided), a snippet of the content, the submitter, and the submission date.

Reviewing a Submission

Each submission is presented on a card. You can see:

• Title/Content Snippet: A brief overview of the report.
• Full Content: The complete text submitted by the user.
• Category: The category suggested by the user.
• Location: The location specified for the report.
• Media: Any uploaded images or video links.
• Submitter Information: Details about the user who submitted the report.
• Current Status: (e.g., "pending_review").

Moderation Actions

For each pending submission, you have several actions:

• Approve:

  If you find the submission valuable and credible but it requires further work by a journalist or editor before becoming a full news article, you can "Approve" it. This typically changes its status to "approved_for_review" or a similar state, indicating it's ready for the editorial team.

  To approve: Click the "Approve" button. You may be prompted to add internal notes.

• Reject:

  If the submission is unsuitable (e.g., spam, irrelevant, inaccurate, offensive), you can "Reject" it. This will typically remove it from the active queue.

  To reject: Click the "Reject" button. You will be prompted to provide a reason for rejection, which might be logged or (optionally) communicated to the submitter.

• Convert to News Article:

  If a submission is well-written, accurate, and ready to be published as a news article with minimal changes, you can directly convert it. This action typically:

  1. Changes the submission's status to "published" or "converted".
  2. Opens the "Create Article" form, pre-filled with the content from the submission (title, content, category, location, media).
  3. Allows you to edit, add a featured image, and publish the new article.

  To convert: Click the "Convert to News" button. You will be redirected to the article creation form.

Important Considerations

• Verification: Always try to verify the information in submissions if possible, especially before converting directly to a news article.
• Communication: If your platform has a system for notifying users, consider how submitters are informed about the status of their reports.
• Consistency: Apply moderation guidelines consistently to ensure fairness and maintain the quality of your news content.

Effective moderation of citizen reports helps harness valuable community contributions while upholding journalistic standards.