Mark the date: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 at the National Press Club in Washington. The Knight-Batten Symposium and Awards for Innovations in Journalism provide a glimpse into projects that use new technologies to engage citizens in public life. Some may emerge as models for news and journalism into the future. The four finalists:

Ushahid.com: Citizen journalists in Kenya can text eyewitness accounts and map incidents of political violence and corruption.

Wired.com’s WikiScanner: WIRED magazine’s blog exposes the editing by PR spinmeisters’ of Wikipedia entries unfavorable to a company.

JDland.com: A one-woman citizen media project documents and visualizes housing, development and community concerns in a rapidly changing Washington D.C. neighborhood.

PolitiFact.com: A database for the 2008 presidential election that enables users to sort news items by candidate, issue or ruling. The site’s “Truth-o-Meter” rates the accuracy of campaign messages and statements; its “Pants on Fire” feature calls false statements to account. A collaboration between the St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly.

The symposium and and awards are sponsored by J-Lab: the institute for Interactive Journalism and its new home, American University;s School of communication. They are funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

You can view the finalists, honorable mentions and notable entries at J-Lab’s site.

Registration for the free event is required.

Press release is here: