The 21st Century News Challenge: What would YOU do?

I am alarmed by journalists' lack of online literacy. Beyond using Google, the thousands of journalists that I have taught to use online in their research are often lost when it comes to finding useful information or displaying data.

Knight should consider how it could encourage university journalism schools to integrate with technical and computer programming departments (computer sciences.) In every journalism school I know, there is a sort of wall between these two departments that inhibits cross learning. Journalism professors often/usually lack the knowledge and skill to teach Flash or database research. Even those who do have skills usually have inadequate computer resources to teach what they know. I know of one journalism department that applied for and landed Homeland Security money as a way to buy equipment.

New journalists who emerge from J-school with superior online skills would be employable and would have a leg up on their experienced colleagues. There are other reasons to consider this--read this short excerpt of an interview that OJR did with WashingtonPost.com's Adrian Holovaty, the creator of ChicagoCrime.org, a well-known smashup/mashup data site.

OJR: What is the value to a journalist in understanding programming, or even learning how to do it?

Holovaty: The main value in understanding programming is the advantage of knowing what's possible, in terms of both data analysis and data presentation. It helps one think of journalism beyond the plain (and kind of boring) format of the news story.

Programming comes in handy in all sorts of other areas, too, including gathering information. Now that quite a few governments and organizations are publishing data on their own websites, it's a valuable skill to be able to automate the retrieval of that data and compile it into a format that makes it easy to research and aggregate.

OJR: What should journalism schools be doing to prepare future journalists to work in a mash-up publishing universe?

Holovaty: J-schools need to get way more technical. A graduate of a journalism school should be a master of collecting data -- whether the old-fashioned way (by talking to humans) or through automated means.

The closest thing journalism schools currently have (to my knowledge) is computer-assisted reporting classes. Those classes should be required, in my opinion, and even better would be for j-schools to partner with computer-science departments so that journalism students would get some experience coding.

OJR: What types of information are newsrooms collecting right now, but most under-utilizing on their websites?

Holovaty: Much of the information that journalists collect, day to day, is structured. Information such as crime reports, obituaries and event listings always follow a certain pattern, which can be richly exploited by databases.

The majority of newspapers takes the time to *collect* this information -- which is the hard part -- but they dramatically reduce its value by NOT storing it in structured formats. Instead, they distill it into big blobs of text for publication in their print editions, and then they shovel those big blobs of text onto their websites. At this point, all structure is lost: Crime reports can't be sorted or searched intelligently, and event listings can't be viewed in any sort of user-friendly way.

The very act of distilling information into a news story -- which is essentially a big blob of text -- removes any sort of structure. Information is exponentially more valuable if it's structured.

So I urge news companies to retain as much structure in their information as possible. These days, it's easier and cheaper than ever to set up a database server. Just do it.

(read the rest of the interview) http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/060605niles/

thanks for all you do for our craft and for democracy,

Al Tompkins
The Poynter Institute

Thanks, Al. The Knight Foundation definitely would like to help create more ties between journalism schools and computer science departments. That easily could be one of the proposals for this RFP. How would one do that?

Gary Kebbel
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

I think the key to this whole extremely worthwhile project of yours is identifying, incubating and I think the key to this whole extremely worthwhile project of yours is identifying, incubating and proselytizing best practices – and to recognize that while getting newsrooms on board will be a huge and exciting challenge, the most significant initial hurdle is technology (amen to Al and, by extension, Adrian, above!)

Newspapers and their Web sites seem to have notoriously poor, tunnel-visioned technology support. We've been waiting 10 years for individual news Web sites to come up with killer apps, and at least judging from the Web sites I know best, they can barely get the paper out most days. By contrast, Google and Yahoo etc. are running circles around us. Thank goodness they don't have all our content (yet).

To recreate the indispensability and binding quality of newspapers in their communities, what the industry needs is plug-and-play community software tools. The ideal? Some sort of industrywide, platform-agnostic open source stuff, to which everyone can contribute improvements. Short of the ideal: At least some best practices.

