Paying for Improvements: the Knight News Challenge

Incentives

Journalists need to keep up with technology in order to survive in the modern world. The Knight News Challenge gives people incentives to search for new ways to give fresh community news or information out in digitally innovative and visually appealing ways. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation awards up to $5 million a year and intends to give at least $35 million in total over the five years. The Knight Foundation has given more than $300 million since 1950 to help advance journalism.

A creative bunch

So what does it take to get a piece of that $5 million?

• One of the winners last year was Andrius Kulikauskas for his project "The Includer."Kulikauskas planned to blog about ways to give rural areas devices that could read USB drives. That way, people could transport news from places like Internet cafes to places that don't have Internet. Several of last year's winners had projects that would give people in rural places access news digitally.

• Aaditeshwar Seth's project was "Community Radio in India." It connects rural radio stations to the Internet for a much lower cost than creating stations in India.

It seems like many of the winners wanted to extend the reach of news because they believe everyone deserves the ability to know what is going on in the world.

We'll take whatever we can get

These funded endeavors are very worthwhile, because not everyone has enough money to start up their own program or news idea. Opportunities like the Knight News Challenge are important for people who have no other way to get their projects up and running.

Bright ideas

The "Printcasting" project by Dan Pacheco sounds very interesting and fun. It is innovative because it has proposed allowing any individual to create their own unique ad-supported publication. It is also very sustainable because the Internet has recently had an explosion of do-it-yourself ventures. Citizen journalism has been one of these ventures through blogging.

Time to brainstorm

Entering a contest like this would be fun, mind-provoking, and rewarding. The idea of extending news to the whole world is something that should happen eventually. It is depressing to think that some people are not able to find out any news online. It is hard to imagine a life without CNN, Google, or even Perez Hilton. The idea of penetrating rural areas is very appealing and would be something to develop for the future and possibly enter in a contest like the Knight News Challenge.

It is stronger to desire than to be forced

Although some people really need funding for their projects, they are not coming up with these ideas just because they are greedy for a couple hundred thousand dollars. These people genuinely want to move online journalism forward. Journalism schools like USC Annenberg cannot force students to want to innovate and develop new things. They have to desire changes and improvements in the news world because they see that there is always room to make something better. And the money from the Knight News Challenge would just be a bonus.

Opening Opportunities for Online News

The Knight News Challenge is a contest designed to encourage people to use digital media in innovative ways to deliver information and news. To enter, three criteria must be met:

1. The idea must use digital technology
2. It must serve the public interest
3. The idea should target and benefit a specific community

The project is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight foundation, and in 2008 gave away over $5 million to help develop projects. 

Winning Ideas

Angela Antony and Sandra Ekong

Antony and Ekong, both seniors at Harvard, came up with The Beanstockd Project. The idea is to encourage green living using an interactive game. Players could use technology like cell phones and Facebook to keep track of their imprint on the environment, as well as see how they compare to others in the area. The project is geared toward areas like college campuses where students could team up to reduce their environmental impact or compete with each other to see who has the smallest effect on the community or natural resources. Antony and Ekong won $40,000 for their idea. 

Dharmishta Rood and Anthony Pesce

Rood and Pesce's idea was to create software geared toward mobile editing for college journalists, called the Community News Network. College students could use the system to assign and edit stories, photos and videos to put on college websites. Users could also submit their own material, and communicate with other journalists. Rood and Pesce, both UCLA students who write for the Daily Bruin, won $275, 000 to develop and experiment with their idea. 

Common Themes

I chose these two winning teams because they also won the Young Creators Award. This award is for entrants under 25 years of age. This appealed to me because it shows how important the young generation is in developing the next stages of the relationship between journalism and technology.

I also liked these ideas because they targeted college students and young journalists. New technologies are most likely to be embraced by journalists just now entering the field, and it seems that these winners really understood that by gearing their projects toward that market. 

The actual content of their ideas was very different, but both were meant to serve a small community, specifically college campuses. By increasing the amount of information the college students or journalists could submit through Rood and Pesce's idea, college students are likely to be more informed and aware. Similarly, Antony and Ekong's idea makes college students more aware of their environmental impact, which not only serves the college community but also the larger area in which that college is located. 

The Future of Journalism

I think contests like these are very important in keeping journalism up to date. Newspapers and broadcast journalism are indispensable, but journalism has to keep up with new technology and outlets. Encouraging new ideas and providing the funding for them is critical. 

I can't say for myself that I would enter a contest like this, mostly because my knowledge and understanding of technology is pretty limited. But I think the participation of the younger generation is definitely necessary, since they're the future of journalism. Promoting their ideas and efforts will only serve to improve journalism, as well as further journalism's foray into the digital world. 

While contests like these certainly support innovative ideas, journalism schools also need to play a bigger role. I never would have even known about this contest, so I think spreading information about opportunities like these would be the first step. Additionally, I think an emphasis on new technologies is important. If I knew how to develop software or think about journalism in terms of media and technology rather than just content and style, a contest like this would not be out of the question. 

