US regional paper tries networked journalism

Posted by Martin Stabe on 5 October 2006 at 13:09
Tags: Journalism, Networked Journalism

Dan Gillmor of the Center for Citizen Media points out an effort by the Indianapolis Star to get its readers’ help in reporting stories.

Star columnist Dennis Ryerson explains:

Traditionally, reporters go to official sources and spend a lot of time digging out public documents to prepare news stories. We spend hours searching for people who may be affected by the decisions of school officials, city leaders, and others whose work affects our lives.

One thing we haven’t done much of is this: Ask.

We rarely if ever ask for the public’s help when we research an important issue [...]

Why? In part, because the highly competitive nature of our business — we want to be first with the most — makes us reluctant to tip off our TV, weekly print and online competitors to what we are doing.

And in part, it may be because of professional arrogance. We know what we are doing and we don’t need your help, thank you very little.

That has to change. Readers have a great deal of information and experiences and we’d like them to share those things with us. So in the future, we will be more open about asking for your help.

The Star calls it “crowd sourcing”, but if done well it could also become an example of the “networked journalism” that Jeff Jarvis has been advocating — the non-adverserial collaboration between professional and amateur reporters.

Tags: Journalism, Networked Journalism