Interview George Johnson/BuffaloRising.com

Reporter's Notebook

Assignment

So far we don't have an interview focused around a hyperlocal site. There are groups mixing efforts by professionals and mateurs, and becoming a web destination that is preferred over mainstream media hubs located in the same area.
Tish Grier tipped me off to BuffaloRising.com.

I'm thinking we'd do well to have an interview with editor George Johnson about his pro-am effort. Big media like the Chicago Tribune are trying to gain a foothold in the hyperlocal genre too. BuffaloRising has a nice feel and good content. How do the pros and ams pull it off in the same space? I actually got a warm feel reading about Buffalo, NY. Who knew?

Any takers?


Background

Journalism gets Crowdsourced

Crowdsourced journalism is a term that certainly sounds like a fully developed practice, but it's in its nascent stage. We want to explore the particulars to better understand when crowdsourced journalism occurs, how it occurs, why it occurs...yeah, you get the idea: the 5W's & H are still the tools we'll use. They're timeless, no matter the technology.

Examples of some crowdsourced journalism projects:

Mark Tapscott has launched the Washington Examiner Community Action Network (WeCan), which makes local government databases open to the public. Within one month WeCan made four government databases available to the public and generated several leads.

Simone Reade at the Contra Costa Times relied on information from the crowd to expose dirty business practices at the local level.

Minnesota Public Radio launched an Idea Generator.

And in Ft. Myers, Florida, a network of citizen journalists cracked the case on ongoing concerns over price hikes in their utility assessments.

We want to know all about the above examples, and many others that aren't listed here. The goal is to understand the phenomenon and be able to shed light in ways not yet accomplished. The challenge is particularly intriguing when you realize that Assignment Zero is also a crowdsourced project. We're trying to understand a phenomenon in which we're taking an active role. That's why your reflections and observations as you go through this project can be particularly helpful to the final product. So, come with your ideas and suggestions. Participate in the discussion area, share good research links, and file any of the reporting you do. Reflect on your interviews to find suggestions for future ideas to report. Don't assume all the experts and big names have figured out how crowdsourced reporting works. If we do our job right, we'll have something to tell them.

Editor's Blog


There are other assignments related to this large feature. If you want go back to the Assignment Desk and search under "Media and Publishing," you will find plenty of specific topics that will feed into and inform this big feature assignment.

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