The Knight News Challenge: Encouraging Innovation in News

The goal of the Knight News Challenge is to, "spur innovation in the delivery of information and news using digital media" - Knight News Challenge web site. The Knight News Challenge tries to accomplish this goal by offering as much as $5 million to someone who can find an innovative solution using digital media to connect people with the news and information that matters most to them.

The Knight News Challenge is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Prior Winners

Here are two prior winners that really stood out to me:

 Alexander Zolotarev

The Project: Zolotarev designed a project called the Sochi Olympics Project so that the people of Sochi (A Russian resort city hosting the 2014 winter olympics) can use online tools to both discuss and influence the impact of the games. The Sochi community will be able to track and discuss how plans for the games will be changing life in the city in the coming years, so that residents can better prepare for the event and its affects on the city.

David Cohn

The Project: Cohn designed a project that will provide a new way to pay for local investigative reporting by using the public for financial support. Called Spot Journalism, the project aims to have independent journalists and residents propose story ideas, and Spot Journalism will use the web to seek small payments from many donors to cover costs. Once enough payments are acquired, a journalist will be hired to do the reporting. Spot Journalism aims to provide a way to uncover issues important to a community by giving a voice to the community.

These two winning projects stood out to me for two reasons. 

1.  They seemed the most simple yet innovative at the same time. These were two ideas I never would have thought of and yet they seem pretty practical. I also had never heard any variations of these concepts before so that added to my impression of their originality.
   
2. They both address a common theme, which is giving a voice to a certain community. Those living in a town where an olympics is going to be held should have input into how much they want the games to effect their city. And investigative reports should be a public service for the people of a community, so if they want an issue looked into, then it probably should be examined. 
   

Is it worth it?

In examining the question of whether funded endeavors such as the Knight News Challenge are worth the money and effort, I certainly have to say the answer is undoubtedly YES!!! The unfortunate truth is that people are lazy and need something (such as a financial reward) to inspire and motivate them to take action. However, once motivated to act the innovations some of the winners have come up with are incredible and if they pan out will certainly do great things for communities throughout the world in the future. So, I re-iterate that yes, funded endeavors such as the Knight News Challenge are definitely worthwhile. 

However, that being said, I would never consider entering a contest like the Knight News Challenge because:

1. I don't have enough faith in my own creative abilities to think of a project worthy enough to be funded with large amounts of money. 
2. If I were to come up with a good idea and receive the money, I'm not sure I would have the patience to see the project all the way through.
3. I'm lazy and money is not enough of a motivating factor for me.

What else can motivate?

Honestly, to take on the task of tinkering and experimenting with new online news concepts and products, the motivation has to come from within. Money and other rewards are nice, but there needs to be some sort of intrinsic motivation within a person to truly push them to want to take on the task of essentially being an inventor and coming up with new ways to spread news on the web. 

I don't have that intrinsic motivation when it comes to experimenting, and I don't believe there is anything a journalism school such as Annenberg can do to encourage innovation and experimentation for people like myself. That's not to say I'm not motivated to further my career in journalism and be the best reporter, producer, photographer, etc. that I can be. I just have other ambitions for how I want to shape the world of journalism that don't involve coming up with ideas for how to best to deliver online news. 

I'm sure there are others who are just as stubborn as I am about how they want to impact the profession of journalism, and for some that may involve coming up with new ideas for ways to spread news online. But, the passion and motivation for taking on these types of projects has to come from within, and so I see no reason for journalism schools to try and push innovation and experimentation more than they do already.

Knight News Challenge: Economic Incentive for Innovative Journalism

The Knight News Challenge plans to invest $25 million dollars over the course of five years, and with and in the organizations third year, they are well on their way. The news challenge aims to make both professional and citizen journalists think outside the box in terms of content and how that content is communicated.



Show me the money!



The 17 winners of the 2008 Knight News Challenge won awards totaling in the millions of dollars, and in 2009, the contest will award an additional $5 million for the "development and distribution of neighborhood and community-focused projects, services, and programs." Applicants are selected based on the following criteria:

1. Use or create digital, open-source technology as the code base.
2. Serve the public interest.
3. Benefit one or more specific geographic communities

The Knight News Challenge is a project supported by the John F. and James L. Knight Foundation's Journalism Program. The Knight Foundation also helps to other prominent news initiatives like News 21, which develops college journalism students as investigative reporters, and the Knight Citizen News Network, which encourages community journalism.




The Winners

The largest award handed out in the 2008 Knight News Challenge was given to Bev Clark. Clark was awarded $876,000 for an innovative way to obtain news through telephone communication. Clark's Freedom Fone would allow to access "news and public-interest information via land, mobile, or Internet phones" by means of a voice data base. Clark's data base system is designed to work like a private phonetree allowing users to call in for information, leave voicemails with questions, and listen to information from radio broadcasts. The Freedom Fone will be tested in Zimbabwe.