To encourage proposals in that vein, before putting out a formal RFP, I would go out and find the people who are living and working on the cutting edge, who are taking even baby steps in the direction of connecting newsrooms to communities (via such things as databases, blogs, user content) and ask them what they need to get better; what's holding back their peers – and then offer to help. Possibly even get a bunch of them together to brainstorm. (And no, I'm not talking about senior editors, I'm talking about the people actually making/hacking the tools, i.e. Adrian.) (Yes, go read that piece Al linked to: )

The good news is that our newsrooms are sitting on goldmines of valuable community information that is not available to anyone else (at least not yet). If we can deliver it in geographic slices, we still have a chance.

I wrote a couple pieces for OJR after I stepped down as editor of washingtonpost.com. They're still applicable, and I encourage you to read them:
Ideas for Online Publications: Lessons From Blogs, Other Signposts

and
Why Beat Reporters Could Be News Sites' Greatest Secret Weapon

As I wrote in that first piece: "Someone is inevitably going to make a lot of money letting people know what's going on around them, based on their location. So who's it going to be?"

Best of luck with your exciting project! And thanks for giving me a chance to vent!

Dan, I not only read your OJR pieces, I still have them printed in a folder called "Ideas" that I periodically look at. And thanks for the good ideas above.

Gary

In response to "How can digital news be used to change communities for the better?" **

"Digital news" in a moment; first, "digital information," of which digital news is a subset.

The most important thing about digital access to information is that it allows people to discover more choices and make better decisions among their choices. Most people, most of the time, will make choices that provide better outcomes for themselves and those they care about. This includes their loved ones, their neighborhoods, groups to which they belong, their communities, and so on. This is not out of altruism, necessarily, but because it is a natural human instinct to seek an improved condition.

In the digital age, vastly more information is becoming available to vastly more people, with far less effort and far less cost. In some ways, this can be a bad thing; some people will make choices that will hurt others, or deceive others, squander their own value, or otherwise cut against the common good. Large and small horrors will occur as a result, as they always have. But the human miracle is that, in the main, people choose to make things better. So the effect of broadened access to information across history has been the broadening and democratization of opportunity and the overall improvement of the human condition.

This is happening now around the planet in the lives of individuals, and it will continue in this century at a pace far outstripping any other period in history, thanks to growing digital access to information. And inevitably, it is happening in communities as well, for all the same reasons. Give people more and better tools for access to information, exchange of information, dialogue, collaboration, and the joint processing of issues of common concern, and the general effect, over time, will be improvement in individual and collective living.

Stephen T. Gray
Managing Director, "Newspaper Next"
American Press Institute

**edited for brevity

In response to "What do you think is the missing link between Internet news and information and the development of actual communities?"

"The missing link is physical interaction. People need to gather together physically. You can't replace that. You can only go so long digitally before you have to bring people together in the physical world. I also think you need to think beyond your statement above about "democracy... organized by geography." In a digital democracy, you no longer have that barrier, so what is community today? Is it really about people who live near each other or people who share affinity groups, enthusiasts and others in the same psychographic and demographics? The New Newspaper Model can no longer rely merely on geographic 'community.' "

Laurel Touby
Founder, CEO
Mediabistro.com

I think a simple RFP will reach only those fortunate few who are in already-existing networks. A wider net must be cast to get fresh ideas from new corners and invaluable insight from those on the ground.

Lisa Vives
Executive Director
Global Information Network

In response to: "What do you think is the missing link between Internet news and information and the development of actual communities?"

The noise of the Internet. It is still way too hard to sort through everything the Internet contains, even with the newer filters and search engines. Taking it down to the community level, or developing tools and search engines, etc., that speak to community in a street-level way need to happen.

