Crowdsourcing, Wikis and

Generating Ideas

University of North Texas

Department of Journalism
Online Journalism 3340
Feb. 26, 2009
Today’s Lineup
 Website of the Day
 Reporting Web Stories &
Crowdsouring
 Wikis
 Your assignment, Tuesday, March 3

Go to
http://www.slideshare.net/westervillelibrary/

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=32&
 Where Do You Begin?
“...we needed ….to make
 Who is your a special editorial
audience?
emphasis that goes
 Print/Broadcast beyond what the print
audience differs
from web audience journal does or what
the newswires do. It is
 Local, Regional,
National … Global a different audience.
It is a complementary
 ‘Insatiable desire
for information’ audience, but it is not
the same as print, and
 What can I add to
create a rich, we try to meet those
informative online information needs.”
experience? - Rich Jaroslovsky,
Man. Ed.,
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
Message boards ( reporters
Readers post
NOLA.com) comments everyone
Chat Rooms can read among
A dialogue
readers
Online polls (cnn.com, Instant non-scientific
foxnews.com, reaction to stories,
Boston Globe) subjects
E-mail Reporters/Editors
contact info published
Where Do You Begin?
New Reservoirs of Ideas

Groups (Yahoo!, Formerly ‘Usenet’ – broad

range of subjects
Google, others)
Blogs (USAToday, Millions of them

NYPost,
Search engines Find sources, studies,
special interests
MySpace, Personal webpages …
Facebook, from human interest
to the absurd
YouTube!
Tech Sites CNet, Mobile News,
TechWeb
Trash Into Treasure
 It’s boring  Interviewee
 Who cares? boring
 It’s obscure  The story has
 It’s pointless already been
done
 It’s ridiculous  Nobody wants to
 It’s a cliche read this
 Nobody will
understand it
 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.htm
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
 Wikipedia, iStockPhoto, YouTube.com
Source: Journalism 2.0 – How to Survive and Thrive – Chapter 4: ‘New Reporting
Methods”
 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
Source: Journalism 2.0 – How to Survive and Thrive – Chapter 4: ‘New Reporting
Methods”
 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
Source: Journalism features.
2.0 – How to Survive and Thrive – Chapter 4: ‘New Reporting
Methods”
 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
Source: Journalism line
2.0 – How to Survive and Thrive – Chapter 4: ‘New Reporting
Methods”
 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

Source: Journalism 2.0 – How to Survive and Thrive – Chapter 4: ‘New Reporting
Methods”
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/ov
Creating a ‘Budget Line’
 ‘Selling your story’
 Capturing the ‘so what’/’who cares’
 Very short, clear and accurate
 Helps editors understand what
stories are available from all
reporters