Another Knight News Challenge winner were partners Sir Tim Berners and Lee Martin Moore for his idea "to design a way for content creators to add information on their sources to their reporters, as a form of 'source tagging.'" This idea, which falls under the category of transparent journalism, would allow reporters to "tag" their stories as observations, interviews with eye witnesses, primary documents, etc. allowing news consumers to get the best information possible. For this idea, the team was awarded $350,000.



What does this mean for journalism?

Initiatives like the Knight News Challenge can only benefit the field of journalism. Through such programs, journalists are encouraged to create and develop new ways and forms of communication. Bringing news to people in different formats is what will allow the industry to grow in truly trying times.

The Knights try to find the next big thing

What are they all about?
In 2009, the Knights News Challenge will give out 5 million dollars to help with development and distribution of neighborhood community projects and services. The idea is to look for the next big plan that will help improve online news, and the Knights News Challenge will provide funding for it. There are three rules to the 2009 Knights News Challenge.
1. Use or create digital, open-source technology as the code base.
2. Serve the public interest.
3. Benefit one or more specific geographic communities.

The Knight Foundation funds the program, and has given out more then 300 million dollars since 1950.


Winners



In 2007, Chris Csikszentmihályi, Mitchel Resnick, and

Henry Jenkins won an incredible 5 million dollars when they created their Center for Future Civic Media. The program is "a leadership project designed to encourage community news experiments and new technologies and practices." These three are professors from MIT, and took home the grand prize that year.

Also is 2007 was Adrian Holovaty with his creation of Everyblock, which helps create, test, and relate open source software to allow citizens of a neighborhood to get more information about their city block. this program could come in handy when it comes to learning about the residents of your neighborhood, and could be a valuable tool for potential home owners when doing research about new places to live. This I feel is an incredible tool, and definitely worthy of the prize that it won.


Winning Themes

Ultimately what I saw was alot of software that gives power to the people, and along those lines gives power to a large amount of people. Also, it helps to improve the quality of journalism, making sure that only the best stuff is seen. I saw this first in the Transparent Journalism program that awarded 350,000 dollars to Sir Tim Bernes-Lee and Martin Moore. In a world where print journalism is dying and the vast amount of online journalism, which at times can be inaccurate due to the desire to be first not accurate, any programs that increase the value of journalism are worth while in my opinion.

Whats Next?
I feel like this is an incredible program, and one that I would be very interested in being a part of. Its not something that i was aware existed before this assignment. I feel if the teachers at SC has alerted us of such an opportunity, I would be very interested to work with a team that could possibly create the next five million dollar winner. It would not be easy, but nothing in the world of journalism is. As the old saying goes, knowledge is power, and in this case, knowing of such a great program could create some of the greatest ideas yet to come.

Challenging Minds during Challenging Times

The Knight News Challenge gives $5 million away to anyone who enters the contest with an innovative, useful idea for improving community-focused and neighborhood online journalism.

It's funded by the Knight Foundation, which has given more than $300 million since 1950 for the improvement of journalism.

THE WINNERS


Bev Clark won $876,000 last year for her project called the "Freedom Fone," which allows people to dial a certain number on any type of phone to contribute and access news in Zimbabwe. The project seems innovative and helpful, but I don't think it's very practical. If people do not have access to the Internet or an Internet cafe where they can access news, they probably will not have access to a phone, either.

Professor Guy Berger won $630,400 last year for his project called, "The News is Coming." It involves disseminating news from the mostly white urban center in Grahamstown, South Africa to the mostly black outskirts via cell phone. I thought this project was also innovative and helpful, and this one seemed more practical because it focuses on broad dissemination. By disseminating the news this way, people who don't own cell phones will probably still be able to get the news by word of mouth of their neighbors who do have cell phones.

WINNING THEME

The common theme I noticed in the winning entries was that they all tried to address either the quality of reporting or the amount of access. In sum, they contributed to good journalism, because good journalism involves disseminating knowledge as accurately as possible to as many people as possible. In general, the contest seems to award people who show an interest in improving online journalism for others.

WORTHWHILE?

I believe that funded endeavors such as these are worthwhile because they inspire people who wouldn't otherwise have an initiative to use their brains in a beneficial way. However, I also believe that people who enter the contest with good ideas would have had them anyway. The award just gets more people involved - whether or not their involvement is worthwhile. But overall, it's a noble endeavor.

I would probably consider entering a contest like this if I already had a great idea, or if I really needed the money. Perhaps I would focus on getting the news to apathetic teenagers in public schools in a more attractive way, since I know there are teenagers in some cities who would pay attention to the news if they received interesting tidbits via text message, etc. The difficulty would be coming up with specifics - like what city, who will choose the interesting but significant tidbits that we send to the teenagers, etc.

WHAT ELSE CAN BE DONE?

I think what we need for motivation is optimism. Almost every single teacher and guest speaker I have for my journalism classes is being really pessimistic, saying that we should all realize that we're doomed and we'll probably not get jobs for years after we graduate. I think that's a silly, pointless mentality. Sure, they're laying people off like crazy. But they're going to need to hire new people eventually, and the first people they'll look to is us - after all, we're fresh out of college; therefore, they don't need to pay us that much.

