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.

Offering a Helping Hand

For some people asking for help can be hard and can sometimes feel humiliating. I am one of these people who struggle with asking for help, so I was that much more impressed when LA Times staff members came to our class and asked for help in conducting User Experience Research (UER).

A Different Kind of Research

UER consists of knowledge gained first hand from primary sources. The reason why this kind of research is so beneficial to online news sites is because it allows the news organizations to gain access to information about how the consumers they are trying to attract operate. The more knowledgeable these companies are about their online visitors, the more these companies can do to try and make sure their visitors continue to visit their site.

Exercises can be Fun

The exercises the LA Times staff members used to generate data for their UER involved many different concepts. There were surveys the class filled out that shed some light on the kind of websites we go to when we want the news, and the process we go through in looking at the material once at the website we desire. There was also an exercise where we observed a classmate surfing the Web, which again helps to show how we as visitors to a website go through the process of deciding which articles are interesting enough to spend time reading.

Sorting Life by Categories

The one exercise that stood out to me most was the card-sorting exercise. In this activity the class had to sort cards with different topics on them into distinct categories, similar to how a news website usually sorts a variety of topics into several categories. This exercise made me realize just how difficult a task it is to sort all aspects of life that a newspaper covers into a minimum number of categories. The challenges of the task included trying to figure out which topics were most similar to other topics, and trying to find some similarities between what appeared to be random topics. 

UER as a Way of Increasing Revenue

By gathering UER, information becomes available about what editorial content interests various types of people, and how different sets of people prefer that editorial content to be displayed. It is then up to the people gathering this information to decide how to use it, depending on whether they want to try and attract more scanners, grinders, etc. However, if this information is used right, it can greatly effect the revenue and editorial content of a web site. Thus, I believe there should be as much emphasis placed on UER as both revenue and editorial content in determining the makeup of a news site, since UER is the voice of the customer/consumer, and the customer is always right!