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.