So optimism never hurts because otherwise we'll feel like we need to curl up into hopeless little balls of worthlessness.

Innovative News

The Knight News Challenge is a group that promotes the creation of innovative social media experiments by giving away about $5 million to people who have improved Web 2.0 and made online journalism more interactive and exciting.

Past Winners

David Cohn

Cohn, a winner in 2008, created something called Spot Journalism that allowes investigative reporters to solicit for financial support from the public. Independent journalists can propose stories and through the Web then seek "micro-payments" to cove the costs.


Jessica Mayberry

Mayberry, a winner in 2008, created a nonprofit called Video Volunteers that traints 100 people in rural India to become "Community Video Producers" who will help you produce news reports on local social issues.



Though both these projects are interesting, I wonder how "innovative" they really are. Having people in India create your video documentaries for you doesn't seem to be very creative or help the online media world very much. The Spot Journalism idea is certainly helpful for journalists but it doesn't directly advance online journalism.

However, these projects are worthwhile. Helping fund people's ideas and inventions is a good way to help spur on innovation and creation. Only through bad ideas can good ideas every be formed.

While I admire people with courage to enter these types of contests, I never would. First, I would have to have an idea good enough to enter such a contest. Second, I would be too worried that my idea was silly.

What's so challenging about news?

Every industry is driven by innovation. And innovation is often driven by money (and even if you don't think so, everyone knows it definitely helps). The news industry is no different. With more layoffs, loss of profits, dwindling circulation and a changing readership with changing ideas of what "news" is, the need for innovation in the newsroom has never been greater. 

That's where the Knight News Challenge comes in. 

The Knights News Challenge awards up to $5 million a year for new ideas that develop new anythings that will help change the way people send, receive and view news (and blogging, twittering, posting, etc.)

If you have a great idea that will improve local online news, deepen community engagement, bring Web 2.0 tools to local neighborhoods, develop publishing platforms and standards to support local conversations or innovate how we visualize, experience or interact with information, we’d like to see it!

The challenge is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which according its website, has granted more than $300 million to advance quality journalism and freedom of expression. Sounds pretty cool.

A great example:

My favorite project was Transparent Journalism.


This project aims to help people filter news stories using tags that will alert readers as to who is reporting the story.

For instance, a reporter could note that an article was based on personal observations, interviews with eyewitnesses or specific, original documents. Filters would then use this data - the “story behind the story” - to help find high-quality articles.

This is an extremely useful new technology because right now, it is hard to tell who is writing a story and where. The Los Angeles Times recently began to add datelines to their stories. So if  a person is reporting on crime in Iraq and is filing from Baghdad, you know the reporter is in the action, not just copying stories from the wires, a very useful function. 

But in addition to this, the transparency journalism would let readers know where a person got the information, showing the audience who the sources are. Did they see the event? Does the article reference a classified document? 

In other words, you can more easily decide whether you trust the sources because you know what the source is. 

Observations+Opinions

Many of these projects have a common thread: mobile and local. People will be able to use cell phones and similar technology edit, upload or download news. And in many cases, using this mobile technology will post local news.

Funded endeavors are worthwhile because it encourages people to think outside of the box without worrying about money. It can also help accelerate an idea's development or help produce something tha tmight be just out of the reach for the innovator. I would enter a contest myself — I just haven't thought of the next $5 million idea yet. 

Journalism schools such as Annenberg already try to encourage students, having plenty of opportunities to hear people speak about the future of journalism. But in many classes, students follow a strict curriculum that doesn't allow them to experiment. Allowing students to take more risks should remedy this.

Journalism without Boundaries

The Knight News Challenge asks ordinary people like us to invent programs that make distributing and creating news a lot easier. Everyone should be able to get news, be it world/international or community news. Just because you may not have the resources others have doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to get news.

The organization gives away $5 million to many winners. In order to qualify, your project must follow three guidelines:

1. It must use digital, open-source technology as the code base. The technology can also be created.
2. It must serve the public interest.
3. It must benefit one or more specific geographic regions.

It seems as if the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation funds the project. This foundation concentrates on promoting journalism excellence worldwide.

Previous Winners
Bev Clark
Clark created the Freedom Fone. It allows people to access news and public interest information through land, mobile or Internet phones. Users can dial specific numbers to get the information they're looking for. People can even leave messages with questions and answers to each other. This invention will allow poor people in to receive and access information. It's going to be tested in Zimbabwe.

Tony Shawcross
Shawcross invented Tools for Public Access TV. It will allow people to create websites that make transferring video from TV stations to a website easier. He beleives this program can help disadvantaged communities get new media platforms. His goal for creating this was to help public access TV and community technology centers become part of a collective, online media network that is user-driven.

Common Themes in Winners

• Both focus on helping the disadvantaged.

As I mentioned before, everyone should be able to get news regardless of the techonology available. Therefore, Shawcross and Clark both invented technology that would make accessing news easier for the disadvantaged.

• They're both really "new" media.