Peter Bhatia
Executive Editor
The Oregonian

I would look for proposals that addressed the issues faced by communities underrepresented in current news media, women, African Americans, immigrants and new Americans. I believe the Internet has been inadequately understood and used by most print news media. The sites have emphasized the ability to be instantly updated, often with huge diversions of personnel, while failing to tap its global reach and its relatively inexpensive ability to reach new audiences.

Rita Henley Jensen
Founder and Editor-in-Chief
Women's eNews

In response to: "How can cyberspace improve physical space?"

Through access to a greater range of news and opinions and by two-way dialogue.

Chris Jennewein
Vice President, Internet Operations
Union-Tribune Publishing Co.

Make it a national badge of honor for a community to reach a certain level of community news-ness. Some towns are "All American Cities"; others are "Tree Cities" - recognize news towns if they have a healthy mix of local, citizen media - community access radio and TV, a community paper, and a citizen journalism site. Brattleboro is a shining example of this sort of effort.

Get communities to feel proud of this designation - something businesspeople and politicians can promote with pride.

Christopher Grotke
iBrattleboro.com

In response to: "What is the biggest challenge to news in the 21st century":

Relevance: too much reporting at the national level is self-referential and irrelevant

Adam Clayton Powell III
Visiting Professor
Director of the Integrated Media Systems Center
USC Annenberg

In response to: "Do you think this request for proposal should be wide open, or should there be specific rules and categories?"

It depends on how many resources you have to devote to the problem. The benefits of open proposal requests includes the possibility that a random and unconventional idea will strike a diamond of an idea in an otherwise unexplored area. The benefits of constraining the request for proposals forces proposals to search for solutions in an area that you know will have some solutions, but these may not be the best solutions overall because these are likely areas that you have already explored. It depends on how many resources you can afford for the acceptance of single or multiple proposals including time-spans and necessary milestone points as well as the financial aspects.

Bo Morgan
Graduate Student
MIT Media Lab

Get people out from their computers and out into their communities. Look for offline applications, high value functions that have logical online components and offer those constituencies a chance get help, connect and use the tools online to facilitate their real world goals. Also why not use some of this money to do some things the "old fashioned" way and then see if you can learn where technology can make a difference.

Elizabeth Osder
Director
Global Product Management, Yahoo!

*This comment is being reposted to clarify Osder's title

I would emphasize proposals that are based on portfolios, pilot projects, things you can actually see before you sign off on a grant. In this era of cheap devices and cheap internet access, there is no reason that an applicant can't actually show you what s/he's produced and talk about what impact it has had.

Lee Rainie
Founding Director
Pew Internet & American Life Project

In response to: "What do you think is the missing link between Internet news and information and the development of actual communities?"

Most Internet news and commentary is about national/ international news and politics. What's missing is original reporting on the local level, especially outside of NY/LA/SF.

Jonathan Weber
Publisher & Editor in Chief
New West - The Voice of the Rocky Mountains
www.newwest.net

In response to: "Do you think this request for proposal should be wide open, or should there be specific rules and categories?"

Leave it open. People should be free to think within the box, outside the box or on another plane altogether. Some answers will be outlandish, but that's what they said about "Star Trek" too. Thanks to those outlandish people we have cell phones, CDs and computers at hospital beds. All ideas in all forms should be welcome.

Joshua Evans Johnson
Anchor/Reporter
WLRN Herald News

In response to: Should we focus on new ideas, advancing current ideas, developing prototypes, establishing leadership projects -- or all of these? Leaving it open-ended for applicants will probably encourage the highest degree of innovation. When selecting proposals to fund, though, I suggest you keep an eye peeled for ideas that do not depend too much on supplying information. With these, you are likely to end up with more of the same -- text and more text, which no one has time to read.

Filtering, discussing, condensing, sorting, summarizing, and presenting in hierarchies -- these functions have great value in a world of information abundance! How can people identify the most pressing issues in their communities? How can they set priorities? How can they know what to push their elected officials to work on first? We don't need more new writing. We need locally relevant databases and search tools -- coupled with live humans on the ground -- a la Meetup.com or Upcoming.org.

