Rapid News Awards

Rapid News Awards
Democratic Expertise, with Funding!

Plan of Talk
Describe the Problem: Editorial Expertise vs Citizen Journalism
Ask a Question: How can they be combined?
Describe the Funding Experiment: Rapid News Awards
Conclude

But First, an Introduction
Hello, I’m Lyn Headley.
I’m a phd candidate in communication and science studies at UC San Diego.
Rapid News Awards is my dissertation research.

Describing the Problem
1) Conflict between Editorial Expertise and Citizen Journalism
2) Reporting resources are dwindling.

Editorial Expertise
Twentieth Century News production has been overseen by editors.
Editors use their expert judgment to “decide what is News”.
A very few editors determine which stories get produced and emphasized.
The power to decide the news has been hierarchically organized (For better and worse).

Citizen Journalism
Press technology is increasingly available to the general public
Editorial hierarchies are weakening
Blogs, Twitter, etc. let more people “decide what’s news”
Result: an increase of diversity (and also confusion)

Reporting Resources
There’s less and less.
We need more.

Asking a Question
How can we combine and fund the strengths of each model in a way that increases reporting?
How can we fundthe expert’s reliability and knowledge…
And also the citizen’s diversity and participation?

Rapid News Awards: A Funding Experiment
Publisher sets the schedule of editions
Donors fund editions
Editors oversee and empower judges
Judges vote for articles
Authors win cash prizes

The Editor’s Role
Editors introduce judges: they bring them in to the network.
Editors supervise judges: they follow and unfollowthem.
Editors empower judges: a heavily-followed judge is more important.
Hypothesis: Editors will provide continuity and focus

The Judge’s Role
Judges read and evaluate stories
Judges determine winning stories
Hypothesis: Judges combine diversity and expertise

Rapid News Awards: The 6 Word Summary
Funding expert judgment and citizen participation

2010 Schedule
January to May: Coding, initial Recruiting
June to August: Fundraising, more Recruiting, more Coding
September to November: Pilot Project: Journalism in Transition.
Editors so far: Megan Garber, Steve Outing, Josh Young

The End
Thank you
rapidnewsawards.{org, wordpress.com}

Rapid News Awards

by guest948dfd on Mar 13, 2010

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Rapid News Awards — Presentation Transcript