The idea of having a phone that can give you information upon dialing a number is really futuristic. If you thought having the Internet was cool and that is made finding information easy, think again. The Freedom Fone could make the Internet look old school.

Trends point towards everything being online. TV networks have to think about transferring their broadcasts and programs online since more and more people go online every day. Therefore, creating a program that will allow the transfer of video from TV to online easier could save networks from dying out. In fact, it could even convince a lot of the die-hard traditionalists that moving into new media isn't that complicated or hard.

My Opinions
I think funded endeavors like the winners of Knight News Challenge are worthwhile. Being able to access news no matter where you are should be a given. Furthermore, everyone should be able to get information no matter their income. Because papers, TV, and computers cost money, not everyone knows the latest headlines. Projects that close the economic status barrier make news more public-oriented, which is what I believe news was created for - to be disseminated to everyone.

Such endeavors also follow the trend of moving toward new media. More and more people are turning to new media each day. It wouldn't surprise me if traditional media were phased out many generations down the road. If people continue to create more technology-driven, web-saavy, no boundaries kind of media, there won't be a need for actual newspapers and TVs anymore.

It used to be that you had to get to a newsstand to buy a paper in order to read it. But now it's available online. You don't have to spend money buying a hard copy. Just go on the Internet and you can read it for free. Yes, the Internet does cost money and not everyone has access. Therefore, inventions like the Freedom Fone could solve this problem.

TV hasn't gotten as far as papers. Transferring video online can be difficult and newscasts aren't broadcasted online yet. Therefore, you have to find a TV to watch the primetime news. However, if inventions like Tools for Public Access TV continue to be invented, it could phase out the need for an actual TV.

So in the end, while I would probably never enter a contest such as the Knight News Challenge without a tech-saavy partner, such contests create an incentive for people to put their ideas into actual inventions.

A Fresh Look

Sometimes it take a new pair of eyes to see the best path toward the future. And when it comes to Journalism, The Knight News Challenge is searching for those fresh eyes.

Innovative journalists are asked to submit a general synopsis of their idea for a new outlet or tool of journalism and, if it's good, they are then asked to submit a formal proposal. The Knight News Challenge asks that submissions address all these categories:

1. DIGITAL - uses digital technology

2. INNOVATIVE - idea is new and ground-breaking in some way

3. NEWS/INFORMATION - about the dissemination of information

4. TIMELY - delivering fresh news

5. COMMUNITY-BUILDING - helps create a sense of community

6. LIMITED GEOGRAPHIC AREA - affects people in a specific area

7. OPEN SOURCE - will be visible to the world so that the idea can be improved upon

Not only do these requirements build upon the cardinal rules of journalism, but their emphasis on new media and on journalism shows the direction in which news is heading. As technology improves, so must news journalism take advantage of those improvements. This emphasis on new technologies is evident in examples of the chosen winners...many of which use cell phones as a way to search for news. The cell phone not only makes news accessible at any time, but is an equalizer in situations where people can not afford computers.

In addition, the emphasis on creating a sense of community with the proposals highlights the general fear within the news business that there is just too much news, too many ways of recieving it, and too few measurements to gauge what people really want from their news sources.

AN INTERESTING PROPOSAL

One winning proposal for 2008 was put forth by David Cohn, graduate of Columbia University grad journalism program and editor-in-chief of citizen journalist Broowaha. His proposal for community-funded investigative journalism called Spot Journalism was interesting, but perhaps a little idealistic.

Cohn's proposal is that people in a community will invest money into the stories they want investigated. This, of course, would be for deeper investigative pieces rather than just a news brief. It is a fascinating idea but, would an apathetic population really reach into their pockets for a good story? And wouldn't these investors come from a small pool of consumers?

Pros:

There are a lot of great positives in Cohns proposal, including:

1. Journalists will know exactly what their audience wants to read about

2. The community will be directly involved in their news consumption

3. People will care about the stories and thus investigative reports are more likely to inspire change.

Cons:

Unfortunately, there are a lot of glaring holes in Cohns proposal, as well:

1. Personally, I don't think that people in any one community will really care enough about a story to invest money into it other than maybe once every few years.

2. The pool of news consumers who are avid news readers AND have disposable income is probably fairly small...and growing smaller in today's economy.

3. Only stories that people have heard about will be investigated rather than the journalist finding a story that people don't even know they would be interested in.

Of course, the best part about the ideas posted on the Knight News Challenge website is that they are open to everyone's critique and can be altered into something that really may change the face of Jounalism.

This aspect of the program, more than any other, makes the Knight News Challenge worthwile to me. If these ideas were just being proposed to bigwigs who then patted people on the head and handed out money...nothing would ever get done. But since the Knight News Challenge itself makes an effort to create a community out of its idea creations, that is where change will really begin.

And it is about time that Journalism schools across the country followed their lead. Colleges are supposed to be a bastion of innovation and in a field like journalism, where innovation is the only key to survival, that's exactly what colleges need to become.

It's time for Journalism Schools across the U.S. to use college students as an asset to the future of journalism.

