Background
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