Mindy McAdams
University of Florida

On the theory that it is hard to predict where the next big idea will come from, the RFP should be in the broadest terms possible and open to the broadest range of potential grant recipients possible, including those from other countries. Innovation and initiative know no boundaries.

It may be we could learn how to "improve the flow of journalism, information and news in the public interest in America's communities" from colleagues grappling with the same issues, perhaps with fewer resources or alternatives.

Nancy Ward
Vice President and Managing Director
Independent Journalism Foundation

I think the process should be as open as possible. One of the very smart things that Walt Disney Imagineering does is begin projects with a phase called "Blue Sky". Everything is on the table; nothing is too outlandish or expensive or new or daunting. From there they determine what they want to happen, and then find ways to make it happen. Anyone who's been to Walt Disney World lately can attest: they're masters at turning great ideas into great vacations, massive profits, and a customer loyalty that is second to none.

Obviously the suggestions from inside the mainstream media aren't working, so we'd better be willing to take a risk or two. Granted, different applicants will have different qualification levels for following through on a great idea and making it happen, but why can't there be some way to match brilliant ideas up with the people who will make them happen, ensuring the idea's integrity and the fiscal responsibility? Everyone, from every sector of the nation, with a clearly articulated idea and a vision for making it happen, should be in on the game. Priority should be given to those with the qualities necessary to see their project through, but good ideas can come from anywhere.

The trick, I'll admit, would be matching the ideas up with people who can make them a reality. But hey, if Disney can do it, then can't we do it too?

I've been underwhelmed with academic and nonprofit organizations' projects in citizens' media, as well as by the efforts of large media organizations to organize top-down citizens' media. All the great stuff I'm seeing is coming from individuals who are on a mission. But it's really difficult for these folks to get established.

I would love to see is a sort of MacArthur Grant for citizen journalists. Say, $100,000 give you the time or resources to make your site all it could be. It could carry with it the commitment to mentor up-and-coming citizen journalists in some formalized fashion.

There are plenty of worthy recipients for this kind of grant, and I think you would get results would make everyone sit up and take notice.

As Knight Foundation continues to investigate how to solicit proposals to improve news and community, we want to share some points from a discussion with our journalism advisory committee.

We asked the committee about our ideas to seek proposals to do in cyberspace what the Knight brothers did in real space. How do we create proposals that help people improve their lives where they live and work? How do we help shape news and community?

Here are some key points from the discussion.

• It's important to support actual communities. Physical space must benefit from cyberspaces.

• What we don't want is really good versions of what we've already thought of. We want really new stuff.

• Focus on credibility. Knight newspapers were valued and successful because they were believed.

• Would the foundation function as an incubator for these ideas? Would you fund the incubator? Operate the incubator?

• These ideas need some sort of business development model.

• The best types of projects would be the ones that start out local and can be exported to be localized in other areas.

• Daily newspapers put armies of reporters on the streets. Some people see bloggers as a substitute, but they aren't professionals reporters.

• There has to be a mechanism that finances actual reporting. What makes this different? It should be that the proposal produces true journalism.

• Look at the organizations that have created local franchises online like Craigslist. I wonder if there'd be a way of piggybacking something like that to create the kind of virtual community, or at least information sharing that we'd like.

• It's important for the process to be as wide open as possible to bring in as many different ideas from as many different sectors as possible. Our bias is open-source so people can do anything, anywhere. We aren't trying to be the next MySpace or to create some proprietary software. We want ideas popping out of the manholes.

• Let's create competition. I think one place to create competition is commercial products where people have to create something to survive.

• We all agree that we need to support actual reporting, but it's going to look different. The more open the process, the better. We don't know when we sit here what new vehicles for good reporting are going to look like.

• What's the best new way to get paid for doing reporting? I'm not sure how to go about it, but if you could get paid for reporting, you'd have the beginning at least of support for journalism in that community.