As fresh eyes.

Challenge to change journalism

Knight News Challenge

The Knight Foundation is a nonprofit organization that aims to improve the quality of journalism and ensure that local communities are well-informed. As a part of its plan to do so, it has created a contest called the Knight News Challenge. This is the third year the Knight Foundation has invited people to submit innovative ideas that could transform the manner in which communities get information. It awards as much as $5 million each year so that winners can make their concepts a reality within certain communities.

Previous Winners

Bev Clark--awarded $876,000

She came up with a plan for a freedom fone that will allow the public to access to access news and other relevant information using land, mobile and/or Internet phones. Clark will test her product in Zimbabwe in hopes that it will enable the poor to recieve and contribute information more easily.




Dan Pacheco--awarded $837,000

He designed a software called printcasting that would allow users to customize. Choosing among aggregate feeds from news organizations or bloggers, people can create a "niche publication." Pictures, articles and ads can be arranged using templates. When completed, it can either be printed out or distributed via email.


Does this work?
While this contest may not find an immediate solution to transform journalism, it is a great way to encourage innovation when it comes to informing the public. This project gives people the opportunity to improve local news for at least a few targeted communities each year. In this way, the Knight Foundation is focusing its mission to better journalism rather than trying to change things as a whole in a more general sense.

Knight News Challenge

Knight News Challenge is an organization dedicated to serving the community through an online platform. They seek social entrepreneurs and innovators who are committed to developing neighborhood and community-based projects, programs and services. Their mission is to sponsor those with groundbreaking, new ideas to create platforms or tools that will revolutionize online media. It is an annual contest, in which they distribute $5 million to various people for them to foster their ideas.

The Knight News Challenge was started by John S. and James L. Knight, two brothers who were American publishers and editors and started the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, a non-profit organization promoting quality journalism.

Amongst the winners of 2008, "Transparent Journalism" was extremely fascinating. Headed by Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Martin Moore, both British media experts, the project aims to create a system called "source tagging," which will allow content creators to add additional articles or sources to their reports. Users will not only be able to find related articles, but also be able to filter exactly what type of related articles they want (for example, eyewitness accounts or related articles by a particular publication). Berners-Lee and Moore started this project under their non-profit organization Media Standards Trust, a program which aims to harbor high-quality journalism. They believe that with the expansiveness of the internet, there is a lot of information and "misinformaton" on the web, thus the public needs a program to help filter out inaccurate news.

Another entry that seemed fascinating was "Spot Journalism." With large media conglomerations and the conflict of interests resulting from the monopolies (GE owning NBC; Disney owning ABC), it is hard for many news outlets to pursue investigative journalism. Investigative reports are costly and at times, viewers cannot be sure if there are ulterior motives connected to the reports. Read this article. With this new project, the public will be able to act as independent journalists and can pursue their own reports. Those interested will receive "micro-payments" that will cover their investigations. Started by David Cohn, this idea will be able to initiate interest in uncovering truths starting at a local level.

A dominating theme from all the winning entries is the idea of community. Every idea tries to attract attention from regular citizens and hopes to better the community. Each project originates on a local level, whether in South Africa or India, and has a potential to expand globally.

With the advent of online journalism, these funded endeavors are definitely worthwhile. The internet is the only resource that cross-cuts through various cultures, ethnicities, and languages. Despite one project specifically designated for the olympics in Sochi, Russia, it does not necessarily mean it is limited to only that area. That idea has room to proliferate and flourish in various areas of the world as well-- all because of the internet.

I sincerely believe that the Knight News Challenge represents a sustainable online venture. It is without a doubt that the direction of journalism is heading towards the web. The Knight News Challenge not only motivates journalists to "think outside the box," but also encourages those with a different background to try and think of breakthrough news opportunities.

One of the most interesting ventures I read about on the site was started by the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. The school is currently offering a full-ride scholarship for those with a computer science degree to receive a masters in journalism. Rather than seek journalists with knowledge in programming and coding, the school has turned it around by finding engineers who are interested in journalism. I thought this was a fresh and unique idea. Here is their press release.

I would be ecstatic if one of my ideas was sponsored by the Foundation. I am not sure what the technical program or idea will be, but I am concerned about an issue that needs to be resolved:

Because of the economy, we are finding that more and more smaller news agencies are getting bought out by large media conglomerations. These giant corporations own multiple news outlets, which hinders each individual news agency from reporting the complete truth. There are conflicts of interest between the parent company and the news organization, and most often, it is the parent company who overshadows the agency and decides to bury the news. The integrity of journalists get compromised, and thus citizens are not informed of the truth at times. (see image below)

Blogging also seems to be a source of news these days. (Bloggers like Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report even break news faster than regular news agencies.) However, are bloggers to be trusted? They are, in essence, a derivative of news paper editorials, and they lack credible sources that only professional news organizations can obtain. So who is the public to trust? I hope that with the advent of online journalism, there will be a way to solve this problem. Using online tools like the search button or search engines (or some new tool that I will be able to pitch to the Knight News Challenge), I hope to sustain journalism of its core values (impartiality, accuracy, objectivity, etc).

