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Crowdsourcing and Journalism

Crowdsourcing and Journalism. Seth C. Lewis School of Journalism, UT-Austin seth.lewis@mail.utexas.edu. Crowd-what?.

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Crowdsourcing and Journalism

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  1. Crowdsourcing and Journalism Seth C. Lewis School of Journalism, UT-Austin seth.lewis@mail.utexas.edu

  2. Crowd-what? White Paper Version: Crowdsourcing is the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call. Soundbyte Version: The application of Open Source principles to fields outside of software. Source: Jeff Howe

  3. Crowdsourcing “trailer” (online version)

  4. Key principles • The crowd is dispersed • The crowd has a short attention span • The crowd is full of specialists • The crowd produces mostly crap • The crowd finds the best stuff Source: “The Rise of Crowdsourcing,” by Jeff Howe (2006)

  5. Crowdsourcing and Journalism

  6. A spectrum of input • From the simple … • Reading documents (a la Dallas Morning News case) • Sending in photos (of polling places, for instance) • … To the more challenging … • Researching and writing articles • The point • The collective efforts of non-specialists can add up to more than one expert individual • Dan Gillmor: “my readers know more than I do”

  7. Crowdsourcing, in journalism, is the use of a large group of readers to report a news story. It differs from traditional reporting in that the information collected is gathered not manually, by a reporter or team of reporters, but through some automated agent, such as a website. Source: Robert Niles

  8. How it works • Lend us your eyes • Help us gather data • Submit your photos/videos • The keys … • Keep it simple • Keep it directed • Provide an easy, automated interface

  9. Lending Us Your Eyes • Dallas Morning News and the JFK files • “Given the volume, we haven't been able to review most of the files. That's why were calling on you. Here's your chance to review never-seen-before materials related to the JFK assassination.” • RocDocs • “We’re inviting you to help us be watchdogs” • Work of TPM Muckraker (Hat tip: JP Digital Digest)

  10. Gathering ‘everyday’ info • WNYC • “Are you being gouged?” • Gas-guzzlers on the street • GasBuddy • Problems at polling stations in Cincy?

  11. And more • Full articles written by users … • Example: NowPublic • … or edited by users • Example: Wikinews • Beyond journalism • Google Image Labeler • Amazon Mechanical Turk

  12. Like citizen journalism, but … • … crowdsourcing is easier • Users are given bite-sized tasks to accomplish • Time commitment can be small • Unlike more traditional notions of “citizen journalism,” crowdsourcing does not ask readers to become anything more than what they’ve always been: eyewitnesses to their daily lives.

  13. Is crowdsourcing the future? • “The failure of one citizen journalism Web business after another this year ought to be showing news publishers that a business model based on readers doing reporters’ jobs for free isn’t working.” (Robert Niles) • But be warned … • Open-source journalism is tough • You have get the division of labor just right

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