• Technology is only reaching a certain percentage of our communities. How do we bring it to communities that don't have it? Then how do we train them to use this technology?

• Does Knight Foundation need to be the venture capitalist? Should we hire someone else to be the VC? Should we do what Ford Foundation does and bring the VC and the grantees together?

The focus on credibility (and quality) is important, as is the concept of keeping the communities real, not simply cyber. Bringing technology to the underserved is a good idea, so that all voices can be heard in the debate.

Thanks for posting that excellent synthesis. I applaud you all for asking great questions and recognizing good answers when you hear them. Another victory for the journalistic skill set!

I know that earlier you were trying to identify "the missing link between Internet news and information and the development of actual communities." I am the one who saw "jobs for journalists" as the missing link. I think you are absolutely right to focus on a business development model that will support well-educated and, yes, well paid professional reporters. Democratic society needs and deserves to have professional journalists walking the physical beat of our communities, yet able to report with quality and accuracy, making useful regional/state/national/global connections through common sense questions in the public interest. This need will continue to be there, in the exact same way the Knight brothers always seemed to recognize and value. This is a career path that seems endangered right now, yet so much depends on its future. I feel very strongly that the future of journalism is nowhere if not in journalists themselves. These are the people who can"be" that link you describe, over a lifetime of skill and service that should be rewarded and valued. As Eric Newton wrote earlier this year "giving everyone first aid kits doesn't make us all doctors."

Whatever new business model evolves, please let it not depend on a personnel system that trades on idealism and later discounts, burns out and discards the most experienced workers in the field.

I agree that you will likely get some "really good versions of what you've already thought of" in your process, and there's nothing wrong with that. I hope some of those versions are deployed and tested. But you are also right to be looking for inspired invention, new ideas, outside any familiar box we've come to live in (or depend on). An exciting new model of the ideal data-to-user interface will be needed and journalists will need to be trained and confident on a "craft" level with new media to work with it most effectively.

The pot of gold at the end of this rainbow will be a great business model that can flourish and deliver quality "news and information," is compelling to readers, does not compromise credibility or journalistic ethics.

If the business model adds value to the enterprise in its own way, as classified ads always did, (or any ads that provide information the reader wants, even if it's what time the movie starts or which night is the prime rib special) so much the better. I am biased to public media models, but think that perhaps the time is coming where we need a hybrid model. The ideal business model to my way of thinking would have a lot in common with the " break-even with a nest egg" type of go-go nonprofit institution (or public broadcaster, and I think there are some of those). But it would also have earmarks of the entrepreneurial opportunism, competitive product in the hands of a great sales force, financial skill and management savvy that one sees in the best businesses. I'm sure there are some models already out there. I don't know.

There's more to say but this is already perhaps more than you wanted in one post! Meter's up! I confess, I was inspired by the advisory board's thinking, the good questions, and the excitement of the sweet moment that comes before the actual moment of invention. I guess this is it!? Thanks for the invitation to notice that, and to participate today.

Beth Parke, Society of Environmental Journalists

To do in cyberspace what the Knight Brothers did in real space presents a degree of difficulty even the Knight brothers didn’t face. They already had form (newsprint) and the basic delivery model (newspapers) from which they evolved very successful business enterprises that served communities exquisitely.

Now, the basic electronic form is not fully evolved and changing, metaphorically, at light speed. This makes success even more challenging.

Several things are necessary to develop a community model and the Journalism Advisory Committee has enumerated key ones:

• It has to be new, alluringly and cleverly marketed as its finds its audience.
• Whatever it is, it must be credible and support of professional reporting capability is essential.
• Though the local franchise is essential and a primary goal, it would make sense for a demonstration project or two to explore wider communities, sectors if you will, that reach beyond boundaries. What expertise is available locally that could become a major addition and revenue producer: autos in Detroit, banking via Charlotte, the aircraft industry in Wichita and Seattle and so on.

Scott Bosley, Executive Director
American Society of Newspaper Editors