Importance of Users in Online

Being able to sit in on User Experience Research for the LA Times during last Tuesday's class was an interesting way to see the backside of an online news site and how the designers find a format that will be easier for viewers to use. 

UER is an important part of developing an online news source because it gives designers and creators feedback from people who will be using their sites. Since they want their audience to frequent their website as often as possible, newspapers need to have a clear understanding of what that audience values on a Website. 

Survey

I found the many surveys interesting. They were meant to be taken quickly without giving much thought. Going through them, I realized that I rely on only a very few specific Websites for my news. Some of the site I had never even heard of. The data from these surveys was what put us into our different groups. I wonder if I was placed in the most accurate group based on my news gathering skills. I was placed in the news hound group. I think this might overestimate the amount of time I spend looking at news every day. Part of this has more to do with my time than with my desire to read the  news. If I didn't have class, work and everything else, I would probably be a news hound. 

Card Sorting Exercise

This was a fun way to do something interactive while participating in UER. However, I would suggest that people be separated into different rooms while they are doing the exercise because it was easy to overhear other groups and let their decisions influence yours. 

Surfing Habits

It was interesting to see how others surfed the Web. They seemed to click through stories much quicker than I did. I also only made it through one site during the 5 minute exercise while my partner made it through multiple sites. 

 

I think UER is very important when it comes to designing a news Website. It is, however, important that newspapers remember that editors are consulted  before sections are combined in tabs on the website, etc. But with  more people going online to receive their news, it is important for newspapers to keep their Websites current and convenient for users to access.

When most people open their Internet browsers to their home pages and favorite sites, I would say it's safe to assume that they do not think about the people on the other end analyzing their every move, literally. The work and detail that goes into designing and creating a web site is often overlooked, if thought about at all. User experience research, or UER, is under appreciated for the time and thoughtfulness that the researchers contribute to make Internet goers experience the best possible.

Defining UER

User experience research cannot be defined by a single study or research group, but rather is the culmination of all the research initiatives put together to try and create the best product for an extremely diverse audience. UER aims to appease the most people as possible while maintaining a shape and identity that creates a signature look and style. To find the balance between what varied users would respond to is not only the job of a product developer, but also of a UER consultant as the consultant works as a liaison between the designers and audience.

What I Expected

When I first heard that a team from the Los Angeles Times would be coming to our class to conduct research, I thought that we would sit at a computer and monitors would watch our Internet habits specifically on the L.A. Times web site. I did not anticipate that the UER team would be able to categorize our Internet behaviors through a brief survey. I anticipated sitting at the computers and patiently waiting for a researcher to come watch me on the net; I was pleasantly surprised to have a more interactive experience.

Table Talk

At the beginnng of the exercises, I was a little confused by the questions that Hillary, one of the L.A. Times' researchers, was asking us. Hillary asked the class how often we were online and to describe our daily, online routine. For my demographic, I assumed that most online media outlet researchers, and other researchers in general, had figured us out. Hillary seemed surprised to hear that most of us were constantly online and checked our favorite online news sources multiple times a day in addition or our facebook and email routines. I assumed that this behavior was typical of someone my age, and Hillary's interest and apparent surprise was shocking.

Card Exercise

When Hillary and her team introduced the card exercise, I was excited to see what categories we would be looking at. I didn't realize, however, how similar areas of news are while still being completely different categories. For instance, in the Arts & Culture section, my group and I decided to break down the category to local and general entertainment news. This exercise was fun to go through because it even opened up my eyes to see how I associate news.

What does it all mean?

After going through these UER activities, I now appreciate the hard work and analysis that goes into constructing, designing, and laying out a web site that appeases a varied audience. I think that the exercises probably help best in trying to strike a balance between how different groups of news consumers - news hounds, grinders, scanners, etc. - like to see their news presented.

Understanding the User

I spend a lot of time on the internet. But until recently, I never really noticed the internet. I took websites for granted, and didn't realize how much time and effort goes into the creation of something people may spend only a few seconds looking at. Websites were just websites, and as long as they worked and gave me what I wanted, that was the end of it. 

After participating in the User Experience Research, I realized that every detail of a website is thoroughly researched, planned and implemented. News organizations don't just slap up old stories, they think about which to publish, where to put them, what they'll link to, and how users can find them.  An important part of this process is getting input from users so the website will fit their needs and preferences in the best way possible.

Card Sorting

The card sorting was an interesting activity. I thought it would be easy and straightforward, but it quickly became clear that categorizing topics is difficult. Photos seemed to belong in every category, and specific interests such as books and fashion were hard to group together in a way that made sense. This activity most revealed the challenges in creating a website, as designers have limited space yet they want to include as much as possible to appeal to the greatest number of users. 

Surveys

Filling out the surveys was hard for me, especially when it came to prioritizing topics. Often on a website, I click on what appeals to my interest-sometimes it's world news, other days it's a weird human interest story. I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices given on the surveys, and I don't really see how one website could effectively appeal to people with interests that can be so diverse. But I guess that's the job of the researcher and the web designer-not a simpleton like me. 

