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ABC premieres iView only, audience-driven investigative program, Story Hunters

ABC has premiered a new style of investigative program direct to its online streaming service iView today.

‘Story Hunters’ follows a team of video journalists as they investigate stories around Australia.

The program is unique in that it offers audiences the power to make decisions on angles and content that will be pursued onscreen. The program will feature opinion pieces and satirical content as well as fact based reporting.

Executive producer Erin Vincent said that Story Hunters is “using social media to both initiate and engage with our story tellers, so we’re asking the audience to tell us what issues they want explored and investigated.”

The program will utilise samples from social accounts such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr to allow for the audience to shape content.

Story Hunters’ model allows for an active audience as well as digital first distribution, which hopes to encourage engagement with news whilst still uphold standards of quality investigative reporting. Vincent says this approach was born from recognition “that changing audience habits require a fresh approach to storytelling.”

Horan: "This is something quite different"

Horan: “This is something quite different”

Supervising producer, Paul Horan, says: “We have a talented team of video journalists working on this project and engaging with the audience about the types of stories they want covered. Don’t expect your traditional ABC News style of presentation; this is something quite different!”

Guest Hunters who will appear in investigations include Jamila Rizvi, former editor-in-chief of Mamamia and comedian and author Rosie Waterland.

New stories will be made available weekly on iView, with the first episode released today, May 16.

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