Crowdsourcing & WeMedia

University of North TexasDepartment of Journalism

Online Journalism 3340February 16, 2010

Today’s classTool of the day

Crowdsourcing

The Interactive Audience

Shorter lines of communication between journalists and audience

Traditional Media:Readers v. Non-readersReaders an ‘amorphous mass’Defined audience – by geography

Circulation, ‘signal’

CrowdSourcing – “We Media”

Coined by Jeff Howe, 2006, Wired News article

In his words:

“crowdsourcing represents the act of a company or institution taking a function once performed by employees and outsourcing it to an undefined (and generally large) network of people in the form of an open call.

“This can take the form of peer-production (when the job is performed collaboratively), but is also often undertaken by sole individuals. The crucial prerequisite is the use of the open call format and the large network of potential laborers.”

http://www.bnet.com/2422-13950_23-248641.html

Source: Journalism 2.0 – How to Survive and Thrive – Chapter 4: ‘New Reporting Methods”

Crowdsourcing cont.

Ability to gather vast amount of information from a large group

“Harnessing the power of community on a continuing basis to improve the information base”

Beyond a grassroots concept, but as much a journalism tool as a corporate tool

Taking advantage of the “networked” world“Open source” journalism

Old days: proprietary Now: Here’s what I’m working on, what do you know?

Source: Journalism 2.0 – How to Survive and Thrive – Chapter 4: ‘New Reporting Methods”

Howe’s three types

The Professional

The Packager

The Tinkerer

Source: The Rise of Crowdsourcing, by Jeff Howe, http://wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/crowds.html.

Three types

Online tools allowing “professionals” to share their work Istockphoto.com

Free image sharing by a group of graphic designers Now, a “marketplace” for the work of amateur

photographers 22,000 contributors Charging $1 - $5 per image NOW, istockphoto.com is owned by one of the world’s

largest photo image services: Getty Images Getty purchased istockphoto for $30mm

Source: The Rise of Crowdsourcing, by Jeff Howe, http://wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/crowds.html.

The Packager

Gathering content from multiple sources Ability to capture content on a similar issue from around

the globe – quickly Report on stories from eyewitnesses – when reporters

aren’t on the scene when it happens

Fuel the growth of “citizen journalism” Journalists at every corner

Pew Internet Study: 57 percent of 12 to 17 year olds online – about 12 million folks – creating content and posting

‘ireport” segments on major cable, local TV news Entertainment/gossip TV and websites YouTube, Flickr

Source: The Rise of Crowdsourcing, by Jeff Howe, http://wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/crowds.html.

The Tinkerer

Problem solvers InnoCentive – research & development’s version of

istockphoto

Innovators:Pooling ideas for creative solutionsKnight Foundation: NewsChallenge.com

Wikis

The Basics:

A Web-based application that allows people to add, remove, edit and change content through a browser.

The ease of interaction makes wikis an effective tool for collaboration. Wikis can be considered a content management system.

http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/videos/overview/overview.jsp

CrowdSourcing

Why?Gathering information quickly from multipleEngaging method to involve

readers/viewers/customersEducating a community of users who have access to

a greater variety information to make more informed decisions

Source: Journalism 2.0 – How to Survive and Thrive – Chapter 4: ‘New Reporting Methods”

Crowdsourcing cont.

It’s for realGannett Corporation – “Information Centers”

Prioritize local news over national news; Publish more user-generated content; become 24-7

news operations, in which the newspapers do less and the websites do much more;

Use crowdsourcing methods to put readers to work as watchdogs, whistle-blowers and researchers in large, investigative features.

Source: Journalism 2.0 – How to Survive and Thrive – Chapter 4: ‘New Reporting Methods”

Real Examples

Cincinnati Enquirer – Voter Issues – Nov 2006A Gannett newspapersNewspaper invited readers to submit

information about voter irregularitiesNewspaper posted them on a Google Map

BlackAmericaWeb.com – 2008 ElectionPartnership with NAACP National Voter FundVoters call in to report problemsInteractive map showing call volumesTom Joyner Morning Show driving listeners to

submit comments to the website or a phone line

Source: Journalism 2.0 – How to Survive and Thrive – Chapter 4: ‘New Reporting Methods”

Real Examples

The Spokesman-ReviewCreate reader networksE-mail databases sorted by beat:

Education, Police, Specific citiesCorrespond with sourcesSeek/verify information Gather reader opinion

Why?Ken Sands – created the ‘networks’ Interaction occurs before publication – during

information gathering processProactively contacting people you get a wider

reaction than waiting for them to call you

Source: Journalism 2.0 – How to Survive and Thrive – Chapter 4: ‘New Reporting Methods”

Traditional Media Investing

MSNBC & EveryBlock.com

Examiner.com & NowPublic.comhttp://my.nowpublic.com/home?

welcome_id=cf5f91615faec40ec33b0c8cf7cd812a

Story Ideas: Where Do You Begin?

Who is your audience?

Print/Broadcast audience differs from web audience

Local, Regional, National … Global

‘Insatiable desire for information’

What can I add to create a rich, informative online experience?

“...we needed ….to make a special editorial emphasis that goes beyond what the print journal does or what the newswires do. It is a different audience. It is a complementary audience, but it is not the same as print, and we try to meet those information needs.”

- Rich Jaroslovsky,

Man. Ed., WSJ.com

Where Do You Begin?Traditional Sources

Sources/individuals

Newspapers Local and community

Television News

Wire Services

Observation Covering a meeting, events

Press conferences

Documents Police reports, court filings, press releases

Feedback pages Readers suggestions to editors, specific reporters

Message boards (NOLA.com)

Readers post comments everyone can read

Chat Rooms A dialogue among readers

Online polls (cnn.com, foxnews.com, Boston Globe)

Instant non-scientific reaction to stories, subjects

E-mail Reporters/Editors contact info published

Where Do You Begin?Today: It’s a Two-Way Street

Groups (Yahoo!, Google, others)

Formerly ‘Usenet’ – broad range of subjects

Blogs (USAToday, NYPost,

Millions of them

Search engines Find sources, studies, special interests

MySpace, Facebook, YouTube!

Personal webpages … from human interest to the absurd

Tech Sites CNet, Mobile News, TechWeb

Where Do You Begin? New Reservoirs of Ideas

Trash Into Treasure

It’s boring

Who cares?

It’s obscure

It’s pointless

It’s ridiculous

It’s a cliche

Interviewee boring

The story has already been done

Nobody wants to read this

Nobody will understand it

The Interactive Audience

Now: Individual, personalized, directEmail addresses for reportersTracking readers: Story by story

Top DownEditors toReaders

Readers in Control

Audience Participation

Participatory journalism - “We Media”

http://www.hypergene.net/wemedia/weblog.php?id=P36