Online Journalism Blog

“If you are a journalist, or becoming one, you may have already noticed this: They are raising the ante on what it takes to be a journalist.” Briggs

An additional quote was just as noticeable in my opinion:

“The hunter-gatherer model of journalism is no longer sufficient. Citizens can do their own hunting and gathering on the internet. What they need is somebody to add value to that information by processing it — digesting it, organizing it, making it usable.”

Chapter 2 talked about the new journalistic technologies and how to use them. This chapter doesn’t explain how to use them, but rather how to harness these tools to knock down barriers between journalist and reader to create a closer relationship.

Crowdsourcing was a news reporting method that was explained in the chapter and I thought it was a great invention. Here’s some info on crowdsourcing:

• it allows “enthusiastic communities to come together” and help give out info to the readers
• the info is focused solely on community-based news
• with crowdsourcing, communities can outperform large, paid companies with their extreme willingness to get the best info out about the thing(s) they are most enthusiastic about

Crowdsourcing caught my attention because I believe I am part of a website that crowdsources some of its news to the readers.

TruthAboutIt.net is a website providing detailed news and stories regarding the Washington Wizards. Being a die-hard Wizards fan, I contacted the founder of the site, asking if he would be interested in giving me a shot at writing for them. He agreed and I have been a contributing writer for the site since then. They allowed a member of the strict Washington Wizards community to come and bring his enthusiasm to provide information to the readers.

Crowsourcing was a term coined by Jeff Howe recently in 2006. Crowdsourcing is also important because it allows the readers to help choose what stories should be covered. It gives the reader a voice.

Patch.com is a community-based site covering local news that wouldn’t be seen in big-time newspapers. Just like Briggs states that crowdsourcing sites are made up of thousands of contributions, this is evident with Patch.

The site went from a small operation to a country-wide operation in just a few years thanks to those who helped give stories to be written about.

Not only does Patch allow contributors to give stories, they also have an area on the site that informs readers that if they come upon something in their town that catches their eye or is news-worthy to let the Patch editors know and they will have a writer cover that story ASAP! It is very cool stuff, but also a simple tactic:

Give the readers what they want.