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.