Observing Classmates

One of the most significant things I noticed while observing classmates is how quickly people click away from a page.  Even on CNN.com, where there are plenty of stories to read and pictures to look at, people do not spend much time actually reading an entire story. I think a large part of user research is meant to find ways to keep people on a site, so by observing the typical habits of users, it shows what they are likely to stay on, and what they click away from. 

What now?

With so many people using the internet, it seems impossible to design a website that appeals to everyone. Not only do people have extremely different interests, they also have different habits. I know people who spend hours on one website, thoroughly reading stories and exploring what it has to offer. And I know people who skim through every story and are done with the internet in less than 10 minutes. In the end, it is the content of a website that must appeal to the user to keep them coming back. But if that content is organized better than a website with similar content, the choice between the two sites becomes clear. I don't think I could ever be a user experience researcher, but I now recognize the role it plays in defining what makes one website better than another. 

A Taste of the Nitty Gritty

Who among us has not, while listening to a stream of statistics based loosely on anything of interest to us, asked the inevitable question:

Who the heck figures out all this stuff?

Well, now the question has been answered.

Market researcher: Every day hard working men and women leave their homes with the singular goal of researching what people want and need. It is tedious, it is bland, it is repetitive. It is also absolutely essential to the success of any business. And in the news business, with newspapers suffering more losses with each passing day, it is absolutely essential to survival as well.

And why is market research so important? Because every business needs to know exactly what consumers want in order to give it to them.

Ignoring this fact is the single-worst thing newspapers have done to themselves.

In essence, they have ignored the undeniable fact that news is a business like any other.

But, luckily, realization is starting to come and more and more newspapers are taking steps to figure out what the future of news will look like...as decided by consumers, not editors.


A REAL-LIFE TASTE

As the future of news journalism ourselves, it was great to experience in real life what response research is like. The visit from the Los Angeles Times researchers made apparent the utter magnitude of work that is put into getting an accurate consumer response. The whole system banks on the willingness of hundreds (probably thousands) of people to take time out of their busy schedules to be surveyed on something they may care nothing about. The possibilities of failure are daunting.

WHAT I LIKED
That said, I thought it was very interesting to see what types of questions were asked and what sort of "tests" were given in order to get responses about certain things. The card game was especially interesting because I never would have thought of making the consumer step into the roll of editor in order to see how they would build a newspaper. It is a very clever way to see how people think about their news and what they feel is most important.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE
I have never been a fan of fill-out surveys. Nobody likes to fill those out and so the answers are automatically going to be skewed negatively...not to mention that people have hundreds of biases that affect their answers. I thought the "test" of separating the different news sections was much more effective than having people scroll around a website and circle numbers.

Making someone concentrate and physically do something is much more effective than having them passively answer questions...and much less likely to be affected by biases. I know I put a lot less thought and effort into the card game and I can't be the only one who felt that way.

Also, there is a sort of emotion that comes with doing a study like this that makes the subjects feel used. Although I readily would have done a survey if someone had told me it would help the LA Times know how to give their audience what they want, the atmosphere changes when it is done secretly. I know it's necessary for more accurate results, but it still leaves a bad taste in the mouth...never a good thing when it comes to advertising.

Wasn't Quite sure what to expect.

When I heard we were doing a UER experiment, I must admit I really had no idea what to expect. I had heard of these experiments in the past, but I had never come close to participating in them, nor did I know what they were really all about. When I heard that it was going to be about reorganizing the LA times home page, I thought it would have been more hands on. I was not expecting what we got, which is not to say that I didn't enjoy what we had.

What I was expecting
I envisioned this being hands on and working directly with the website itself. I thought there might be some interactive work with the web page, say we had a template to work with of the current home page and we were left to maneuver it around ourselves. Instead, we did not even touch the website itself, which I won't lie i was a little disappointed about. Instead, we were left with flashcards to work with, an interesting twist to the experiment.

The Flash Card Game
This experiment was alittle confusing to me because I didn't quite get how it would apply to helping them out at first, but once it was explained to me it became clearer. I thought it was very interesting how they decide what topics go under what tabs on the top, and it was also interesting how they broke up the groups, coincidentally putting the three big sports people together.

The Internet Exploring Game
This experiment was also interesting as I really wasn't sure what it had to do as well. She wanted to see what news websites we visit, but I didn't understand how it applied to me, seeing as I visit Latimes and CNN only a couple times a week. Instead I went to ESPN.com and cardplayer.com, seeing as how these are my main forms of news in sports and poker.

Summary

Overall, I feel like I won't be able to see how effective the experiment truly is until the new latimes page is revealed hopefully sooner rather then later. It will be interesting to see if any of our class ideas are implemented into the new page design, and if so I think thats really cool and a great way to get people involved in the news pages they love. Overall, it was interesting and I would do it again, preferably for sports so I feel like I have more experience and expertise on the situation.