Joshua Gillin
Mar. 27, 2013
3:13 pm
Capital New York | Folio
The resurgence of longform publishing has a new ally in a Kickstarter-based project spearheaded by Columbia Journalism School professor Michael Shapiro. The big difference in Shapiro's model? No editors.
The Big Roundtable, which is
more than halfway to its startup goal of $5,000 only two days into its campaign, promises to provide digital distribution to story pitches that can't find outlets via traditional print publishers. The project plans to provide 1,000-word excerpts to a committee of readers, which will then read the story and decide if it's worthy of being distributed via email. The stories will be sent to another group of readers, repeating the process to determine if it's a successful selection. The story will then be sold to readers for $1 a copy.
According to the Kickstarter listing, this project, which includes Columbia-connected journos
Mike Hoyt,
Anna Hiatt,
Rashmi Raman and
Anna Codrea-Rado, will free writers "from the constraints of convention in telling their stories and from the commercial needs of editors and publishers, who determine what tales get told."
(more...)
- Tools:
- Permalink
-
Craig Silverman
Mar. 30, 2012
12:47 pm
- Tools:
- Permalink
-
Jeff Sonderman
Feb. 1, 2012
3:49 pm
The New York Times
Senior writer C.J. Chivers (a
former Marine) knows his way around battlefield munitions, but for six months he and other experts have been stumped trying to identify an unusual cluster bomb found in Libya. So he posted photos and a backstory
on the "At War" blog, asking, "Can you help?" Chivers is not worried about losing a scoop:
"As for competition from any other news organizations or Web sites, well, in this case there is none. This is about trying to get it right, so that the world will know more about who provided the Qaddafi government its arms, and when, and so that those who have to clear these DPICM’s will know more of their technical characteristics. At War is collegial. If another site takes on this job and figures this out, that is a very good thing. Let us know, and we will follow you and credit you here."
Earlier: Chivers on returning from a war zone
- Tools:
- Permalink
-
Jeff Sonderman
Feb. 1, 2012
12:28 pm
Calgary Herald
Digital engagement editor Tom Babin introduces a new system -- called
Be a Source -- that enables potential sources to register with the newspaper. Think of it as "metacrowdsourcing," applying crowdsourcing to sourcing itself rather than an individual reporting project.
We’re asking Calgarians to tell us about the ideas and issues for which they have special insight, knowledge or passion. Then, when the issues come up in the news, we will be better able to present those perspectives in our news stories.
You don’t need a Ph.D to make a contribution. Your area of expertise could be as simple as life in your neighbourhood. Perhaps you have a hobby that you think offers a unique perspective. Maybe your job makes you an expert in a specific field, or you know first-hand the challenges of the elderly-care system, or you struggle with a little-known heath condition, or are the victim of a crime. All of these perspectives can help Calgarians — and our journalists — better understand the news.
Related: Public Insight Network launches reporting unit (Nieman Journalism Lab)
- Tools:
- Permalink
-
Steve Myers
Nov. 29, 2011
12:38 pm
DigiDave | American Public Media
American Public Media has acquired Spot.Us and will integrate it with its crowdsourcing platform Public Insight Network. The two operations "create a media that is more responsive and responsible to the public’s needs," writes Spot.Us founder David Cohn on his blog.
Cohn tells me by email that at some point, journalists working on a single story could utilize both the crowdfunding and crowdsourcing parts of the operation:
Some people prefer to donate talent, others prefer to donate funds. If a single organization used both PIN/Spot (which will become easier as the two merge at a technical level) they could do create a relationship with the audience that includes both possibilities. We did one early example of this at Spot.Us. We raised funds for an Oakland Tribune reporter to cover potholes in oakland. The money went to the freelancer to do the reporting. But we also got 15 bikers together and we biked in all different directions in Oakland and created a map of the worst potholes we could find (the bikers were donating talent). The result was a well reported story funded by the community along with some insight that only the community could provide (or a single reporter who did a LOT of biking).
One thing will not change, he said: "On Spot.Us, sources cannot donate to a story. ... We may put in a restriction that somebody can donate talent OR funds - but maybe not both."
(more...)
- Tools:
- Permalink
-
Jeff Sonderman
Oct. 4, 2011
11:44 am
A ProPublica reporting project published today turns primary source documents into a platform for crowdsourcing and reader collaboration.
-
- Readers’ findings are displayed in a sidebar next to the relevant portion of the document.
The investigative reporting nonprofit built a tool … Read more
- Tools:
- Permalink
-
Jeff Sonderman
Aug. 24, 2011
9:38 am
- Tools:
- Permalink
-
Steve Myers
Aug. 17, 2011
4:28 pm
Fast Company
When pitched to do a story on
Servio, a company that crowdsources tasks for its clients, Adam Penenberg decided to — wait for it — crowdsource the reporting and writing. He assigned 20 questions to Servio workers and even asked a Servio freelancer to contact media advisers (including Poynter's Kelly McBride) to see if this would be considered unethical. (The answer: not if he tried to account for bias and was upfront with his readers about what he was doing.) Penenberg writes that he asked for "boilerplate" material, such as interviewing the founders and freelancers, checking out the company's revenue and assessing the competition. How did they do?
Basic facts were accurate; anything that required interpretation, however, was ripe for abuse. They simply avoided the questions I submitted that asked them to describe the company's greatest weaknesses and to critique its competitors, and I never did find out what the company's revenues were. Anything having to do with the company's cofounders Jordan Ritter and Alex Edelstein was painfully fawning.
Judge for yourself the quality
of the story they wrote, which he says is "roughly akin to an assignment filed by a first-year journalism student in college."
- Tools:
- Permalink
-
Mallary Jean Tenore
Nov. 9, 2010
4:48 pm
As news organizations experiment with user-generated content, they’re learning that users are capable of creating quality content that can be turned into powerful projects. What’s not as clear: How can news organizations motivate people to submit the kind of … Read more
- Tools:
- Permalink
-
