16 Feb 2010 3340 Crowdsourcing&We Media

Crowdsourcing & WeMedia University of North Texas Department of Journalism Online Journalism 3340 February 16, 2010

Today’s class
Tool of the day
Crowdsourcing

The Interactive Audience
Shorter lines of communication between journalists and audience
Traditional Media:
Readers v. Non-readers
Readers 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?

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

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

The Tinkerer
Problem solvers
InnoCentive – research & development’s version of istockphoto
Innovators:
Pooling ideas for creative solutions
Knight 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 multiple
Engaging method to involve readers/viewers/customers
Educating a community of users who have access to a greater variety information to make more informed decisions

Crowdsourcing cont.
It’s for real
Gannett 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.

Real Examples
Cincinnati Enquirer – Voter Issues – Nov 2006
A Gannett newspapers
Newspaper invited readers to submit information about voter irregularities
Newspaper posted them on a Google Map
BlackAmericaWeb.com – 2008 Election
Partnership with NAACP National Voter Fund
Voters call in to report problems
Interactive map showing call volumes
Tom Joyner Morning Show driving listeners to submit comments to the website or a phone line

Real Examples
The Spokesman-Review
Create reader networks
E-mail databases sorted by beat:
Education, Police, Specific cities
Correspond with sources
Seek/verify information
Gather reader opinion
Why?
Ken Sands – created the ‘networks’
Interaction occurs before publication – during information gathering process
Proactively contacting people you get a wider reaction than waiting for them to call you

Traditional Media Investing
MSNBC & EveryBlock.com
Examiner.com & NowPublic.com
http://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

Where Do You Begin? Today: It’s a Two-Way Street 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? New Reservoirs of Ideas 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

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, direct
Email addresses for reporters
Tracking readers: Story by story
Top Down Editors to Readers Readers in Control Audience Participation

Participatory journalism - “We Media” http://www.hypergene.net/wemedia/weblog.php?id=P36

16 Feb 2010 3340 Crowdsourcing&We Media

by Neil Foote on Feb 18, 2010

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16 Feb 2010 3340 Crowdsourcing&We Media — Presentation Transcript